8th Grade

Our mission at Chapel is to ensure that our students are well prepared for the academic and personal challenges of high school and beyond. Our graduates attend top Catholic high schools, and many are admitted with scholarships and honors in English.

I firmly believe that Chapel is the diamond of the Los Angeles Archdiocese and one of the top schools in the state of California. We have won several Los Angeles Academic Decathlon Championships, numerous Academic Quiz Bowls, three Academic Decathlon State Championships, and we are the home of the 2020 AJHD National Grammar Champion. In 2023 our team was ranked third in the nation and took home another Los Angeles Archdiocese Championship. This year we have six returning members of our decathlon team and are on a mission to bring home a national championship to CCS in 2024.

Mrs. Barbara Moldavon teaches Junior High Language Arts daily in the 8th-grade classroom. The 2023-2024 school year marks her twenty-sixth year in that role. Her ELA students are offered a rich curriculum in grammar, writing, speech, vocabulary acquisition, literature, and reading comprehension. In addition, Mrs. Moldavon offers her students numerous, memorable field trip opportunities throughout the year. These include visits to museums, parks, plays, musicals, and other historic and cultural sites. In class, students receive consistent, timely feedback that helps them learn and grow as they challenge themselves to become effective communicators and life-long learners. In addition to standard textbooks, the language arts curriculum includes three thought-provoking novels/books per year (one each trimester) and the following monthly Scholastic periodicals: Junior Scholastic,  Action, and Scope. Lessons are Common Core Standard-based and presented with state-of-the-art technology including individual interactive clickers for immediate assessment of student learning,  Apple TV, document cameras, iPads, and laptops. Lessons are enriched with the use of extensive interactive Internet resources including, but not limited to, Brainpop,  Catholic Brain at: https://www.catholicbrain.com/login, American Rhetoric, Flocabulary, TED-ed.com, vocabtest.com, and Quizhub. The extensive classroom library contains a variety of award-winning hardback and paperback books, audiobooks, and magazines that students may check out for reading at home or read in class when classwork is completed. Students are also challenged to complete critical-thinking/logic puzzles when time permits. The goal is to provide an environment where students feel safe and welcome; learning is active, and mistakes are seen as opportunities for growth and achievement.

Free Online Interactive Grammar Resources:
Students looking for additional help in English grammar and usage will benefit greatly from regular use of the following websites: 

• http://www.chompchomp.com/exercises.htm  (Identify a skill to practice and get immediate feedback!)
• https://www.grammar-monster.com/index.html
• http://www.grammaruntied.com/?page_id=1344
• http://guidetogrammar.org/grammar/index.htm
• http://www.roadtogrammar.com/
• Need help avoiding run-ons? http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/what-is-a-comma-splice