Class 8 Language Arts & 8th Grade Project
Novel study, Poetry & 8th Grade project
Class 8 Language Arts will study Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities and poetry by Blake and Wordsworth, complementing their history studies. They will also do reading comprehension, outlining and note taking, research and citation, composition skills, review grammar and vocabulary, and public speaking and presentation skills as they work toward the culminating project for this class — the 8th Grade project. Lotus & Ivy 8th Graders join with Waldorf 8th grade students world-wide in this crowning achievement to mark the end of their lower school journey.
The fall semester will be spent reading A Tale of Two Cities and brainstorming ideas for which the student has a passion or interest, researching the topic, and writing a research paper on their topic. Students will submit work to the teacher at specified milestones along the way for feedback.
The spring semester will focus on the poetry of Blake and Wordsworth, public speaking, and their presentation. An artistic piece is required as part of their project. Students will work with the teacher to write a 10 minute speech on their topic and prepare to present virtually to peers, parents, and faculty on our 8th Grade Project Presentation Day in May. Seventh grade students will be invited as well.
Students in Class 8 language arts will practice the following reading and writing skills:
Using textual evidence in literary essays
Giving a short talk on a prepared topic using notes as a prompt
Debating a chosen theme
Comparing and contrasting characters and themes in novels
Understanding and analyzing poetic techniques
Literature analysis
Eighth Grade Project: A Culminating Rite of Passage
The Eighth Grade Project at Lotus & Ivy is a culminating, semester-long journey that honors who the student has become and prepares them for the threshold ahead.
Rooted in the Waldorf tradition, this capstone experience invites each eighth grader to choose a topic of deep personal interest and pursue it with intention, discipline, and creativity. Whether raising chickens, earning a pilot’s license, designing clothing, building a tiny house, crafting a violin, exploring advanced cake decorating, or dedicating themselves to horseback riding, students learn to set goals, manage time, conduct research, and persevere through real challenges. Throughout the process, the teacher guides students to work independently while offering steady support, helping them discover both mastery of a subject and confidence in themselves.
The project culminates in a formal presentation to the community, where students share their research, their hands-on work, and a reflection on their growth.
More than an academic assignment, the Eighth Grade Project is a rite of passage—a moment for students to look back on their childhood learning and step forward with greater self-knowledge, responsibility, and purpose. At Lotus & Ivy, this experience embodies our belief that education should cultivate the whole human being, preparing students not only for high school, but for life.
What Makes the Lotus & Ivy Eighth Grade Project Unique
At Lotus & Ivy, the Eighth Grade Project is uniquely shaped by our online, relationship-centered model, which allows students to pursue projects that are deeply embedded in real life rather than confined to a classroom. Students are supported by an experienced Waldorf teachers while also working alongside parents, mentors, and community experts, creating a rich web of guidance around each child. This approach honors the adolescent’s growing need for independence while ensuring they are not navigating the process alone.
Because students work from their own homes and communities, projects naturally take on an authentic, lived quality—raising animals, apprenticing in a craft, training toward licensure, or building something tangible over time. Weekly check-ins, presentations, and reflective work help students stay grounded, accountable, and purposeful. The result is a capstone experience that is not only academically rigorous, but deeply human—allowing students to step into high school with confidence, competence, and a strong sense of self.
The outsiders literature Analysis & the Musical Study
We’ve created this course thoughtfully to meet the students at a pivotal stage of their development, when young people begin to step more consciously into the questions of identity, justice, and their place in the wider world. Grade 8 and 9 students stand at a threshold: no longer children, not yet adults, and deeply responsive to stories that reflect their own inner awakening.
The Outsiders is one such story. Through exploration of friendship, social division, loyalty, prejudice, and moral choice, it speaks directly to the adolescent experience. In this class, students will enter the novel slowly and attentively, allowing the characters and themes to live inwardly before encountering its transformation into a stage musical.
By following the journey from written word to script, music, and song, students gain a living understanding of how different art forms express the same human truths in distinct yet complementary ways.
Our work will be engaging both thinking and feeling, weaving together literary study, musical listening, artistic response, and creative writing. Students will explore how music and lyrics reveal inner life, how motifs and themes echo across works, and how stories give shape to the often unspoken experiences of growing up. Artistic activities—drawing, painting, and imaginative presentation—support comprehension and allow students to meet the material with their whole being, not only the intellect.
This is a course that honors the inner life of the adolescent. It offers a space for careful listening, meaningful conversation, and thoughtful preparation, encouraging responsibility and independence while still holding students within a warm, guided structure. The aim is not simply analysis, but awakening interest, moral imagination, and a deeper relationship to literature as something that illuminates life.
Grown-ups who value education as a path of becoming—rather than mere information—will recognize this as a rare opportunity for their child to engage with literature and music in a way that is developmentally attuned, artistically rich, and inwardly strengthening.