| The CRITICAL WRITING (8TH GRADE) course is a small group class that provides instruction aligned with California's COMMON CORE State Standards: |
 |
Active Reading (Reading Comprehension): Students will read and understand 1 novel and multiple short stories, find similarities and differences between texts in the treatment, scope or organization of ideas, evaluate the unity, coherence, logic, internal consistency and structural patterns, and compare and contrast motivations and reactions of literary characters from different historical eras confronting similar situations or conflicts. Students will analyze the relevance of the setting–time, place, customs–to the mood, tone, and meaning of the text, identify and analyze recurring themes–good versus evil– across traditional and contemporary works, and identify significant literary devices–metaphor, symbolism, dialect, irony–that define a writer's style and use those elements to interpret the work). |
|
Fundamentals of Effective Writing: Students will be writing clear, coherent, and focused essays that establish a coherent thesis and end with a clear and well-supported conclusion, establish coherence within and among paragraphs through effective transitions, parallel structures, and similar writing techniques, support theses or conclusions with analogies, paraphrases, quotations, opinions from authorities, comparisons, and similar devices. In writing persuasive compositions, students will learn to include a well-defined thesis–one that makes a clear and knowledgeable judgment, present detailed evidence, examples, and reasoning to support arguments, differentiating between facts and opinion, and provide details and examples, arranging them effectively by anticipating and answering reader concerns and counterarguments. Students will be practicing the four writing genres (expository, narrative and persuasive and descriptive) to include at least 500–1000 words in each composition. |
|
Vocabulary Development: Students will integrate knowledge of individual words to enhance their writing, analyze idioms, analogies, metaphors, and similes to infer the literal and figurative meanings of phrases, and use word meanings within the appropriate context and show ability to verify those word meanings by definition, example, restatement, comparison, or contrast. |
|
Grammar: For the grammar module of the class, students will learn to use correct and varied sentence types and sentence opening to present a lively and effective personal style, identify and use parallelism, including similar grammatical forms, in all written discourse to present items in a series and items juxtaposed for emphasis, and use subordination, coordination, apposition, and other devices to indicate clearly the relationship between ideas. |
| Some book purchases will be necessary. Students can expect homework and weekly quizzes. Grades will be given. | |
| E08A | CRITICAL WRITING (8th Gr) |
| June 18–July 18 (5 weeks)* | |
| *July 4–5–Independence Day Holiday (No class) | |
| Tuesdays and Thursdays | 3:30–5:30pm | VALDEZ |
| COMMON CORE MATH 8 at the BARUN ACADEMIC CENTER introduces the language and methods of algebra. Instruction will focus on 4 critical areas: |
|
Expressions and Equations: Solve real-world and mathematical problems of two linear equations in two variables algebraically, and estimate solutions by graphing the equations. |
|
Functions: Interpret the equation y=mx+b as defining a linear function. Construct a function to model a linear relationship between two quantities. |
|
Geometry: Apply the Pythagorean Theorem to determine unknown side lengths in right triangles in real-world and mathematical problems in two and three dimensions. Apply the formulas for the volumes of cones, cylinders, and spheres and use them to solve real-world and mathematical problems. |
|
Statistics and Probability: Construct and interpret scatter plots for bivariate measurement data to investigate patterns of association between two quantities. |
| This group class is for the 7th grade student placed in the Math 7/8 or the 8th grade student. Students can expect homework, quizzes, a mid-term and a final. Grades will be given. | |
| M01A | MATH 8 |
| June 18–July 18 (5 weeks)* | |
| *July 4–5–Independence Day Holiday (No class) |
| Tuesdays and Thursdays | 1:20–3:20pm | KELLY |
| In ENHANCED MATH 1 at the BARUN ACADEMIC CENTER, students will learn to reason abstractly and quantitatively. Instruction will highlight 4 critical areas: |
|
Algebra: Represent and solve equations and inequalities graphically. Explain why the x-coordinates of the points where the graphs of the equations y=f(x) and y=g(x) intersect are the solutions of the equation f(x)=g(x). Include cases where f(x) and/or g(x) are linear, polynomial, rational, absolute value, exponential, and logarithmic functions. |
|
Functions: Calculate and interpret the average rate of change of a function (presented symbolically or as a table) over a specified interval. Estimate the rate of change from a graph. |
|
