Ninth Grade - ELA
1: Semester 1
Unit 1: Lord of the Flies
Lesson 1
The Call
Students practice determining word meanings by using vocabulary activity pages that require them to match words (incredulous, errant, furtive, susurration, sepals, decorum, discursive, leviathan) to definitions and to quotations from Lord of the Flies. Students use contextual quotations from the novel and accompanying images to infer meanings and fill in vocabulary grids or cut-and-paste matching activities. The Parent Plan and Skills list explicitly direct students to determine meanings of words and phrases, including figurative and connotative meanings, and to review those vocabulary terms as they read.
Lesson 3
Paths in the Jungle
Students are instructed to mark words they don't understand, look them up, and re-read sentences replacing unknown words with definitions, which asks them to determine word meanings in context. Annotation guidance tells students to circle key terms or words they need to define and to use notes and margin comments to track comprehension. Students practice these skills while reading and annotating the assigned article and filling in an organizer about the author's thesis and supporting points.
Lesson 4
Images from Paradise
The Parent Plan explicitly lists the skill: students will "determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone." The Things to Know and introductory paragraphs define imagery and tone and give examples of Golding's word choices and their effects. Activity 1 directs students to copy quotations, note whether descriptions are positive or negative, explain how each serves as imagery, and classify each example as "paradise" or "dystopia," which asks students to connect word choice to tone and connotation.
Lesson 7
Bowed and Bowed Again
The lesson provides specific examples of evocative phrases from Lord of the Flies ("ill-balanced twister," "darkish figure against the shimmer of the lagoon," "a kind of dentist's chair unreality") and tells students these examples "show how well-crafted phrases create vivid images for the reader." Students are asked to identify and label phrase types (noun, verb, adjective, adverb, absolute, prepositional) and to bracket prepositional phrases in sentences from the text. The parent/skills section also lists analyzing how an author's structural choices create effects (mystery, tension, surprise), connecting language choices to effect.
Lesson 8
Defects of Human Nature
Students practice determining word meanings by matching bolded words from Lord of the Flies to definitions using a definition bank (Vocabulary Option 1) and by filling blanks from a word bank using contextual clues (Vocabulary Option 2). The activities list specific challenging words (e.g., incredulity, guano, theological, propitiatingly, ululation, luxuriance, illusive) and ask students to choose or supply meanings based on sentence context.
Lesson 10
Which Is Better?
The lesson provides explicit definitions of "civilizations" and "savagery" in the "Things to Know" and repeated Parent Plan sections, asking students to review these components (technical meanings). The lesson includes direct quotations from the novel (Ralph's assembly speech and Piggy's question) that students read and that are cited in activities and discussion prompts. Students are asked to analyze aspects of Jack's leadership versus Ralph's in a required one-page journal entry and to compare the boys' situation with early civilizations on the Developing Civilization activity page.
Final Project
Now You Have the Conch
The unit includes a vocabulary section on the unit test (Part II) where students match words such as furtive, susurration, and discursive to definitions. Brainstorming and guided-outline pages ask students to find passages, write down key phrases or sentences, and provide explanations of their relevance. Essay organizer and outline activities require students to include specific examples and quotes from the text and explain how those examples support their points.
Unit 2: Short Stories
Lesson 1
The Gift of the Magi
Students are asked to annotate the texts, marking "words or phrases that seem important" and to note mood, narrative techniques, and character traits in sample annotations. Students research and write about the allusions (the Magi, Queen of Sheba, King Solomon) and explain how those references contribute to their understanding of the story. Students are prompted to identify descriptive language and specific words (for example, "shabby" and "beggar") when discussing how O. Henry indicates economic status.
Lesson 3
Literary Response
The brainstorming activity explicitly asks students to note that "The two stories use hyperbole" and to consider "the use of irony," prompting students to find specific examples or quotations that illustrate these figurative devices. Multiple activities require students to collect quotations from the texts, use the APE method to "Prove" and "Extend," and explain how their evidence supports analytical points. The rubric and prompts ask students to explain how evidence supports points and to analyze similarities such as how the stories communicate poverty and narrator voice, which can involve attention to authors' language choices.
