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Tenth Grade

Sophomore Year

English
Academic English, Total Credits: 1

  • Literature: Focuses on American Literature from American Indians to Contemporary American literature. Students read several novels by American authors including To Kill a Mockingbird, The Scarlet Letter, and The Great Gatsby.

  • Vocabulary: 400 cumulative vocabulary words are taught throughout the year.

  • Writing: Writing assignments are varied; many assignments are based on literature stories or novels read.

  • Grammar: Some grammar is taught.

  • Honors English, Total Credits: 1

    • Honors English 10 course moves at an accelerated pace through an American Literature curriculum. In this course, we read at least eight novels.

    • Vocabulary: 400 cumulative vocabulary words are taught and tested.

    • Writing: There is an extensive amount of writing on many levels. Writing includes, research papers both MLA and APA, writing a historical fiction piece. Writing focuses on essay questions from novels read.

Social Studies
  • Total Credits: 1

  • Study of World History from creation up until the 1600's.

  • Topics Covered:

    • The Ancient World: Foundations of world history, early civilizations, Greeks and Romans

    • The Eastern World: Byzantine and Islamic Empires, civilizations of Asia and Africa

    • The Medieval World: Medieval Europe

    • The Awakening World: Renaissance, Reformation, exploration and discovery

Math
Geometry
Total Credits: 1

Students will apply the skills they learned in their algebra courses in the context of plane geometry. Students will also learn about basic laws of logic and prove theorems using the two-column method.

Textbook: Geometry: A Bridge to Success, by Ron Larson & Laurie Boswell
Topics:

  • Points, lines, and planes
  • The midpoint and distance formulas
  • Finding the perimeter, area, surface area, and volume of figures
  • Properties of angle pairs (linear pairs and vertical angles)
  • Inductive and deductive reasoning
  • Conditional statements and laws of logic
  • Properties of lines and transversals

  • Transformations (translations, reflections, rotations, and dilations)

  • Proving figures are congruent or similar

  • Classifying and solving problems involving plane figures

  • Solving problems using similarity

  • Solving problems with the Pythagorean Theorem and its converse

  • Solving problems with trigonometric and inverse trigonometric functions

  • Solving problems involving segments and angles in circles

  • Graphing and writing the equations of circles

  • Probability (including overlapping, disjoint, independent, and dependent events)

  • Solving problems using two-way tables

In the Honors class, students also learn about:

  • A triangle’s points of concurrency (circumcenter, incenter, centroid, and orthocenter)

  • Solving triangles with the Law of Sines and the Law of Cosines

Students will also review and be assessed on the major topics of Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 throughout the year in preparation for Precalculus.

Science
  • Chemistry/ Honors Chemistry

  • One of the most important ideas we see in the macroscopic world is a result of interactions at the ATOMIC level. This concept can help us understand some of the most important issues of our time. These issues include the need for clean water, how climate changes, how chemical energy in fossil fuels or solar power is converted into useable mechanical and electrical forms for our cars and homes; and how chemical fertilizers are manufactured to boost food production for a growing human population. The knowledge gained through chemistry allows us to make informed decisions about our future. Chemistry class will provide the opportunity for students to solve real-world problems and convey this information to others. Experiments will be performed in this high school chemistry classroom to generate data that will help answer scientific questions.

    Most of the big ideas in chemistry were developed over many years of investigation. Simple concepts that are widely accepted today, such as the percentage of oxygen in the air, were the result of many years of observations, questions, investigations, and experiments. (Credit: American Chemical Society)
     

  • Introduction to Chemistry for Life
  • Matter
  • Measuring and Calculating
  • Atomic Structure
  • Elements
  • Chemical Bonds
  • Bond Theories and Molecular Geometry
  • Chemical Composition and Reactions
  • Chemical Calculations
  • Gases
  • Solids and Liquids
  • Solutions
  • Chemical Thermodynamics, Kinetics, Equilibrium
  • Acids, Bases, and Salts
  • Oxidation and Reduction
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