Blue Ridge Academy

01/15/2025

We are leaning in to the darkness of winter for 8th Grade Literature Analysis by exploring some more gothic selections:

Unit 1: Short Stories by Edgar Allan Poe like Fall of the House of Usher, Masque of the Red Death, Cask of Amontillado, Tell-Tale Heart

Unit 2: Dark Ambition: Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Unit 3: Setting and Suspense: The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell

Unit 4: Irony and Satire: Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl, Animal Farm by George Orwell

10/29/2024

8th Grade Literature Analysis for Fall:

Unit 1: Personal Identity: Truth, Secrets, and Courage in a Dangerous World
- True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
- Incantation by Alice Hoffman

Unit 2: Transformation, Redemption, Duality of Human Nature
- A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
- The Syrange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stephenson

Unit 3: Identity and Belonging; A Study of Literary Parallel
- The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
- The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Unit 4: Allusion and Allegory: Shakespeare, The Bible, and Fairytales
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Will’s Words by Jane Sutcliff
The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis
Ever After

10/29/2024

This year, 8th grade is working on composition in nonfiction. We will be conducting nine research investigations to answer these BIG questions related to our history and science studies:

Why do we look at things from far away and close up?

How and why do individuals change their minds?

How can looking at the same information from different perspectives pave the way for progress?

When and why do people accept a theory?

How and why to theories evolve?

How does language make humans different?

To what extent was farming an improvement over foraging?

How and why have our reaction and response to disease changed?

To What Extent Has The Modern Revolution Been A Positive Or A Negative Force?

10/29/2024

8th grade is well underway! Courses for this year are:

Math: Algebra 2
English: Literature and Film Analysis + Composition
Science & History: Big History Project
World Language: Modern Hebrew
Electives:
- Computer Technology
- Creative Papercraft

06/25/2024

Summer session for rising 8th grade has begun!

English is grammar review with The Grammar of Literature by Michael Clay Thompson.

Math is a continuation of High School Geometry with Mr. Denison

06/25/2024

Summer session has begun for rising 8th grade. A soft start to our History of Science theme includes:
Magic of Reality by Richard Dawkins
Can You Count in Greek by Judy and Kathy Leimbach
The Story of Clocks and Calendars by Betty Maestro
Documentary series Becoming Human by NOVA/PBS

05/31/2024

May is Jewish American Heritage Month.

One way we celebrated was viewing the documentary, The Levys of Monticello Directed by Steven Pressman. This film runs a little more than an hour and is available on Amazon Prime Video.

When Thomas Jefferson died in 1826, he left behind a mountain of personal debt, which forced his heirs to sell his beloved Monticello home and all of its possessions. The Levys of Monticello is a documentary film that tells the little-known story of the Levy family, which owned and carefully preserved Monticello for nearly a century – far longer than Jefferson or his descendants. The remarkable story of the Levy family also intersects with the rise of antisemitism that runs throughout the course of American history.

A Film by Steven Pressman - Available November 24th on Digital and Video-on-Demand from Menemsha Films! | http://www.MenemshaFilms.comSynopsis: When Thomas J...

05/25/2024

Graduation Day!

02/12/2024

Production of 2024 Graduation Diplomas is in progress!

02/08/2024

12th grade Literature for 2023-2024 is Contemporary Novels:
* Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
* The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman
* Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
* The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
* Faithful by Alice Hoffman
* Don’t Forget to Write by Sara Goodman Confino
* Scythe by Neal Shusterman

02/07/2024

Shakespeare Study this year for 7th and 12th Grade included two plays:
Taming of the Shrew and Hamlet
Both readings were followed by live performances by the very talented cast at American Shakespeare Center

02/07/2024

Winter Literature Selections for 7th Grade:

Novels:
Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan
Scythe by Neal Shusterman
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Patterson

We also had a poetry and short story unit, focusing on works with themes of personal identity, including pieces by Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Amy Tan, and others. We also studied protagonist vs agonist in short stories with Rikki Tikki Tavi by Rudyard Kipling and The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant.