Grade 9 English Language Arts
9 units matched to the Manitoba Curriculum. Kids see this subject as “Language Arts”.
Learning focus
- A1 Learners engage in oral language communication as a recursive process of listening, speaking, and interacting to construct meaning, exchange ideas and perspectives, and expand their understanding of themselves, others, and the world.
- A2 Learners build and apply foundational knowledge and skills, including letter knowledge, sound awareness, word structures, vocabulary knowledge, and language conventions, to engage as active readers, writers, and communicators.
- B1 Learners draw on their knowledge, experiences, and awareness of text cues and conventions to establish purpose, anticipate meaning, and prepare for engagement with texts.
- B2 Learners actively construct meaning when reading, viewing, and listening to texts by applying a range of comprehension strategies. They make connections, infer meaning, and monitor understanding to build knowledge and deepen understanding across a variety of contexts and text forms.
- B3 Learners analyze ideas, information, viewpoints, and perspectives within and across texts to build understanding. Learners use evidence from texts to develop, support, and evaluate interpretations.
- B4 Learners reflect on, extend, and integrate new learning to develop deeper understandings. They respond to texts by sharing interpretations, perspectives, and insights that expand, challenge, and/or refine their thinking.
- C1 Learners generate and develop ideas, conduct research, evaluate sources, organize information, and select appropriate forms and modes to compose texts for a range of purposes and audiences.
- C2 Learners apply the key qualities of writing to revise, refine, and enhance texts for different purposes, contexts, and audiences.
- C3 Learners proofread, edit, and refine texts by applying editing strategies to improve accuracy and clarity. They publish their work using appropriate tools, modes, and platforms to communicate for different purposes, contexts, and audiences.
- D1 Learners organize and communicate ideas for others by making intentional choices about content, communication mode, and style for different purposes and contexts.
- D2 Learners use descriptive feedback and criteria to reflect on their learning, set goals, and monitor progress to inform next steps.
Units
Unit 1
Close Reading
Reading original short passages and answering questions about theme, tone, word choice, structure and the author's purpose, using evidence from the text.
Learning outcome: ELA.9.B2.1, ELA.9.B2.3, ELA.9.B3.1 · inferences, monitoring understanding and finding ideas and evidence in texts
Unit 2
Literary Elements
Recognizing devices such as irony, symbolism, motif, allusion and foils in short excerpts, and describing tone and mood.
Learning outcome: ELA.9.B3.1, ELA.9.B3.2 · themes, perspectives and how a creator's choices shape a text
Unit 3
Voices & Perspectives
How point of view and background shape a text, why oral traditions and the protocols around them matter, and asking whose voices are present or missing. This unit introduces ideas only; teachers and local First Peoples communities lead deeper learning.
Learning outcome: ELA.9.B3.2, ELA.9.B4.2, ELA.9.B4.3 · viewpoints in texts and how perspectives shape responses
Unit 4
Argument & Rhetoric
Spotting ethos, pathos and logos, common fallacies such as straw man and false dilemma, loaded language and bias, and judging whether a source or media message can be trusted.
Learning outcome: ELA.9.B3.1, ELA.9.D1.3 · opinions, evidence and persuasive choices
Unit 5
Forms & Features
Knowing what each text form does, how features such as an index, footnote or caption help readers, how signal words show a text's pattern, and how images, colour and design shape meaning.
Learning outcome: ELA.9.B1.3, ELA.9.C1.3 · text cues, features and forms
Unit 6
Word Detective
Using prefixes, suffixes and Latin and Greek bases to work out new words, choosing a meaning from the sentence around a word, and subject words like product, mass and scale.
Learning outcome: ELA.9.A2.5, ELA.9.A2.6 · Greek and Latin roots, affixes and word origins
Unit 7
Grammar & Style
Semicolons, colons, dashes, commas and apostrophes, subject-verb agreement, pronoun case, misplaced modifiers, run-ons and fragments, and choosing a formal or informal register.
Learning outcome: ELA.9.A2.7, ELA.9.C2.2, ELA.9.C3.2, ELA.9.C3.3 · sentence structure, grammar, capitalization and punctuation
Unit 8
Language & Style
How word choice shapes feeling (connotation and denotation), how English changes and borrows words, formal and informal register, concise and varied sentences, and devices such as anaphora and rhetorical questions.
Learning outcome: ELA.9.A2.6, ELA.9.C2.3 · word choice, precision and style
Unit 9
Revise & Edit
Making sentences more concise, choosing transitions, fixing unclear pronouns and tense shifts, catching errors a spell-checker misses, and Canadian spelling such as colour, centre, practise and licence.
Learning outcome: ELA.9.C2.2, ELA.9.C2.3, ELA.9.C3.1, ELA.9.C3.3 · revising and editing for clarity, spelling and punctuation
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