Lesson 5
Edgar Allan Poe
Students are asked to locate examples of foreshadowing in the text, and the teacher notes explicitly that foreshadowing can occur through metaphors and repetition (e.g., the "watch enveloped in cotton" metaphor and the repeated words "heart"/"beat"). The Parent Plan supplies text excerpts for students to analyze (the heightened hearing passage, the vulture-like eye, and the watch metaphor) and directs students to record how these language choices foreshadow events. Questions about point of view, irony, and the narrator's language (claims of sanity) require students to attend to how specific phrases reveal character perspective and reliability.
Lesson 6
The Lottery
Students are asked to use close reading to examine descriptive passages (for example, the story's sunny opening) and to note how that language evokes positivity and contrasts with the ending. Students complete a worksheet that requires recording physical descriptions of the black box and noting how characters react to it, which directs attention to connotative and descriptive language in the text. The Parent Plan skills also state that students will "apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts," implying some focus on language use.
Lesson 7
Everyday Use
Students are asked to explain the significance of the title "Everyday Use" (Question #5), which requires them to interpret a phrase in context and connect it to character actions and theme. In Activity 2, students rewrite a scene from another character's point of view and then reflect on how the change alters feeling and meaning, which asks them to attend to voice and language choices. Activity 3 and the symbolism tasks have students describe how characters' dress, actions, and objects (e.g., quilts) symbolize ideas, prompting attention to connotative and symbolic meanings of words and items in the text.
Lesson 9
Dialogue
Students are asked to re-read sections of dialogue from selected short stories and to refer to specific lines or sections of dialogue to support their analysis (Activity 2). The journal prompt directs students to consider what the dialogue reveals about characters, how dialogue affects pacing, and how a scene would differ without the dialogue. The Parent Plan and Activities require students to cite textual evidence and to quote lines (sample paragraph includes a quoted line) to support their points.
Final Project
Writing a Short Story
The "Show, Don't Tell" section directs students to use sensory details, concrete words, and poetic language and contrasts Shirley Jackson's vivid opening with a bland version to illustrate how specific wording creates meaning and mood. The Parent Plan and rubric require students to use "precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language" and evaluate "Descriptive Language & Literary Devices," prompting students to consider how word choice supports meaning. The revision and reader-review activities ask students to revise wording and ask reviewers whether descriptive language contributes to the story's meaning, and examples from Maupassant are used to show how descriptive choices highlight theme.
Unit 3: Grammar, Part I
Lesson 2
Subject-Verb Agreement
Students read explicit explanations that distinguish commonly confused word pairs (e.g., a/an rule, a lot/alot/allot, accept/except, affect/effect, advice/advise) and are instructed to record notes and examples on the "Commonly Confused Words" activity pages. Students complete sentence-level exercises where they must circle the correct word in context (Commonly Confused Words sets and Subject-Verb Agreement pages) and check answers against an answer key. The lesson gives direct categorical guidance about word function (for example, "Affect is a Verb; Effect is a Noun") that students use to decide meaning and usage in sentences.
Lesson 4
Commas
Students read explicit definitions and tips for commonly confused words (e.g., allusion/illusion, alter/altar, all together/altogether) and are instructed to record notes and examples. Students complete practice sentences where they must circle or insert the correct word in context (ten-item activity and answer key show correct contextual choices). The lesson also names "allusion" as a literary device, connecting a word's usage to its literary function.
Lesson 7
Spelling
Students read explicit explanations of commonly confused words (e.g., carat/karat/caret/carrot; cite/sight/site; compliment/complement; council/counsel) and are instructed to record notes and examples. Students practice determining which word fits by circling the correctly used word in multiple context sentences on activity pages. Students create and use detective cards where they say a word, spell it aloud, write it, and check the correct form, reinforcing meaning through contextual use.
