Ninth Grade - ELA
1: Semester 1
Unit 1: Lord of the Flies
Lesson 1
The Call
Students begin reading Lord of the Flies, a work by British author William Golding, and are given background that Golding wrote the novel after World War II, connecting author experience to the text. Option 1 asks students to list two or more dystopian novels or films they have read or seen and to identify common settings, plot ideas, and central struggles, and the Wrapping Up asks students to consider how this novel's dystopian vision differs from more contemporary dystopias. Vocabulary and comprehension questions require students to engage closely with the text and its themes of leadership, survival, and human nature.
Lesson 2
Life on the Island
Students are given explicit background on 1940s British childhood (school routines, gendered lessons, values of orderliness) and are prompted to contrast that cultural world with life on the island. Students track characters with STEAL charts and record examples (speech, actions, looks, thoughts, effect on others) that show how the boys transfer or abandon British social norms. Discussion prompts and review questions ask students to consider how the boys' prior cultural training (English schoolboy training) influences leadership, power, and behavior on the island.
Lesson 3
Paths in the Jungle
The lesson defines omniscient and first-person narrators and asks students to compare them (Activity 2). Students choose a character from Lord of the Flies, answer questions from that character's point of view, and write a one-paragraph journal entry imagining the character's perceptions and emotional response. The wrapping-up prompts ask students to reflect on what they learned by shifting from omniscient narration to a first-person viewpoint.
Lesson 5
Not Hunting, But Hunted
Students read and work directly with Lord of the Flies (a work by a non-U.S. author) and examine specific excerpts about group behavior and leadership. The lesson asks students to consider questions such as "How does a society maintain order?" and "Are laws necessary?" and has two activities that require students to draft laws for the boys or create a system for adopting laws. The reading questions and teacher prompts direct students to think about world history and how societies have evolved, linking the novel's social dynamics to broader historical contexts.
Lesson 9
Symbolism, Part 2
Students are asked to complete an Allegory Analysis chart that prompts them to name what Ralph's tribe, Jack's tribe, Piggy, Simon, and the island might represent in society. The Parent Plan and answer key model mapping characters to political and social ideas (e.g., Ralph = democratic government, Jack = autocratic government; Piggy = rationalism; Simon = morality) and suggest the island could represent the world or a divided nation. Discussion prompts ask students to consider how the boys' actions may be representative of adult actions on a larger scale.
Lesson 10
Which Is Better?
Students are asked to write a one-page journal entry from a character's point of view analyzing Jack's leadership and how it contrasts with Ralph's leadership and the boys' pre-island (British) civilized life (Activity 2). The lesson repeatedly prompts students to compare the boys' cultural experience to early civilizations (Activity 1 and the Developing Civilization chart) and to consider Golding's views about civilization and savagery. The text explicitly notes the boys come from a "developed and highly regimented British society," which anchors cultural-context analysis in the work.
Unit 2: Short Stories
Lesson 2
The Necklace
Students are asked to identify the story's setting (Paris in the late 1800s) and to include the setting when writing an objective summary. Students analyze how characters, actions, and social/economic details (e.g., the Loisels' class position, debt, and social mobility) contribute to themes such as pride, vanity, and the consequences of debt. Discussion questions prompt students to consider the role of rigid social and economic structures in the characters' hardships and how characterization develops those themes.
Unit 4: Poetry
Lesson 7
Analyzing Poetry
Students annotate and explicate poems by non-U.S. authors such as Percy Bysshe Shelley (Ozymandias), Seamus Heaney (Blackberry-Picking), and William Blake (London), completing close-reading tasks like identifying speaker, tone, imagery, and allusion. Students use a poetry map to analyze speaker, symbols/allusions (with an explicit prompt to look up Bluebeard), and tone shifts, and they answer historical-context questions about Blake's portrayal of London. Students practice paraphrasing and citing word choice and imagery across these poems as part of their analysis.
Lesson 10
Poems and Poets
On Day 3 students choose a poet from a list of world authors (e.g., Chinua Achebe, Yehuda Amichai, Gcina Mhlophe, Kim Nam-Jo, Fatiha Morchid) and research the poet's country, language, and culture. Students prepare a one-page biographical sketch that must include the poet's country, language, and at least three cultural facts that may have influenced the poet. In Activity 4 students read two poems by the chosen poet, research unfamiliar references, and write a journal response summarizing the poem and explaining how cultural references enrich the poem or reveal the poet's culture.
