What each grade learns › Grade 9 › English

What does a 9th grader learn in English and Reading?

The usual course: English 9: Literature and Composition, one full year, 1 credit.

Your child will read short stories, poems, a Shakespeare scene, speeches and articles closely, and learn to explain what authors mean and how they say it. They will also build vocabulary, spelling and grammar skills, and write personal narr

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36 weeks, 72 lessons, in 8 units. Every school and state does it a little differently, so think of this as the usual path.

Close Reading of Stories

Students learn to read fiction closely and explain theme, character, plot, setting and point of view, which is the base for all high school literature study.

Standards: Common Core RL.9-10.1-6
  1. Week 1: Annotating a text as you readAt home: Read a short article or story together and underline one key idea and circle one confusing word per paragraph.
  2. Week 1: Finding the theme of a short storyAt home: After watching a movie, ask your teen what lesson about life it suggests, and what moment showed it.
  3. Week 2: Tracing how a theme developsAt home: Pick a favorite book and name two scenes where the same big idea appears in different ways.
  4. Week 2: Character motivation: why characters act as they doAt home: Talk about a character's tough choice and list what they wanted and what they feared.
  5. Week 3: Complex characters with conflicting traitsAt home: Describe a character from a show who is both kind and flawed, and give a piece of evidence for each trait.
  6. Week 3: Plot structure and the turning pointAt home: Retell a movie in five steps: setup, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution.
  7. Week 4: How setting shapes moodAt home: Describe your kitchen in two ways, once to feel cozy and once to feel creepy, by changing the details.
  8. Week 4: Point of view and unreliable narratorsAt home: Have two family members tell the same small event and notice what each one leaves out.

Figurative Language, Poetry and Drama

Students study how writers use symbols, irony, sound and imagery, and practice reading poetry and Shakespeare with confidence.

Standards: Common Core RL.9-10.4, RL.9-10.5, RL.9-10.7, L.9-10.5
  1. Week 5: Tone and word choiceAt home: Say 'That's interesting' in three different tones and talk about how the meaning changes.
  2. Week 5: Simile and metaphor in contextAt home: Make up a fresh simile for the weather today and explain what it suggests.
  3. Week 6: Reading symbols in storiesAt home: Choose an everyday object, like a key or a candle, and brainstorm what it could stand for in a story.
  4. Week 6: Three kinds of ironyAt home: Look for an example of irony in a sitcom or a news headline and decide which kind it is.
  5. Week 7: Imagery: writing that appeals to the sensesAt home: Describe your dinner using at least three of the five senses.
  6. Week 7: Sound devices: alliteration, assonance, rhymeAt home: Read a favorite song lyric aloud and clap out the repeated sounds.
  7. Week 8: How a sonnet is builtAt home: Read a short sonnet aloud and count the 14 lines and notice where the rhyme ends or the idea turns.
  8. Week 8: Unlocking Shakespeare's languageAt home: Read a few lines of Romeo and Juliet aloud and rewrite them in everyday words.
  9. Week 9: Soliloquy and asideAt home: Say aloud what a character in a movie is secretly thinking, as if you were on a stage alone.
  10. Week 9: Allusion: references to other worksAt home: Find a phrase like 'Achilles' heel' or 'Scrooge' in everyday talk and look up where it came from.

Reading Informational Text

Students learn to find central ideas, judge evidence and spot persuasive techniques in articles and speeches so they can read news and nonfiction critically.