Final Project
Wrapping Up
Students answer multiple-choice and fill-in items that require them to choose correct words in context (Part II: Commonly Confused Words, items 6–12) and to correct misuse of words on the unit test. Students may create a short quiz using commonly confused words (Mini-Project Option 2) and must explain missed words to a quiz-taker, which requires them to justify word choice. The unit also asks students to refer to their "Commonly Confused Words" pages when composing and assessing sentences, reinforcing context-based word meaning and usage.
Unit 4: Poetry
Lesson 1
Introduction to Poetry
Students identify and mark words that communicate meaning in poems (Activity 2: students mark words in "Richard Cory" and underline words in an Emily Dickinson poem). They record denotations and connotations, list similar words, and explain why the original word is more or less effective (Denotation and Connotation student activity page). For homework, students mark a poem for important/attention-grabbing/unusual words and answer questions that ask why selected words with strong positive/negative connotations are effective.
Lesson 2
Sound and Rhythm
Students identify and label sound-based figurative devices (alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia) in multiple poems and phrases and mark them with colored pencils. Students write short responses explaining why a particular repetition is effective and reflect in journals on how rhyme and rhythm affect the reader. Students compare the first and last stanzas of "The Tyger" and note the single-word change (Could → Dare) and discuss its effect on meaning/tone. Scansion and meter activities ask students to describe what the poem's rhythm sounds like and what effect that rhythm has.
Lesson 3
Figurative Language
Students are asked to read poems (e.g., "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," "To His Coy Mistress," "Fire and Ice") and identify examples of figurative language, listing stanza/line numbers and explaining similes, metaphors, personification, symbolism, and imagery. Activity prompts and answer keys require students to explain how devices work (e.g., overstatement emphasizes value; understatement contrasts with violence) and to note which senses imagery appeals to. The Parent Plan explicitly states students will "determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone."
Lesson 4
Voice and Tone
Students are asked to identify words or phrases that convey tone in multiple poems and to record those words on activity charts (e.g., for "Afternoon on a Hill," "Those Winter Sundays," and "Yesterday"). Students analyze specific language features that contribute to tone, such as repeated words, sensory images, and the use of dashes in Frost's "The Fear," and they are asked to explain how those features create an eerie or fearful tone. The Parent Plan and activities explicitly prompt students to consider figurative elements in an optional challenge (e.g., the phrase "sexual seeds") and to compare how word choice sets formal or informal tone.
Lesson 5
What Does It Mean?
Students are prompted to look up unfamiliar words and write brief summaries, which supports determining word meanings in context. Students practice distinguishing literal and figurative/connotative meanings and identifying extended metaphor and symbolism (e.g., analyzing who the captain and ship represent in "O Captain! My Captain!"). Students analyze tone and imagery (questions ask what images the poem evokes and what tone(s) are present) and identify allusions (Activity 2 and related questions).
Lesson 6
Fooling with Words
The Getting Started section tells students to "listen for some things you have learned thus far like metaphors and allusions or literal versus figurative language," prompting attention to figurative language. The Parent Plan lists as a skill to "Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings," which signals student practice with nuances. The wrap-up and discussion questions ask students to compare listening and reading and to note common threads in writing, encouraging reflection on language and delivery.
Lesson 7
Analyzing Poetry
Students are instructed to annotate words and phrases and to write comments on connotation, imagery, and tone (Activity 1 and the annotation guidelines). Explication and the Poetry Map direct students to examine word choice and to record effects on meaning and tone (Activity 2, Word Choice and Tone boxes). The Parent Plan explicitly lists the skill: determine meanings including figurative and connotative meanings and analyze cumulative impact of specific word choices (e.g., how language evokes time/place or sets tone).
