Grade 9 English Language Arts
11 units matched to the Newfoundland and Labrador Curriculum. Kids see this subject as “Language Arts”.
Learning focus
- Speaking and listening: explore and reflect. Students will speak and listen to explore, extend, clarify, and reflect on their thoughts, ideas, feelings, and experiences.
- Speaking and listening: communicate. Students will be able to communicate information and ideas effectively and clearly, and to respond personally and critically.
- Speaking and listening: interact with respect. Students will be able to interact with sensitivity and respect, considering the situation, audience, and purpose.
- Reading and viewing: select and read. Students will be able to select, read, and view with understanding a range of literature, information, media, and visual texts.
- Reading and viewing: interpret and combine information. Students will be able to interpret, select, and combine information using a variety of strategies, resources, and technologies.
- Reading and viewing: respond personally. Students will be able to respond personally to a range of texts.
- Reading and viewing: respond critically. Students will be able to respond critically to a range of texts, applying their understanding of language, form, and genre.
- Writing and representing: explore and reflect. Students will be able to use writing and other ways of representing to explore, clarify, and reflect on their thoughts, feelings, experiences, and learning; and to use their imagination.
- Writing and representing: create texts. Students will be able to create texts collaboratively and independently, using a variety of forms for a range of audiences and purposes.
- Writing and representing: strategies. Students will be able to use a range of strategies to develop effective writing and other ways of representing and to enhance their clarity, precision, and effectiveness.
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.
Curriculum outcome: Reading and viewing: respond critically (by Grade 9); Reading and viewing: respond personally (by Grade 9) · reading closely and responding to texts
Unit 2
Literary Elements
Recognizing devices such as irony, symbolism, motif, allusion and foils in short excerpts, and describing tone and mood.
Curriculum outcome: Reading and viewing: respond critically (by Grade 9); Reading and viewing: respond personally (by Grade 9) · literary elements and how they work
Unit 3
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.
Curriculum outcome: Writing and representing: create texts (by Grade 9) · argument and rhetorical techniques
Unit 4
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.
Curriculum outcome: Writing and representing: strategies (by Grade 9) · grammar and conventions in writing
Unit 5
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.
Curriculum outcome: Writing and representing: create texts (by Grade 9) · language and style
Unit 6
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.
Curriculum outcome: Reading and viewing: respond critically (by Grade 9) · voices and perspectives in texts
Unit 7
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.
Curriculum outcome: Reading and viewing: select and read (by Grade 9) · using word parts to work out meaning
Unit 8
Literary Devices
Spotting allusion (a reference to something well known), analogy, juxtaposition (contrasts side by side) and flashback in short original excerpts, and explaining why a writer chooses them.
Curriculum outcome: Reading and viewing: respond critically (by Grade 9) · sound, image and figurative devices
Unit 9
Digital Smarts
Telling misinformation from disinformation, checking sources before trusting them, managing passwords and privacy, spotting phishing, and citing and using other people's work respectfully.
Curriculum outcome: Reading and viewing: respond critically (by Grade 9) · digital and media texts
Unit 10
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.
Curriculum outcome: Writing and representing: create texts (by Grade 9) · revising and editing writing
Unit 11
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.
Curriculum outcome: Reading and viewing: select and read (by Grade 9) · text forms and features
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