LANGUAGE ARTS CURRICULUM English 9 Course Descriptions ENGLISH 9 HONORS This course focuses on an intensive introduction to literary analysis and considerable practice in writing essays. Literature study will include a thematic unit on “Rites of Passage” and opportunities for the students to respond to texts in a variety of formats, such as Socratic seminars, journals and literary circles. Reading assignments will include challenging texts such as The Odyssey and A Midsummer Night’s Dream as well as multiple novels, poems, short stories, plays and non-fiction texts. Students will also review the elements of fiction as they are used in the short story. Vocabulary study will concentrate on expanding the students’ knowledge of challenging vocabulary words both in and out of context. The writing course will begin with a brief review of the writing process and will then focus on intensive planning, drafting and revising essays, personal narratives and research papers. One strand of the course will review common problems with grammar and mechanics. Although the course assumes that students already have well-developed study habits, some organizational and study skills will be reviewed.
ENGLISH 9 ADVANCED This course features an introduction to literary analysis and to essay writing. Reading assignments will include literary, informative and argumentative material with at least one unit focusing around the theme of “Rites of Passage.” Literature will include texts such as The Odyssey as well as short stories, plays, poems, non-fiction selections and at least two novels. Students will have opportunities to respond to texts in a variety of formats, such as discussion, journals and literary circles. The writing program will begin with a review of the process of composing expository paragraphs and then will introduce methods of planning, drafting and revising short formal essays. Following a review of sentence structure, one strand of the course will focus on phrases, clauses and sentence revision, as well as other common problems with grammar and mechanics. The course also offers instruction in broadening students’ vocabulary as they learn words in and out of context. Organizational, research and study skills will be reviewed.
ENGLISH 9 STANDARD This course reviews reading and writing skills and offers introductory studies in literature and essay writing. Literature instruction may include excerpts from The Odyssey as well as novels, short stories, plays, poems, non-fiction pieces and a thematic unit on “Rites of Passage.” Students will have opportunities to respond to these texts in a variety of formats, such as journals and hands-on projects. In conjunction with their reading, vocabulary instruction will concentrate on expanding students’ knowledge of words both in and out of context. The writing program will focus on showing students how to prepare, draft and revise groups of paragraphs on a single topic in preparation for the introduction of the essay form. The course offers both a review of basic grammar and the beginnings of instruction in organizational, research and study skills.
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