Lesson 8
Types of Poems
Students are asked to identify figures of speech (e.g., find the apostrophe in Whitman's "A Noiseless Patient Spider") and to include at least two literary devices (simile/metaphor, personification, apostrophe) in their free-verse writing. Students analyze tone and the effect of comparisons in Billy Collins's poem (questions: "What point does Collins keep making?" and "How does comparing the 17-year-old to famous achievers make the poem humorous?"). Students consider how dialect affects understanding of Paul Laurence Dunbar's "The Spellin'-Bee" and are asked to define a challenging vocabulary word (pulchritudinous) from The Crossover.
Lesson 9
The Crossover
Students complete a vocabulary activity that asks them to compare the book's in-text definitions with dictionary definitions and to explain how the book's method aids understanding. Students may write their own vocabulary poem mirroring the author's "As in:" sentences, using people and events from their lives to define a word. In homework Option 1, students analyze how the word "crossover" changes meaning across specific poems and judge whether using the word in different ways is effective. The introduction and prompts ask students to "note how the poet uses words and patterns to bring the world of the boys to life."
Lesson 10
Poems and Poets
The Parent Plan explicitly instructs students to "determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone." The Student "Poetry Map" requires students to record Word Choice, Other Figurative Language, Tone, and to paraphrase and identify theme, which directs students to analyze how language contributes to meaning and tone. Activity 4 asks students to research cultural references and write a journal response explaining how those references enrich the poem, and Day 2/Wrap-Up questions ask students to consider how spacing, translation, and word choices affect rhythm, meaning, and tone.
Lesson 11
Reciting Poetry
The Parent Plan explicitly lists determining the meaning of words and phrases, including figurative and connotative meanings, and analyzing the impact of word choices on meaning and tone as a skill to be practiced. Homework directs students to mark unfamiliar words and look up their meanings and pronunciations, determine the speaker and tone, and "consider why the poet chose to use certain words," illustrated by the Housman example ("chaired" and "shoulder-high") that asks students to analyze how word choice creates strong images. Students are also instructed to focus on meaning over rhythm, mark pauses, and use imaginative focus to picture the poem's images, which ties word-level choices to performance and tone.
Final Project
Poetry
The Parent Plan explicitly directs students to "determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone." The Poetry Explication project requires students to identify figurative language, notable word choice, repetition, and the poem's tone and to highlight words that communicate tone. The unit test includes a short-answer question asking students to explain the difference between denotation and connotation, and annotation/close-reading tasks appear in test and activity guidance.
Unit 5: Nonfiction
Lesson 1
Types of Nonfiction
The Parent Plan explicitly lists the skill: "Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone." The Student Activity Page has a vocabulary study that asks students to look up and write definitions for the terms biography, autobiography, and memoir in their own words. The homework directs students to consult the book's glossary for any unfamiliar terms while reading I Am Malala.
Lesson 4
Dear Diary
The Parent Plan Skills section explicitly states that students will "interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone." The paraphrasing activity asks students to choose synonyms, "be sure that the replacement words mean the same thing," and to "look up any words you don't know," and students analyze given paraphrases for accuracy and wording. The Student Activity Page has students evaluate paraphrases for copied phrasing and accuracy and produce their own paraphrases of quoted passages.
Lesson 5
Displacement
Students are asked in Question #1 to define the acronym IDP and explain its meaning as "internally displaced persons," which requires determining the technical meaning of a term in context. Option 2 refers to Malala describing the Khushal School bus as a "white truck" and directs students to look at the pictured truck, providing a link between a phrase in the text and an image. Several comprehension questions ask students to explain events and details from the chapters, which requires attention to worded information in the text.
Lesson 8
Civil Rights
Students read substantial primary texts (Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail," Frederick Douglass excerpt, poems by Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou) and answer guided questions about persuasive arguments and steps of nonviolent campaigns. Students identify historical figures and allusions King references ("People of the Past" activity) and underline/explain portions of King's letter in a double-entry diary, which requires interpreting King's language and reasoning. Students also read poems and write about how each author's work speaks to the African-American experience, engaging with authors' word choices at a thematic level.
