Ninth Grade - ELA
• Literacy
1: Semester 1
Unit 1: Lord of the Flies
Lesson 3
Paths in the Jungle
Students print and annotate a nonfiction article and are prompted to identify the author's main argument/thesis and the key points that support it. Students complete a top-hat graphic organizer with sections for the "Author's main argument/thesis," "Key points that support the thesis," and "Your reaction to the thesis." Students are asked to evaluate the writer's view, record their reactions, and decide their final opinion after reviewing the completed organizer.
Final Project
Now You Have the Conch
Students are instructed to locate and note specific passages from the text (e.g., Chapter 7 passages) and to paraphrase prompts before forming a thesis, showing practice in connecting evidence to a claim. The rubric and checklist explicitly require that ideas be "supported and explained" and ask whether the thesis is "supportable," guiding students to judge how well evidence backs their claim. Brainstorming and outline pages require students to list supporting points and specific examples/quotes from the text and explain their relevance to the thesis.
Unit 2: World Religions (600 BCE - 600 CE)
Lesson 7
Christianity
The lesson directs students (Option 1) to read at least two scientific or archaeological articles (e.g., Smithsonian, National Geographic) about the life and times of Jesus and to write summaries for each source. The parent-plan and activity notes state students should analyze the meanings of these studies for scholars and Christians and show awareness that representations can be analyzed and interpreted using historical and archaeological data. The activity sheet explicitly asks students to answer reflective questions about why scholars pursue scientific proof and whether it matters if events in religious scriptures can be corroborated.
Unit 5: Nonfiction
Lesson 13
Child Soldier
The Parent Plan explicitly lists the skill to "Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning." Activity 1 (The Truth about Memoirs) requires students to write a journal response weighing two opposing viewpoints about Beah's accuracy and to use reasons given by supporters and detractors. The "Different Accounts" activity asks students to fill in book and video columns with examples or quotes and then compare how each source presents claims, prompting students to cite and evaluate evidence across media.
Lesson 14
Rehabilitation
Activity 1 asks students to compare the RUF and government soldiers and to record examples or quotations showing whether the government committed specific war crimes. Option 2 directs students to re-read the lieutenant's speech and a conversation with an RUF child soldier, choose a conclusion about the two sides, and provide textual examples or quotations to support that conclusion. The Parent Plan explicitly lists the skill to "delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims... assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient" and asks students to draw evidence from the text.
Final Project
Expository Essay
Students are directed to locate appropriate, credible, and timely sources (e.g., .edu/.gov, major newspapers) and to assess the usefulness and limitations of materials as they gather information (Audience, Purpose, and Sources; K-N-S chart). Students are required to choose three key facts from research, note their sources, and use quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing to incorporate those facts as support for a thesis (Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing; homework examples). Students must produce in-text citations and a Works Cited page and are asked to synthesize multiple sources and integrate information selectively to support an expository thesis.
2: Semester 2
Unit 1: Ender's Game
Lesson 5
Movement and Time
Students are prompted to judge characters' claims in the discussion questions (e.g., "Do you think Dink is right when he tells Ender the buggers have been destroyed and the government lies to keep power over the people? Why or why not?"). The lesson also asks students to consider how to determine whether things authority figures tell you are true and to evaluate whether Graff might suspect the truth, which requires weighing textual claims and perspectives. Several prompts ask students to articulate what Ender should do if he thinks a claim might be true, inviting consideration of reasons for action based on the text.
Unit 3: Informational Texts
Lesson 1
What Are Informational Texts?
Students are asked to locate text features such as a bibliography, footnotes/endnotes, and headings (Activity 1 and the Student Activity Page), which point them to sources and supporting material. Students watch Gladwell's TED talk and answer questions about his reinterpretation of David and Goliath and the reasons he gives (Activity 2). Students read "The Roseto Mystery" and answer questions identifying researchers' initial hypotheses and the researchers' conclusion that a close-knit community explained the Rosetans' health (Homework questions).
Lesson 2
Outliers
Students are asked to analyze Gladwell's Introduction and identify how he defines "outlier" and uses analogy (the Roseto study) to make his point (Activity 1 and answer key). Homework questions ask students to explain causal mechanisms (why cutoff dates affect hockey success and how the Matthew Effect operates) and to apply that principle to education (Homework Questions 2 and 3). The Parent Plan lists skills that require analyzing how an author unfolds an analysis and uses rhetoric, which signals tasks that involve examining the author's line of reasoning.
Lesson 3
The Matthew Effect
Students are asked to reinterpret and recreate the birth-month data from the Medicine Hat Tigers roster (Activity 1, Option 1), which requires them to extract quantitative evidence from a text and present it in a different visual form. In Activity 1, Option 2, students must read the paragraph about the TIMSS study (p. 28) carefully and sketch a graphic that communicates the study findings, which requires understanding what the study measured and how those results are presented as evidence. Homework questions ask students to explain the 10,000-hour rule and to relate that rule back to the sports examples, prompting students to connect the author's claims to cited examples and data.
Lesson 4
The 10,000 Hour Rule
Students are asked to summarize and analyze Sections 1–3, answering questions about how Gladwell introduces Bill Joy, why Section 2 focuses on scientific studies, and how Section 3 applies those studies to Joy. The Parent Plan lists skills that students practice, including citing textual evidence, analyzing how an author's ideas or claims are developed, determining a central idea, and translating quantitative information into visual form. In Activity 2 students mark key opportunities in examples (The Beatles or Bill Gates) and create visuals that connect those details to the chapter's larger claims.
