Ninth Grade - ELA
• Literacy
1: Semester 1
Unit 1: Early Civilizations and Migration (600 BCE)
Lesson 1
Preshistory
Students are asked to "trace the migration of hominids from Africa to the rest of the world, shading in various parts of the map to indicate how long ago humans or their ancestors were settled in each location," using a map key that lists time ranges (e.g., "Less than 50,000 years ago," "50,000 - 125,000 years ago"). The National Geographic reading pages assigned describe timelines of human evolution and migration, which students answer comprehension questions about (e.g., dates and Ice Age land bridges). The parent answer key maps include arrows and a legend with categorical quantitative time periods that students must apply to the spatial map.
Lesson 2
Early Agriculture
Students are asked to search for three cities along the Tigris and Euphrates and three far from the rivers, record the average annual rainfall for each city, and write impressions from image searches, then answer questions about rainfall trends and farming challenges. The "Fertile Crescent" activity explicitly directs students to use quantitative data (average rainfall) together with qualitative observations (images and impressions) to explain why people settled where they did. The "Mapping Early Farming Civilizations" task has students locate and shade early agricultural regions and note dates, requiring them to combine spatial/chronological data with written reasoning about agricultural emergence.
Lesson 4
Mesopotamia
Students are asked to complete a map activity—shading ancient Mesopotamia and labeling the Tigris, Euphrates, and Persian Gulf—which requires technical/spatial analysis. The Economic Development page asks for a percentage of people who lived outside cities (answer key: 95%) and lists jobs and literacy requirements, providing quantitative/technical facts. The Political Development task asks students to read examples from Hammurabi's Code and list four inferences, and other pages ask students to describe writing and religious beliefs, requiring qualitative analysis.
Lesson 6
Trade and Empire Building
Students are asked to fill in a two-column chart (Civilization | Import | Export) for Mesopotamia and Egypt on the "Early Trade Systems" activity page. Students are also asked to record their thoughts and provide specific examples about how technologies (animals, wheel, writing, boats, roads) facilitated the growth of trade. The activity prompts require written responses that draw on readings and the chart entries to describe how technologies affected trade systems.
Final Project
Flow Chart
Students are required to create a flowchart (a technical/visual chart) in which each element includes an image, an approximate date, and a 2–3 sentence description, as stated in both Option 1 and Option 2. The template explicitly provides boxes labeled for Approximate Date and Description, and the rubric requires that descriptions be informative and that the flowchart clearly show relationships between ideas and stages of development. Option 2 explicitly allows the use of software (e.g., Microsoft Visio or online diagram tools), linking the chart product to digital/technical tools.
Unit 2: World Religions (600 BCE - 600 CE)
Lesson 4
Buddhism
Students read a numeric estimate of global Buddhist population ("between 360 and 800 million Buddhists worldwide") in the introductory text. Students complete Activity 1 by filling a chart that asks for founding dates and regions for Theraveda, Mahayana, and Vajrayana, recording both numeric dates and qualitative descriptions. Activity 2 asks students to fill a map and the "Dimensions of World Religions" booklet and suggests doing online research, which could require locating factual/geographic data to pair with descriptive dimensions.
Lesson 6
Judaism
The lesson includes explicit quantitative information (e.g., "There are approximately 14 million Jews worldwide, 8 million of whom live in Israel"). Activity 2 asks students to produce a labeled map of the Jewish diaspora and to "use different colors to indicate different locations in a way that is meaningful for you," which requires a technical/visual representation. Students are also asked to complete a "Dimensions of World Religions" booklet and to create a slideshow or narrative about a Jewish holiday, tasks that require qualitative description and explanation.
Lesson 7
Christianity
Students are asked to read a Pew Research Center summary on the size and geographic distribution of Christianity and to reflect on whether anything in the statistics surprised them, which exposes them to quantitative population data. Option 1 directs students to read scientific and archaeological articles about the historical Jesus, asking them to analyze the meanings of those studies, which brings in technical/historical evidence. Activity 2 asks students to fill in a map and dimensions in a booklet, which may require using geographic or distributional information alongside textual summaries.
Lesson 8
Islam
Students create a timeline of Muhammad's life that requires them to place 5+ events with specific years (570–632 CE) and write a clear paragraph for each date explaining its significance, combining numerical chronology with explanatory analysis. Students fill in the Islam section of a "Dimensions of World Religions" booklet that may require using a map and online research to locate where Islam is practiced, linking spatial/quantitative information with descriptive discussion. The lesson includes numeric facts (e.g., Islam has 1.8 billion followers, nearly a quarter of the world's population) that students can reference in their booklet or discussions.
Unit 3: Rise of the Empires (600 BCE - 600 CE)
Lesson 1
Persian Empire
Students are asked to create a scaled timeline (marking every ~100 years, drawing lines showing each empire's beginning and end, and adding 2–3 significant dates) and to color-code timeline entries to match their map. Students assemble and shade a map of the Persian Empire, draw modern political boundaries, and label modern countries that occupy former imperial lands. Students complete a three-column Politics/Religion/Culture chart recording qualitative information (leaders, beliefs, social structure, art) and are instructed to save these pages to compare across empires.
Lesson 2
Greek Empire
Students are asked to complete Activity 1 by shading territory on maps, drawing modern country boundaries, and adding the Greek empire to a unit timeline, which requires working with spatial and chronological (technical) representations. In Activity 2 students fill a chart on politics, religion, and culture and use three colored pens to distinguish general Greece, Athens, and Sparta, which organizes qualitative information. The reading-and-questions section asks students to extract specific factual information from assigned pages, providing source material that could be used alongside the maps and timeline.
Lesson 3
Qin and Han Empires
Students are asked to add the Qin and Han empires to a map and timeline (Activity 1), including shading empire territories, drawing modern country boundaries, and labeling those countries. Students are instructed to preview readings and use information from the assigned pages to begin filling in the map, timeline, and the politics/religion/culture activity (Reading and Questions; Activity 2). In Activity 2 students fill a comparative chart about politics, religion, and culture using different colored pens to indicate Qin, Han, or both, linking textual information to a technical note-taking format.
Lesson 4
Roman Empire
Students are instructed to use maps on pages 83 and 85 of the National Geographic Almanac as source material to shade territory for the Roman Republic and Roman Empire, draw modern boundaries, and label modern countries (Activity 1). Students add the Roman Empire to a timeline, linking temporal sequence to their map work. The reading and guided questions present numeric and technical details (e.g., legion size breakdowns, years of service, and an estimate of two million slaves) that students must read and answer questions about.
Unit 4: Poetry
Lesson 2
Sound and Rhythm
Students mark stressed and unstressed syllables, identify feet, and count the number of feet in lines (scansion practice and Activity 4). The lesson provides a chart of metrical feet (patterns u and /) and asks students to determine rhyme scheme by assigning letters to end rhymes. Students use an online prosody tool to mark meter and then write journal responses about why repetition, rhyme, or rhythm is effective in a poem.
Lesson 4
Voice and Tone
Students are asked to use the browser search command (Ctrl-F) to count occurrences of target words ("see," "look," "light," "lantern") and then explain why those words are repeated, with provided counts (see = 9, look = 7, light = 5, lantern = 5). The lesson prompts an optional meter challenge for "Sick," asking students to notice that each line contains exactly eight syllables and to consider how that rhythmic pattern functions. In the Frost activity, students record sight and sound images and explain how interruptions and repeated words contribute to the poem's eerie tone, linking the quantitative counts and prosodic features to qualitative interpretation.
Lesson 8
Types of Poems
Students are instructed to mark the rhyme scheme at the end of each line and to ‘see if you can follow the iambic pentameter' when identifying sonnet types, which requires technical scansion and notation. Students complete an Ekphrasis Analysis chart that asks them to compare what the poem says about a work of art and what emotions it evokes, linking structural/visual observations to interpretive responses. The free-verse activity page includes a small table prompting students to list sensory data (sense, object, descriptive words), which asks them to organize observable details before composing and interpreting a poem.