Standards: Common Core RI.9-10.1-9
  1. Week 10: Finding the central idea of an articleAt home: Read a news article and state its main point in one sentence without looking back.
  2. Week 10: Writing an objective summaryAt home: Summarize a short article in three sentences without adding your own opinion.
  3. Week 11: Text structures: cause-effect, compare, sequenceAt home: Look at a recipe, a news story and a product review and decide how each is organized.
  4. Week 11: Author's purpose and point of viewAt home: Look at an ad or editorial and talk about what the author wants you to think or do.
  5. Week 12: Evaluating claims and evidenceAt home: Choose a claim from a website and ask what proof is given and whether it is enough.
  6. Week 12: Spotting bias and loaded languageAt home: Compare two headlines about the same event and underline words that sway your feelings.
  7. Week 13: Reading charts and graphs with textAt home: Find a graph in a newspaper or online and explain its message in one sentence.
  8. Week 13: Ethos, pathos and logos in speechesAt home: Watch a short commercial or speech and point out one appeal to trust, one to emotion and one to logic.

Vocabulary and Spelling

Students learn strategies to work out unfamiliar words and spell tricky ones, which supports reading and writing in every subject.

Standards: Common Core L.9-10.2, L.9-10.4-6
  1. Week 14: Comparing two sources on one topicAt home: Read two short articles on the same subject and list one fact they share and one difference.
  2. Week 14: Using context clues to find word meaningAt home: When you meet an unknown word, cover it and guess a replacement before checking a dictionary.
  3. Week 15: Greek and Latin rootsAt home: Collect words with the root 'scrib' or 'script' from around the house and guess the shared meaning.
  4. Week 15: Prefixes and suffixes in academic wordsAt home: Take the word 'agree' and build as many words as you can, like disagreement and agreeable.
  5. Week 16: Denotation and connotationAt home: Compare 'thin', 'slim' and 'scrawny' and talk about which is a compliment.
  6. Week 16: Precise word choice with a dictionary and thesaurusAt home: Replace the word 'said' in a sentence with three stronger verbs and check each in a dictionary.
  7. Week 17: Commonly confused words: affect/effect, their/thereAt home: Write one silly sentence for each pair of confusing words to help remember.
  8. Week 17: Spelling: plurals and irregular formsAt home: Quiz each other on plurals like 'analysis/analyses' and 'criterion/criteria'.
  9. Week 18: Spelling: doubling consonants and dropping the silent eAt home: Add -ing and -ed to ten verbs, like 'hope' and 'plan', and check the spelling.
  10. Week 18: Spelling: -able/-ible and -ance/-enceAt home: Make a two-column list of words with each ending and look for patterns.

Grammar and Sentence Craft

Students learn how phrases, clauses and punctuation work so their sentences are clear, varied and correct.

Standards: Common Core L.9-10.1-2
  1. Week 19: Prepositional and appositive phrasesAt home: Write a sentence about a family member and add an appositive, like 'my brother, a talented drummer'.
  2. Week 19: Independent and dependent clausesAt home: Pick a sentence from a book and underline the part that could stand alone.
  3. Week 20: Simple, compound, complex and compound-complex sentencesAt home: Turn two short sentences into one compound and one complex sentence.
  4. Week 20: Fixing run-ons and comma splicesAt home: Read a text message aloud and fix any sentence that runs on too long.
  5. Week 21: Commas with introductory and nonessential elementsAt home: Start three sentences with 'After dinner,' 'However,' and 'Tired from the walk,' and place commas.
  6. Week 21: Using semicolons and colonsAt home: Join two related sentences about your day with a semicolon.
  7. Week 22: Subject-verb agreement in tricky sentencesAt home: Make up sentences starting with 'Neither of' or 'The box of cookies' and check the verb.
  8. Week 22: Pronoun-antecedent agreement and clear pronounsAt home: Find a sentence with 'it' or 'they' and check whether it is obvious who or what it means.

Narrative Writing

Students write a real or imagined story with strong openings, dialogue, detail and reflection, learning to show events vividly.