Unit 5: Nonfiction
Lesson 1
Types of Nonfiction
Students read I Am Malala, a work originating outside the United States, and answer comprehension questions about cultural details (e.g., family life, the question asked by the attackers). The Student Activity Page asks students to identify whether the book is a memoir and to cite front/back matter (map, glossary, timeline, photos) as evidence that it is nonfiction. Students are prompted to note how characters, setting, and plot events contribute to theme and to compare themes, viewpoints, and character identity across books they considered. The Parent Plan lists the skill "Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text," which directs students to analyze point of view.
Lesson 2
Pakistan
Students read I Am Malala (Chapters 2–6) and answer questions that require them to describe cultural conditions (e.g., differences between mountain village and city life, girls' schooling, women's dress and literacy). Students research Pakistan using the book timeline and web links to identify historical, geographic, linguistic, and religious context (e.g., creation of Pakistan, official languages, geography, and wars with India). Students engage in short discussion prompts about cultural meanings and perspectives (e.g., why the earthquake chapter was titled "A Warning from God" and what the magic pencil symbolizes).
Lesson 3
The Taliban
Students read chapters of I Am Malala, a work from outside the United States, and answer questions about Malala's parents, attacks on schools, and why the Taliban oppose Western culture and education. Students research background material (the PBS article) and produce a paragraph or slideshow that explains where the Taliban are located, who composes them, what they believe/seek, and how their rule affected Pashtun people in the late 1990s. Discussion prompts and homework ask students to classify global barriers to education and connect those barriers to events and experiences described in I Am Malala.
Lesson 4
Dear Diary
Students read chapters 11–13 of I Am Malala, a work about life under the Taliban written outside the United States, and answer comprehension and reflective questions about Malala's experiences (e.g., how she felt giving speeches, why she and others spoke up, and how she began writing for the BBC). Discussion prompts ask students to consider why Malala's parents allowed her to speak and to think about how young people can advocate or protest injustices, which asks students to engage with Malala's cultural experience and perspective. The wrap-up notes that students will compare Malala's school to others around the world in a subsequent lesson, linking Malala's experience to broader contexts.
Lesson 5
Displacement
Students read Chapters 16–17 of I Am Malala, which describe Malala's experience of schooling in rural Shangla and invite comparison to her school in Mingora. In Activity 1 students examine photos of schools around the world, record assumptions about those schools, research local education challenges, and write short statements from the point of view of a pictured student. Discussion prompts ask students to compare the classroom pictures to U.S. schools and consider surprising cultural differences.
Lesson 6
A Day Like Any Other
Students read chapters of I Am Malala, a memoir from outside the United States, and answer comprehension questions about Malala's experiences and viewpoint. Students choose a decision Malala or her father made and use the APE strategy to Answer, Prove with quotations or examples from the text, and Extend with their own explanation or connection. Students respond in writing on the activity page and prepare to discuss whether those decisions were right, explicitly analyzing motivations and cultural circumstances (e.g., threats from the Taliban, attitudes toward girls' education).
Lesson 7
Life in England
Students read chapters of I Am Malala (a work set outside the United States) and answer comprehension questions about Malala's experience in England. In Activity 1, students watch a documentary segment and take notes comparing the filmmaker's perspective with Malala's account, including prompts about how the father's role, the filmmaker's focus, and impressions of Malala's mother differ. Discussion prompts ask students to consider how cultural customs (e.g., restrictions on the mother) might affect Malala in the future and to evaluate media influence on her story.
Lesson 10
Learning from the Past
Students read and annotate Elie Wiesel's speech "Hope, Despair, and Memory," complete comprehension and short-answer questions about his perspective on memory and Jewish tradition, and identify Wiesel's use of style, tone, and metaphor. In Activity 3 students skim the speech to find a universal truth and write a paragraph comparing Wiesel's statement with quotations from other human-rights advocates studied in the unit (Malala, MLK, or Thoreau). In Activity 4 students create a museum wall that links Wiesel's cultural experience and memory work to other activists, explaining the point they want to make.
Lesson 11
A Boy's Story
The Parent Plan explicitly lists the target skill of analyzing a particular point of view or cultural experience in a work from outside the United States. Students read the memoir A Long Way Gone, read the chronology of Sierra Leone, watch an author interview, and answer questions that ask how the violence affected the author's culture and why the author wanted to explain those effects. Students are also asked to compare the memoir's style to I Am Malala, prompting cross-text consideration of another non-U.S. perspective.