Lesson 10
Poems and Poets
Students are asked to research a poet and country and prepare a one-page biographical sketch using presentation software or other digital tools. The Day 3 materials link to MyLifeElsewhere and state that students "may want to include one or more of the statistics in your presentation," explicitly encouraging use of country statistics (wealth, life expectancy, size) alongside qualitative biographical and cultural information. Students are directed to analyze poems for cultural references and to write a journal response connecting cultural/biographical research with poem meaning.
Unit 5: Nonfiction
Lesson 2
Pakistan
Students are directed to use the book together with web links (Wikipedia and the World Factbook) and the book's timeline to complete the Pakistan activity page. The lesson points students to the Wikipedia infobox/chart and the World Factbook language list to answer specific questions (Questions 3, 4, and 5). Question 5 explicitly asks students to compare the listed language percentages with the country's official languages, and the timeline is used to answer historical questions (Questions 2 and 7).
Lesson 3
The Taliban
Students encounter explicit quantitative data from UNESCO in the Homework section (e.g., 263 million out of school, 61 million elementary-aged, 758 million adults illiterate, two-thirds women). Students also analyze qualitative causes of educational barriers by reading the "10 Barriers to Education" article and listing and classifying each barrier on the Education Challenges worksheet using symbols for poverty, conflict, exclusion, and isolation. In the Option 2 activity, students may create slides that combine visual aids (maps, images) and text to communicate information about the Taliban and related contextual factors.
Lesson 5
Displacement
The Parent Plan lists as a skill: "Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words." In Option 1 students are directed to choose photos, write three assumptions based on the images, and "do some brief research about school conditions and educational opportunities" and "record information about challenges... and any notable statistics they find." Students produce a photo report (printable) combining pictures, written assumptions, and a first-person/third-person statement.
Lesson 8
Civil Rights
Students manipulate a tabular timeline (the "Civil Rights Overview" activity pages) by cutting out excerpts organized under year columns and arranging them in chronological order while reading the accompanying descriptions to understand steps forward and backward. Students watch documentary video clips and then record reflective answers in a journal, and they complete a two-column graphic organizer weighing reasons for and against children participating in the Birmingham march. The Parent Plan skills list explicitly names integrating content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as a learning goal.
Lesson 11
A Boy's Story
Students are asked to read the Chronology section (pp. 222-224) to learn who was involved in the war and how it progressed, and they are directed to find Sierra Leone on a map and use the map to track the author's movements. The Parent Plan explicitly lists the skill: "Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words." Students also watch an author interview (video) in addition to reading the print memoir.
Final Project
Expository Essay
Students are instructed to gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, including examples such as online data files or databases, and to evaluate the timeliness and credibility of statistics. They develop a thesis supported by three key facts, record sources, and are required to use quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing to integrate those facts into body paragraphs with in-text citations. The K-N-S chart and Audience/Purpose activities ask students to plan what they know, what they need, and which sources to consult, and the rubric requires facts to be backed by carefully researched sources.
2: Semester 2
Unit 1: Ender's Game
Lesson 1
Born to Genius
Students complete a "Your Views on the Issues" activity in which they rate their feelings on several topics on a 1–10 numeric scale before reading and are instructed to rate again after reading and discuss whether the novel influenced their feelings. The activity page includes a graphic scale and asks students to be prepared to discuss and explain their reasoning. Students also use Internet research to locate historical facts about the author's era for the "About the Author" activity.
Lesson 6
Performance Is Personal
Students choose qualitative criteria for evaluating commanders and then assign numeric scores (0–10) for each criterion, add the scores to produce final totals, and rank commanders on a leaderboard. The Competing Commanders student activity page explicitly provides columns for criteria, score entry, final score totals, and a leaderboard, requiring students to convert qualitative judgments into quantitative scores and display results in a table-like format.
Lesson 12
Campbell's Comparisons
Students complete a numerical survey (1–10 scale) on twelve thematic issues both before and after reading Ender's Game and record their ratings on the provided activity page. They are asked to compare their pre- and post-reading ratings and be prepared to discuss any changes, citing examples from the novel. Students also perform qualitative analysis by identifying six steps of Campbell's Hero's Journey and writing specific parallels between those steps and events in Ender's Game.
