Advanced English 9

Advanced English 9 Units and Learning Targets

NOTE: The units and learning targets listed below are an outline of the material that may be covered in English 9 during a particular school year.  Due to a variety of factors, the actual number of units covered (and the order in which they are covered) is subject to change from year to year.  Thank you for your understanding.

Introductory Unit

Unit 1: Self-Introduction

Learning Targets:

1. I can provide clear and accurate information about myself to a classmate via an in-class interview.

2. I can “introduce” a classmate to Mr. Pyke and the rest of the class through a paragraph I wrote after conducting an in-class interview with that classmate.

Study Skills

Unit 1: Study Skills (15 Days)

Learning Targets:

1. I can recognize and understand the reading strategies provided within the non-fiction signposts and use these strategies to become a stronger reader.

2. I can practice in-class strategies that will enable me to get the most out of the time I spend in the classroom.  

3. I can learn about and practice different methods of taking notes and choose a method that is effective for me. 

4. I can identify different ways to study and prepare for tests and choose the strategies that are most effective for me.  

5. I can describe my strategy for preparing for a test and explain whether it works for me, identifying pieces of my strategy that work well and pieces that do not work as well.  

6. I can assess my time management skills and use this knowledge to manage my time as effectively as possible. 

7. I can complete a daily/weekly time management chart to track how effectively I use my time.  

8. I can identify different test-taking strategies and explain the strategy that works best for me.  

intoLiterature Units

Unit 1: Against All Odds

Essential Question:  

1. What does it take to survive a crisis?

Learning Targets:

1. I can analyze literary nonfiction.

2. I can analyze author’s perspective.

3. I can analyze arguments.

4. I can analyze rhetorical devices.

5. I can analyze flashback and tension.

6. I can make inferences.

7. I can analyze poetic language and structure.

8. I can analyze prose and graphic memoirs.

9. I can analyze word choice.

10. I can compare accounts.

11. I can write an argument.

Unit 2:  Breaking Through Barriers

Essential Question:

1. Are some differences too great to overcome?

Learning Targets:

1. I can analyze central ideas and details in a text.

2. I can analyze text structure.

3. I can analyze purpose and message.

4. I can analyze voice and tone.

5. I can analyze setting and theme.

6. I can analyze figurative language.

7. I can analyze representations in different mediums.

8. I can compare across genres.

9. I can analyze author’s purpose and rhetoric.

10. I can analyze seminal U.S. documents.

11. I can compare source and interpretation.

12. I can analyze media techniques and representations.

13. I can write a personal narrative.

Unit 3:  Crime Scenes

Essential Question:

1. Who suffers when a crime is committed?

Learning Targets:

1. I can analyze universal themes.

2. I can analyze characterization.

3. I can analyze main ideas and details.

4. I can summarize and paraphrase texts.

5. I can make inferences about characters and theme.

6. I can analyze literary techniques.

7. I can compare accounts of a subject.

8. I can analyze media messages.

9. I can build active listening skills.

10. I can write an informative essay.

11. I can create a podcast.

Unit 4:  Love and Loss

Essential Question:

1. How can love bring both joy and pain?

Learning Targets:

1. I can analyze literary devices.

2. I can analyze parallel plots.

3. I can analyze source material.

4. I can compare authors’ claims.

5. I can analyze rhetoric.

6. I can compare arguments.

7. I can write a literary analysis.

Unit 5:  Freedom at All Costs

Essential Question:

1. Can each of us find freedom?

Learning Targets:

1. I can identify and analyze irony within a text.

2. I can analyze the satirical point of view.

3. I can analyze arguments.

4. I can analyze rhetorical devices.

5. I can analyze text structure.

6. I can analyze word choice.

7. I can analyze a narrator’s perspective.

8. I can analyze poetic language.

9. I can analyze setting and purpose.

10. I can determine an author’s point of view.

11. I can analyze accounts in different mediums.

12. I can compare treatments of a topic.

13. I can analyze a podcast.

14. I can analyze an author’s purpose.

15. I can write a research report.

Unit 6:  Epic Journeys

Essential Question:

1. What drives us to take on a challenge?

Learning Targets:

1. I can analyze the epic hero.

2. I can analyze epic poetry.

3. I can make predictions.

4. I can determine the central idea.

5. I can analyze ideas and events.

6. I can evaluate graphic features.

7. I can interpret figurative language.

8. I can make connections.

9. I can compare messages across genres.

10. I can write an expository essay.

11. I can participate in a collaborative discussion.

Grammar Units

Unit 1: Parts of Speech (15 Days)

Learning Targets:

1. I can recognize how nouns function, identify them in a sentence, and write sentences using nouns correctly.

2. I can recognize how pronouns function, identify them in a sentence, and write sentences using pronouns correctly.

3. I can recognize how verbs function, identify them in a sentence, and write sentences using verbs correctly.

4. I can recognize how adjectives function, identify them in a sentence, and write sentences using adjectives correctly.

5. I can recognize how adverbs function, identify them in a sentence, and write sentences using adverbs correctly.

6. I can recognize how prepositions function, identify them in a sentence, and write sentences using prepositions correctly.