Lesson 12
Running from War
Students answer questions that require identifying cultural norms in the text (for example, explaining why the author is disgusted by the rebels' treatment of an elderly man because his culture requires respect for elders). Students discuss cultural practices and experiences from the book (e.g., why boys bring brooms to hide footprints, dancing and music convincing a chief of innocence, and the recruitment of young boys by rebels). Activities ask students to reflect on the author's point of view about memory and trauma by choosing whether dreams or memories are more traumatic and by evaluating the believability of the author's explanation for his memory.
Lesson 13
Child Soldier
Students compare and contrast Beah's written account with a short video of the author in the "Different Accounts" activity, answering questions about whether the boys were forced to fight, what they think of commanders, why they were given drugs, and the effect of war movies. Students analyze cultural details such as the role of rap music in Beah's life and its symbolic meaning using the "Role of Rap" activity and homework prompts. Students evaluate the memoir's perspective and reliability by writing a journal response about the controversy over Beah's accuracy and considering how trauma or context might shape his point of view.
Lesson 14
Rehabilitation
Students read A Long Way Gone, a memoir set outside the United States, and answer questions about Beah's experiences as a child soldier and his transition to civilian life. In Activity 1 students compare the lieutenant's speech and the RUF child's account (p. 123 and p. 134) to analyze competing points of view about who is responsible for atrocities. The skills list and activities direct students to determine an author's point of view and to apply Elie Wiesel's quoted reflections to Beah's memoir, prompting analysis of cultural experience and perspective.
Lesson 15
A New Life
Students are asked to compare two memoirs written by authors from outside the United States (I Am Malala and A Long Way Gone) and to answer guided questions about education, themes, style, and the authors' purposes. The lesson's Skill statements explicitly direct students to "Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text" and to "Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how an author uses rhetoric to advance that point of view or purpose." The Comparing Memoirs activity includes targeted prompts about how education is addressed in each memoir and asks students to evaluate the effectiveness of each author's rhetoric and style for their audiences.
Final Project
Expository Essay
Students are asked to choose a topic inspired by a work they read in the unit and may use that work as one of their three research sources (the lesson explicitly mentions Malala's memoir and suggests topics like the history of Pakistan or girls' access to schooling). The Parent Plan lists that students should "Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research," and activity pages prompt students to locate appropriate sources and cite them. Students practice relating a literary-inspired topic to factual research, develop a thesis about that topic, and incorporate quotes, paraphrases, and summaries from sources into an expository essay.
Semester Exam
Semester Exam
Students are asked to explain why the Taliban wanted to kill Malala Yousafzai (Part IV questions) and to explain how Malala Yousafzai and Ishmael Beah have used their experiences to try to improve others' lives (Nonfiction review guidance). The exam prompts ask students to discuss the controversy about accuracy in A Long Way Gone and how the memoir genre matters (Part IV, option B). Students are also asked to reflect on authors' transparency about the horrors of war using texts from the Nonfiction unit (Part IV, option E), which draws directly on non-U.S. authors like Beah, Malala, and Wiesel.
2: Semester 2
Unit 1: Ender's Game
Lesson 2
We're People, Not Thirds
Students are asked to explore the significance of being a "Third" by creating a collage that connects the novel's concept of "three" to society, history, and literature, and to discuss dehumanization (e.g., "We're people, not Thirds"). Students can choose to research eugenics and record ten facts, and they brainstorm religious, environmental/ethical, personal/financial, and governmental/legal reasons for family planning, including references to one-child/two-child policies and compulsory sterilization. Students answer discussion questions that prompt analysis of characters' perspectives (e.g., why Peter says "I'm sorry, I know how it feels").
Lesson 7
Leaders Motivate
Students read background material on John Locke and Demosthenes and watch a short presentation, then write a journal entry explaining why the character Peter adopted the pen names "Locke" and "Demosthenes." Students complete a quote-matching activity and then select three novel characters to match with quotes, explaining how each quote applies to that character's point of view or actions. The parent notes explicitly state students learned about Locke and Demosthenes and wrote a short theory connecting those historical perspectives to the characters' rhetorical strategies.
Final Project
Think-Tac-Toe
Students identify and compare conflicts in Ender's Game and in George Eliot's Silas Marner by labeling scenarios with conflict types and comparing how similar conflicts manifest across stories. Students research NATO and the Warsaw Pact and then list similarities and differences between the historical Warsaw Pact and the fictional Second Warsaw Pact, and answer why the author might have used that historical reference. Several Think-Tac-Toe tasks ask students to compare leadership styles, rewrite passages from a different narrative perspective, and situate the novel in historical context.