Final Project
Think-Tac-Toe
Students are asked to "look up NATO and the Warsaw Pact," color NATO countries blue and Warsaw Pact countries red on a world map activity page, and paste country boxes into the correct column, creating a technical/visual representation of historical alliances. After completing the map/chart task, students are instructed to list two key similarities and two key differences between the real Warsaw Pact and the fictional Second Warsaw Pact and to answer why the author might have used this historical reference. The activity therefore requires students to gather research data, organize it into a chart/map, and then produce written, interpretive responses.
Unit 3: Informational Texts
Lesson 1
What Are Informational Texts?
Students are directed in Activity 1 to locate and identify charts, graphs, diagrams, and other technical features in Outliers by checking off instances of these features. Activity 2 and the unit notes describe that Gladwell uses other researchers' studies and 'uncovers truths hidden in strange data,' and students watch a TED talk that links research findings (e.g., hypotheses about Goliath's vision) to interpretive conclusions. The homework on "The Roseto Mystery" asks students to explain researchers' questions, initial hypotheses (diet, genetics, region), and the researchers' ultimate conclusion that social structure explained health outcomes.
Lesson 2
Outliers
Students are asked to identify outliers on a number line and justify their reasoning (Question about the tenth number and the number-line activity). Students evaluate scenarios involving an unusual wingspan and a single high test score, prompting them to interpret numeric differences in context and decide whether they constitute outliers. In the homework, students note that many hockey players were born between January and March (a quantitative pattern) and explain how the cutoff-date difference leads to ongoing advantages (a qualitative causal explanation).
Lesson 3
The Matthew Effect
Students take the birth-month data from the Medicine Hat Tigers roster and reproduce it as a new chart (bar, pie, or pictograph), which requires counting and representing quantitative information visually. Students sketch or design a graphic to represent the TIMSS study findings (the 4–12 percentile advantage) from a paragraph, translating verbal quantitative description into visual form. Students answer questions and discuss the 10,000-hour rule and whether the author's charts effectively communicate the birthdate information, which asks them to relate numeric findings to qualitative explanation and judgment.
Lesson 4
The 10,000 Hour Rule
Students are asked in Getting Started to compute how many years 10,000 hours represents at a given weekly practice rate, which requires performing quantitative calculation and relating it to the qualitative idea of mastery. The Parent Plan explicitly lists the skill to "translate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text into visual form (e.g., a table or chart) and translate information expressed visually or mathematically (e.g., in an equation) into words." The homework asks students to take their notes about opportunities for The Beatles or Bill Gates and "communicate it in visual form" (flowchart, infographic, diagram), asking them to show how the example ties to the chapter's bigger ideas. The Parent Plan also notes that the chapter contains five pages of tables and lists, which students are expected to read as part of Sections 4–6.
Lesson 6
The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes
Students are asked to read and interpret a table comparing PDI, Individualism, and LTO scores for Sierra Leone, the United States, and South Korea and to "jot down some observations" linking those numeric scores to examples from A Long Way Gone. The lesson highlights a quantitative claim (Korean Air crashed at a rate 17 times higher than a typical American airline) and asks students to connect that pattern to qualitative explanations about communication and culture. Day 2 questions require students to explain Hofstede concepts (PDI, uncertainty avoidance) and relate those quantitative/technical measures to concrete examples from the chapter (language forms, cockpit behavior).
Lesson 7
Rice Paddies and Math Tests
Students are asked to translate quantitative or technical information into visual form as listed in the Skills section (e.g., a table or chart). The homework/miniproject requires students to produce a diagram or infographic that communicates a concept from the reading and suggests embedding quantitative elements (e.g., hours worked, test rankings) or digital media to clarify information. The lesson prompts students to note and compare numeric details in the text (for example, work hours per year for French vs. Chinese farmers and differences in counting systems).
Lesson 11
Technical Writing
Students are asked to create and insert an infographic or diagram (Activity 5) to clarify a step in their how-to guide and to paste that graphic into their final document (Activity 6). The Guide Checklist and several activity pages require inclusion of graphics/infographics and a Works Cited entry, and the hydroponics passage used in Activity 1 contains technical details (e.g., nutrient and potassium issues) that students annotate and reorganize. The homework and introduction prompt students to back up claims with outside sources (a statistic, quotation, or opinion) when writing their guide introduction.