Standards: Common Core W.9-10.3, W.9-10.4, L.9-10.3
  1. Week 23: Parallel structure in lists and comparisonsAt home: Write a sentence listing three hobbies using the same verb form, like 'running, reading and baking'.
  2. Week 23: Choosing a small moment for a personal narrativeAt home: List five memorable moments from your life and circle the one with the most feeling.
  3. Week 24: Writing a hook that grabs the readerAt home: Write three possible first sentences for your story and read them aloud to pick the best.
  4. Week 24: Show, don't tellAt home: Instead of 'I was nervous', write what your hands, stomach and thoughts were doing.
  5. Week 25: Writing and punctuating dialogueAt home: Write a short conversation between two family members with quotation marks and new lines for each speaker.
  6. Week 25: Pacing: slowing down and speeding upAt home: Choose one key moment in your story to stretch with detail and one boring part to shorten to a sentence.
  7. Week 26: Sensory details and figurative languageAt home: Walk around a room and write one sound, smell and texture you could add to your story.
  8. Week 26: Strong verbs and cutting weak wordsAt home: Circle every 'was' in a paragraph and swap some for action verbs.
  9. Week 27: Narrative endings with reflectionAt home: Ask 'What did I learn from this?' and write a closing two sentences answering it.
  10. Week 27: Revising a narrative with a checklistAt home: Read your story aloud and mark places where it drags or confuses, then fix one.

Informative Writing and Research

Students learn how to research a topic, take notes in their own words, and write a clear, organized, cited informative essay.

Standards: Common Core W.9-10.2, W.9-10.7-8, W.9-10.9
  1. Week 28: Choosing and narrowing a research topicAt home: Take a broad subject like 'sports' and narrow it to one specific question to explore.
  2. Week 28: Finding reliable sources onlineAt home: Search a topic and check who wrote each page, when, and why.
  3. Week 29: Taking notes and paraphrasingAt home: Read a paragraph, close the page, and write the main points in your own words.
  4. Week 29: Citing sources and avoiding plagiarismAt home: Write down the title, author and date of a source you used, like a book on your shelf.
  5. Week 30: Writing a thesis statement for an informative essayAt home: Write one sentence that tells what your essay will explain, then ask someone if it is clear.
  6. Week 30: Outlining an essayAt home: Sketch a three-point outline for an essay on a hobby using a sheet of scrap paper.
  7. Week 31: Body paragraphs: topic sentence, evidence, explanationAt home: Write one paragraph, then label each sentence as claim, proof or explanation.
  8. Week 31: Transitions that connect ideasAt home: Add words like 'for example', 'however' and 'as a result' to a paragraph to improve flow.

Argument Writing and Polishing

Students learn to build a persuasive argument with reasons, evidence and counterclaims, then revise and proofread their writing for a polished final draft.

Standards: Common Core W.9-10.1, W.9-10.5, L.9-10.1-3
  1. Week 32: Strong introductions and conclusionsAt home: Write a one-sentence opener and closer for an essay about your favorite food.
  2. Week 32: Claim versus topic: taking a positionAt home: Turn a topic like 'homework' into a claim you can argue for or against.
  3. Week 33: Supporting a claim with reasons and evidenceAt home: Give two reasons and one fact or example for a family rule you want changed.
  4. Week 33: Using quotations smoothly in an essayAt home: Introduce a short quote with a phrase like 'According to the author,' and explain it after.
  5. Week 34: Counterclaims and rebuttalsAt home: Argue a topic with someone who disagrees and practice saying 'Some may say... but...'.
  6. Week 34: Spotting logical fallaciesAt home: Find examples of 'everyone does it' or 'either-or' arguments in ads and discuss why they are weak.
  7. Week 35: Organizing an argument essayAt home: Arrange index cards or notes for claim, reasons and counterclaim in the best order.
  8. Week 35: Formal style and objective toneAt home: Rewrite a casual text message as a polite formal email.
  9. Week 36: Revising for concision and active voiceAt home: Take a wordy sentence and cut it in half while keeping the meaning.
  10. Week 36: Proofreading your own writingAt home: Read your essay backward one sentence at a time to catch spelling and punctuation mistakes.

Written with AI from what schools usually teach (like the Common Core for math and NGSS for science). Check your state's standards if you need to match them.