Unit 3: Informational Texts
Lesson 6
The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes
Students read and analyze Malcolm Gladwell's chapter about Korean and Colombian pilots and answer guided questions about how cultural values (e.g., Power Distance Index, mitigated speech) contributed to events. They are asked to journal predictions about the ethnic/cultural issue, read a critical blog and Gladwell's response, and complete activities evaluating Gladwell's claims using textual evidence. The lesson explicitly asks students to compare Hofstede scores for Sierra Leone, the United States, and South Korea and to 'think back' to their first-semester reading of A Long Way Gone to note how cultural dimensions appear in that book.
Lesson 7
Rice Paddies and Math Tests
Students read multiple sections (pp. 224-249) about Chinese rice farming and counting and answer targeted questions asking how rice cultivation differs from other crops, what "rice is life" means, and why Chinese number words are shorter and more logical. Students practice and demonstrate understanding of the Chinese counting system through an activity that has them take notes, explain the system, or memorize and produce Mandarin numbers aloud. Students create an infographic relating concepts from the chapter (e.g., why Asian students learn to count faster, rice farming steps, or the 10,000-hour rule) that requires them to identify and represent cultural practices and their effects on learning and behavior.
Unit 4: Drama
Lesson 8
Shakespeare
Students read background material on Shakespeare and Romeo and Juliet and use an activity sheet to analyze a passage (identify speaker, meaning, actions, desires; visualize the scene; and summarize in their own words). The materials prompt students to "consider how the passage relates to the play's theme and its impact on the storyline" and ask questions about how Shakespeare's life (living in London and a small town, historical events like the plague) affected his writing. Students also research biographical and historical context by creating a timeline of Shakespeare's life using multiple sources.
Lesson 9
Romeo and Juliet
Students read Act I of Romeo and Juliet and answer scene-by-scene journal prompts that require summarizing key events. Students research and respond to questions about Italian Renaissance marriage customs using the provided "Weddings and Dowries" web resource and imagine Juliet's wedding (who would attend, what they would wear, pros/cons). Students investigate performance culture by watching Globe Theatre videos and answering questions about acting conditions, audience experience, and staging.
Lesson 10
Figurative Language
Students read Romeo and Juliet (Acts II–VI excerpts) and complete homework and journal prompts that ask them to think about arranged marriage and how Juliet's situation (being 13 and having her father arrange her marriage) compares to modern expectations. Students fill out a "Spouse Survey: Student" and compare it with a "Spouse Survey: Parent," noting similarities and differences and discussing surprising responses. Journal questions ask students to compare characters and situations from the play to their own lives and to imagine what they would say to Romeo as Friar Lawrence, which prompts consideration of cultural practices around marriage.
Lesson 13
Tragic Hero
Students read excerpts of Ovid's "Pyramus and Thisbe" and complete an activity explicitly comparing that story to Romeo and Juliet, noting similarities in plot and tragic outcomes. Students complete a "Pyramus and Thisbe Excerpt" worksheet that asks them to record parallels between the two works. The parent plan and skills statements instruct students to analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material (Shakespeare's use of Ovid).
Lesson 14
Modern Retelling
Students watch and compare William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (a work originating outside the United States) in two productions: Baz Luhrmann's 1996 film and a Globe Theatre performance. Students take guided notes on specific differences in how characters are portrayed, major changes from the original play, use of setting, and use of color. Students are asked to write a three-paragraph analysis using specific examples from both productions and to explain the significance or effect of those differences.
Final Project
Drama
Students are asked to research Renaissance-era costumes and consider the symbolism of colors and designs for each family when creating costume pages, which requires connecting clothing choices to historical culture. The podcast option asks students to tell a scene from a particular point of view (e.g., a witness on the street or an interview with a character), prompting students to adopt and present a narrative perspective. The news-site and set-design projects ask students to choose dates or time periods around Shakespeare's era and to justify design decisions, encouraging attention to historical context and cultural setting.
Semester Exam
Semester Exam
Students are asked to compare Romeo and Juliet with the myth of Pyramus and Thisbe in a multiple-choice item and to use Romeo and Juliet as the basis for a sustained discussion (Part IV, question E) where they must defend a position and cite specific details. The discussion prompts ask students to analyze thematic elements and character perspectives across works (e.g., comparing thematic elements and character perspectives in Ender's Game and Romeo and Juliet). A short-answer item asks students to identify cultural factors Malcolm Gladwell cites in Outliers, showing attention to cultural analysis in at least one unit.