Lesson 12
Logical Fallacies
The lesson explicitly defines logos as using "facts, examples, statistics, etc." to support ideas and asks students to note how speakers use logos (e.g., Gehrig's speech and the sample town-council speech where "The statistic shows how dangerous the problem is"). The text uses a concrete example about a politician citing an increase in youth deaths and teaches that "correlation is not causation," prompting students to question implied causal claims. Several activities require students to identify when speakers rely on facts or insufficient evidence (e.g., marking fallacies in speeches and researching hasty generalization and false dilemma).
Final Project
Argumentative Research Essay
Students are directed to collect facts, statistics, and specific examples (Part 4) and to find at least five high-quality sources (Day 2). They are required to adapt statistical data into charts or graphs with an accompanying explanation for the oral presentation (Day 7) and to find at least two visual aids, including charts and graphs, and cite their sources (Day 8). The lesson includes activities and a "Present the Evidence" sheet that ask students to record source quotes/ideas and write reflective responses tying evidence to their thinking, and homework videos teach how to spot misleading statistics and misleading graphs.
Unit 4: Drama
Lesson 3
Life and Times
The Parent Plan lists the skill "Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally." The Time in History section provides quantitative details (e.g., population increased from 15,000 to 41,000 during the Great Migration, about 60,000 African Americans moved to Chicago during WWII, and 751 fires were reported in one year) alongside descriptive historical text. Students are asked to watch a video on the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and to be ready to answer questions, and the full text of the Act is provided for reading.
Lesson 4
A Raisin in the Sun
Students are asked to look at an infographic/chart titled "Charted: Salary by Education Level in the United States" and the lesson text provides quantitative claims (e.g., soaring unemployment, average annual income of $14,000 in some neighborhoods, 25% not graduating from high school, over 700 murders in 2016). Students are also assigned videos and journal prompts that ask them to reflect on reasons for college attendance and whether college is necessary for success, connecting those reflections to Beneatha's decision to go to college and the play's themes.
Lesson 8
Shakespeare
Students are asked to use their book, a video, and web resources to create a "Shakespeare Timeline" that includes specific dates (e.g., birth, marriage, theatre opening/closing, death). The Student Activity Page provides a graphic organizer styled as a timeline with years marked 1560–1620 and labeled date boxes where students must annotate events. The homework instructs students to look up and include particular dates and facts and to cut and glue date boxes into chronological order, requiring them to place quantitative data (dates) alongside qualitative details (event descriptions).
Lesson 12
Time and Tension
Students are directed to use an online version of Romeo and Juliet and to search for specific time-related words (minute, hour, day, week, year, Wednesday, Thursday, to-night, to-morrow) and record how many times each word is mentioned. The Student Activity Page and Answer Key provide explicit counts (e.g., day -- 88 times, hour -- 26 times) and scene-specific prompts that ask students to link those counts to literary effect (for example, Scene 2 asks which time-related word Capulet uses 3 times and how that creates tension). Scene questions (Scene 1, Scene 3, Scene 5) require students to analyze how time references and their frequency contribute to suspense, foreshadowing, and pacing.
Lesson 13
Tragic Hero
Students complete a "Timeline and Character Development" chart that lists specific acts and scenes and records actions/events for chosen characters, providing a technical/graphic representation of plot information. They then use the completed chart to determine whether each character changes and to justify labeling the character as static or dynamic and as round or flat, which requires qualitative interpretation. The Pyramus and Thisbe activity uses a two-column comparison sheet that asks students to map elements from Ovid's excerpt to Romeo and Juliet, aligning structured (technical) note-taking with textual analysis.
Semester Exam
Semester Exam
Students are asked to analyze Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers in multiple items that reference quantitative claims (e.g., the 10,000-hour rule) and to consider charts, statistics, and endnotes when deciding whether the book is informational or persuasive (Discussion prompt F). Several questions ask students to explain Gladwell's cultural argument about plane crashes and to evaluate source credibility and differences between primary and secondary sources, which prompt consideration of research data and its interpretation. The exam materials explicitly mention that Outliers contains charts and statistics and ask students to weigh those features alongside rhetorical strategies (ethos, logos, pathos).
