Course Overview 

In this course you will read a wide variety of materials from short stories to novels, fiction to nonfiction, poems to plays.  The readings will come from a wide variety of cultures and time periods.  As you analyze the readings, you will become more skilled interpreters of the world around you.

In addition to reading, you will learn to write various types of essays and creative works.  A major focus this year will be constructing an Interactive Writer’s Notebook. This will serve as a reference for essays and grammar, it will also contain material to review for 9 Weeks and Semester tests.

The 9th Grade Language Arts class will follow the Prentice Hall Literature book. This is a bright blue book that includes a variety of different styles of writings. An online version of this book has been linked to our Google Classroom. Students will also read S.E. Hinton’s novel The Outsiders in class, and will have a large Multigenre Project due at the end of the novel. They will be given the rubric weeks in advance. This project will be something they will need to work on outside of the class, and will serve as their unit test over the novel.  We will also be reading William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. In addition to readings, the students will study vocabulary words and different types of writing throughout the year.