Geometry: Develop definitions of rotations, reflections, and translations in terms of angles, circles, perpendicular lines, parallel lines, and line segments. Prove the slope criteria for parallel and perpendicular lines and use them to solve geometric problems. |
|
Statistics and Probability: Summarize categorical data for two categories in two-way frequency tables. Fit a function to the data. |
| This group class is for the student enrolled in Enhanced Math 1. Students can expect homework, quizzes, a mid-term and a final. Grades will be given. | |
| M02A | ENHANCED MATH 1 |
| June 17–July 12 (4 weeks)* | |
| *July 4–5–Independence Day Holiday (No class) |
| Mondays, Wednesdays,and Fridays | 1:20–3:20pm | KELLY |
| In ENHANCED MATH 2 at the BARUN ACADEMIC CENTER, students will learn to reason abstractly and quantitatively, attend to precision, and model with mathematics. Instruction will highlight 4 critical areas: |
|
Algebra: Solve quadratic equations by inspection (e.g., for x2=49), taking square roots, completing the square, the quadratic formula, and factoring, as appropriate to the initial form of the equation. Recognize when the quadratic formula gives complex solutions and write them as a ± bi for real numbers a and b. |
|
Functions: Prove the Pythagorean identity sin2(θ) + cos2(θ) = 1 and use it to find sin(θ), or tan(θ) given sin(θ), cos(θ), or tan(θ) and the quadrant of the angle. |
|
Geometry: Verify experimentally that in a triangle, angles opposite longer sides are larger, sides opposite larger angles are longer, and the sum of any two sides lengths is greater than the remaining side length; apply these relationships to solve real-world and mathematical problems. |
|
Statistics and Probability: Apply the Addition Rule, P(A or B) = P(A) + P(B) - P(A and B), and interpret the answer in terms of the model. |
| This group class is for the student enrolled in Enhanced Math 2. Students can expect homework, quizzes, a mid-term and a final. Grades will be given. | |
| M03A | ENHANCED MATH 2 |
| June 17–July 12 (4 weeks)* | |
| *July 4–5–Independence Day Holiday (No class) |
| Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays |
1:20–3:20pm | KIMES |
| The BARUN ACADEMIC CENTER'S GEOMETRY course provides an excellent foundation for the aspiring math student. The curriculum provides students an opportunity to achieve the following broad instructional goals: |
|
Deductive and inductive reasoning as well as investigative strategies in drawing conclusions. Students will also develop an foundation in understanding proof and logic. |
|
Properties and relationships of geometric objects include the study of: |
|
Points, lines, angles and planes. |
|
Polygons, with a special focus on quadrilaterals, triangles, right triangles. |
|
Circles, Polyhedra and other solids (volumes and surface areas of prisms, pyramids, cylinders, cones, and spheres). |
| Students can expect homework, quizzes, a mid-term and a final. Grades will be given. |
| M04A | GEOMETRY |
| June 17–July 12 (4 weeks)* | |
| *July 4–5–Independence Day Holiday (No class) |
| Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays |
3:30–5:30pm | C. KELLY |
| The BARUN ACADEMIC CENTER's PUBLIC PRESENTATION 2 aims to develop students' skills and confidence in the areas of public speaking, debate and oral presentations. This course includes description, demonstration and analysis of effective speaking techniques, including the use of visual aids. Language work includes a review of academic vocabulary common in spoken presentations. Students will prepare and present at least five talks for both descriptive and persuasive purposes, receive in-class feedback and are regularly videotaped for self-evaluation and individual tutorials. Public Presentation 2 will cover both logic and argumentation as well as the fundamentals of effective public speaking: preparation, pace, tone, facial and vocal expressiveness, and anxiety management. Students can expect homework, quizzes, a mid-term and a final. Grades will be given. |
| P09B | PUBLIC PRESENTATION 2 (8th–10th Gr) |
| June 18–July 18 (5 weeks)* | |
| *July 4–5–Independence Day Holiday (No class) | |
| Tuesdays and Thursdays | 1:20–3:20pm | MYERS |
| The SPANISH courses are small group classes that focus on the fundamental elements of the Spanish language to include the four basic communication skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Students will be provided with instruction that teaches a basic understanding of Spanish culture, vocabulary, and grammar concepts. Upon completion, students should be able to comprehend and respond with increasing proficiency to spoken and written Spanish and should be able to demonstrate further cultural awareness. The course emphasizes understanding and practical application rather than rote memory. |
| Students can expect homework, quizzes, a mid-term and a final. Grades will be given. |
| P10A | SPANISH 1 |
| June 18–July 18 (5 weeks)* | |
| *July 4–5–Independence Day Holiday (No class) |
| Tuesdays and Thursdays | 1:20–3:20pm | GARCIA |