7. I can recognize how conjunctions function, identify them in a sentence, and write sentences using conjunctions correctly.

8. I can recognize how interjections function, identify them in a sentence, and write sentences using interjections correctly.

Unit 2: Sentence Parts (12 Days)

Learning Targets:

1. I can recognize the two parts of a sentence - subject and predicate - and apply this information in my writing.

2. I can identify and use complete subjects and predicates.

3. I can identify compound subjects and verbs and use them in my writing.

4. I can recognize the four kinds of sentences and apply this knowledge in my writing.

5. I can recognize that subjects may appear in unusual positions and apply this knowledge in my writing.

6. I can identify subject complements - predicate adjectives and predicate nominatives -  and use them in my writing.

7. I can identify objects of verbs - direct objects and indirect objects - and use them in my writing.

Unit 3: Capitalization (6 Days)

Learning Targets:

1. I can understand the rules for capitalizing the names of people and cultures and use these rules to correct capitalization errors.

2. I can understand the rules for capitalizing first words and titles and use these rules to correct errors in capitalization.

3. I can understand the rules for capitalizing names of particular places, celestial bodies, landmarks, and vehicles and use these rules to correct capitalization errors.

4. I can understand the rules for capitalizing names of organizations, acronyms, names of historical events, and various other kinds of names and abbreviations, and I can use these rules to correct capitalization errors.

Unit 4: Writing Complete Sentences

Learning Targets:

1. I can identify sentence fragments and correct them in writing.

2. I can recognize run-on sentences and correct them in writing.

Unit 5: Punctuation (10 Days)

Learning Targets:

1. I can recognize periods, question marks, and exclamation points as end marks and use them in writing.

2. I can recognize that commas used in a series, following introductory elements, and with interrupters, and I can use commas in sentence parts.

3. I can understand the various uses of commas, recognize the need for commas, and use commas correctly in sentences.

4. I can recognize the role of semicolons and colons and use them correctly in sentences.

5. I can recognize the uses for quotation marks and use them in writing.

6. I can recognize the uses of hyphens, apostrophes, dashes, and parentheses and use these marks in writing.

7. I can recognize the uses for ellipses and italics and use them in writing.

Unit 6: Using Phrases

Learning Targets:

1. I can recognize prepositional phrases and use them in sentences.

2. I can recognize appositives and appositive phrases and use them in sentences.

3. I can recognize participial phrases and use them in sentences.

4. I can recognize gerund phrases and use them in sentences.

5. I can recognize infinitive phrases and use them in sentences.

6. I can recognize effective placements of phrases in sentences and place phrases effectively when writing sentences.

Unit 7: Clauses and Sentence Structure

Learning Targets:

1. I can recognize subordinate (dependent) and independent clauses and use them in sentences.

2. I can recognize modifying clauses and use them in sentences.

3. I can recognize noun clauses and use them in sentences.

4. I can identify and write sentences with various structures.

Unit 8: Writing Complete Sentences

Learning Targets:

1. I can identify sentence fragments and correct them in writing.

2. I can recognize run-on sentences and correct them in writing.

Writing Unit

Unit 1: The Writing Process

Learning Targets:

1. I can recognize prewriting at the first step in the writing process and identify a variety of prewriting techniques.

2. I can recognize writing as a step in the writing process and become familiar with the steps in preparing a draft.

3. I can identify and use the traits of effective writing.

4. I can recognize editing and proofreading as steps in the writing process.

5. I can use editing and proofreading techniques, including proofreading marks.

6. I can recognize ways to publish written work and reflect on the writing process.

Other Literature Units

Unit 1: Romeo and Juliet (50 Days)

Learning Targets: 

1. I can reflect upon and share my thoughts and feelings about love and marriage and compare my thoughts and feelings to those of various characters within the play.

2. I can create, deliver, and receive Shakespearean insults in an activity as a means of seeing the power and variety of Shakespeare’s language.

3. I can explore my own thoughts about love as well as the thoughts of the characters in the play as a means of studying characterization, considering a key theme of the play and its application to my own life, and developing independence in working with the text.  

4. I can create a promptbook for particular scenes within the play, allowing me to envision the setting of the play, make choices about how lives might be delivered, suit movement to words, and experiment with different but equally valid ways to stage a scene.

5. I can explore passages in the play to recognize and analyze some of the language tricks Shakespeare uses, including personification, metaphors, and similes.

6. I can create tableaux vivants to pinpoint key lines, actions, and feelings in 3.1 that help to make the scene a turning point in the play.

7. I can utilize a series of lines with a variety of subtexts to develop an awareness and understanding of the presence and importance of subtext in a play.

Unit 2: Of Mice and Men

Learning Targets:

1. I can identify and give examples of the major themes the author explores, including themes of friendship, loneliness, racism/sexism, and dreams vs. reality.

2. I can identify the unique forms of loneliness that several of the characters experience.

3. I can locate clear examples of how foreshadowing is employed to heighten the suspense in the novella.

4. I can identify and provide examples of events that took place during the 1930’s by constructing a timeline that includes a number of these events.