Lesson 6
The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes
Students read Malcolm Gladwell's chapter and a critical blog post (Activity 4) and identify the blog author's primary objections to Gladwell's claims about cultural causes of plane crashes. In Activity 5 students analyze Gladwell's responses, fill a chart noting each criticism, Gladwell's reply, and evaluate the effectiveness of those replies, or orally summarize and defend which objections are strongest. The parent/syllabus materials also instruct students to draw and cite strong textual evidence to support analysis and to consider alternative explanations for the crashes (e.g., weather, mechanical issues, misquoted reports).
Lesson 7
Rice Paddies and Math Tests
Students are asked to draw and cite textual evidence (Skills list: "Draw evidence from literary or informational texts..." and "Cite strong and thorough textual evidence..."). The wrap-up and homework discussion prompts ask students to evaluate Gladwell's view (e.g., whether his goal was to inform or persuade, whether talent vs. preparation matters) and to explain how their opinions changed. The infographic assignment asks students to translate concepts from the chapter into a visual form and may require condensing and clarifying the book's arguments (e.g., "Why Asian students learn to count...", "How traditional Chinese rice farming might relate to the 10,000-hour rule").
Lesson 8
With Malice Toward None
The Parent Plan lists skills that ask students to "analyze in detail how an author's ideas or claims are developed and refined by particular sentences, paragraphs, or larger portions of a text" and to "cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis." Students answer guided questions about Lincoln's claims (e.g., causes of the war, his stance on the future) and complete an activity that requires quoting parts of the speech and identifying the rhetorical device and its effect. The homework asks students to select sentences that represent background, main message, and a forward-looking statement, which requires locating textual support for parts of the speech's argument.
Lesson 9
Writing about History
Students are asked to match claims from secondary sources to supporting primary-source excerpts (the Firsthand Accounts graphic organizer) and to cite specific testimony passages that confirm those claims. Students analyze eyewitness testimonies for inaccuracies and motives in the "Primary Falsehoods" activity and examine inconsistencies across sources (questions asking which facts the three summaries agree on). The Parent Plan explicitly lists as a skill: "Assess the extent to which the reasoning and evidence in a text support the author's claims," and students write editorials using facts from sources to back up their arguments.
Lesson 10
Science Writing
The Parent Plan Skills explicitly list "Assess the extent to which the reasoning and evidence in a text support the author's claim..." as a targeted skill. The Student Activity Page "Investigating Claims in Science Writing" asks students to explain how the author supports two specific claims (noncontact forces are invisible; centripetal force is often called a fictitious force) and to identify the methods the author uses (e.g., examples, illustrations, highlighting). The Reading and Questions section requires students to cite specific textual evidence (answers to Q1–Q3) about forces and frames of reference, reinforcing practice in using evidence to support analysis.
Lesson 11
Technical Writing
Students are asked to back up the claim in their guide introduction with information from an outside source and to record and cite that source (Homework Day 1; Works Cited/Guide Checklist require outside support). The Guide Checklist explicitly requires that the introduction's benefit be supported by an outside source, properly credited. Students test their guide by having another person follow it without help and then conduct a follow-up interview to evaluate whether instructions (recommendations) were clear and sufficient.
Lesson 12
Logical Fallacies
The Parent Plan explicitly instructs students to "delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning." Students practice this by highlighting weak arguments in Andrew Jackson's speech and by identifying specific fallacies (non-sequitur, ad hominem, straw man, bandwagon) in multiple activities. Activities also require students to identify logos and to note how a speaker supports a thesis (e.g., Gehrig's speech asks students to explain how examples support his claim).
Final Project
Argumentative Research Essay
Students are asked to evaluate source credibility and content (author qualifications, publisher, bias, accuracy, relevance, currency) when researching (Part 5). They are instructed to collect facts, statistics, and examples and to note when sources directly contradict one another to identify arguments and counterarguments (Part 4). Students watch videos and discuss how statistics and graphs can be misleading (homework on Simpson's Paradox and misleading graphs) and are directed to integrate quantitative or technical analysis with qualitative analysis (Parent Plan skills). The rubric and activities require students to assess the usefulness of each source in answering their research question and to use evidence to support and refute claims.
Unit 4: Drama
Lesson 2
How to Read Drama
Students identify and list specific clues from the play (e.g., the broken bird, torn cage door, messy sewing, half-wiped table) and answer questions about what these clues explain (motive for murder). Students complete the "Applying Aristotle's Six Elements of Tragedy" activity that asks them to determine whether the plot is centered on discovery and to describe how plot, character, and theme are supported by events. Students analyze diction and symbolism (e.g., bird as symbol for Mrs. Wright) and explain how language evokes feelings, requiring them to cite textual details to support interpretations.
Semester Exam
Semester Exam
Students are asked to review the Informational Texts unit including Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers and the chapter "The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes," and to explain Gladwell's claims about cultural factors in airline crashes. Tasks require students to identify and explain rhetorical strategies (logos, pathos, ethos) and logical fallacies, and a discussion prompt asks students to evaluate whether Outliers is primarily informational or persuasive while considering criticisms of the plane-crashes chapter. The exam includes questions about evaluating source credibility and explaining counterarguments.