Lesson 10
Learning from the Past
Students are asked to look up and define specific vocabulary (e.g., xenophobia, Auschwitz, nationalism) and to annotate the speech, noting definitions of words they need to look up. Students are prompted to identify and provide examples of figurative language (the parent plan asks for a metaphor Wiesel uses) and to rewrite key quotes in their own words, demonstrating attention to meaning in context. Activities ask students to "notice the style and tone" Wiesel uses and to explain why he mentions phrases like "lovers of art and poetry," which requires interpretation of word choice and its effect.
Lesson 11
A Boy's Story
Students are asked to interpret words and phrases: the Parent Plan explicitly lists interpreting words and phrases (including technical, connotative, and figurative meanings) as a skill target. Students complete a vocabulary activity in which they write initial definitions, look up dictionary meanings and record them in their own words, and fill in sentences from the book using those words. Students are instructed to note and track initialisms, acronyms, and italicized foreign terms and to compare the book's style to I Am Malala, which prompts attention to differences in language use.
Lesson 13
Child Soldier
Students are asked to determine the nature of the "white tablets" from context (Day 2, Q1), inferring they are stimulants and probably methamphetamine. Students complete a "Role of Rap" activity that asks whether music could serve as a symbol, prompting consideration of figurative meaning. Students complete a "Different Accounts" activity comparing how the book and a video present topics, which asks them to note differences between the two accounts.
Lesson 14
Rehabilitation
Students are asked to interpret specific word choice in Chapter 16 when they explain why Beah says he "needed" guns and drugs instead of "wanted," which targets connotative meaning. The lesson provides a technical definition of the Geneva Conventions and "non-combatants," giving students practice determining technical meanings of terms. Students analyze rhetorical language when they evaluate the lieutenant's speech and the repetition of phrases like "None of these things are your fault," and they choose and explain which of Wiesel's quotations best applies to Beah's memoir, citing textual evidence.
Lesson 15
A New Life
Students are asked to compare authors' use of rhetoric and writing style and to choose adjectives (e.g., conversational, literary, descriptive) to describe each author's style. The Student Activity Page directs students to look at specific scenes (for example, Malala's shooting vs. Beah's rebel attack) to see how they are presented differently. The Parent Plan lists skills including determining an author's point of view or purpose and analyzing how an author uses rhetoric to advance that point of view.
Semester Exam
Semester Exam
Students are asked to identify and analyze figurative language and poetic devices in multiple places (Day 2 poetry review, Part VI poem analysis asks for metaphor, personification, sound devices, and tone). Students are asked directly to explain the difference between denotation and connotation (Part III, question 4) and to paraphrase and correctly integrate quotations (Part V), which requires attending to word-level meaning. The Parent Plan also lists that students should "demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings."
2: Semester 2
Unit 1: Ender's Game
Lesson 2
We're People, Not Thirds
The Parent Plan explicitly lists the skill: determining meanings of words and phrases (including figurative and connotative meanings) and analyzing the cumulative impact of word choices on meaning and tone. Students complete a vocabulary matching activity that asks them to pair words (e.g., invective, impassively, ascetic, feint) with precise definitions, practicing word-meaning identification. A discussion question asks why Stilson would say, "We're people, not Thirds," which prompts students to consider dehumanizing language and its connotative impact on tone.
Lesson 3
Science Fiction
Students are given explicit definitions of terms such as "romanticization" and "anachronism," and they fill in blanks and match statements that require identifying those terms in context. The activity asks students to decide whether scenarios are science fiction or fantasy and to classify descriptions as hard or soft science fiction, which requires attending to technical meanings. The Questions to Discuss section presents Graff's quoted pronouncements and prompts students to evaluate his language and intent, inviting analysis of persuasive word choices and tone.
Lesson 4
Divergence
Students are asked to write a definition of "science fiction" and to match terms (soft science fiction, hard science fiction, anachronism, romanticization) to examples, which requires determining meanings of genre-specific terms. Students answer a homework question interpreting the figurative contrast "Ender's anger is cold...Bonzo's was hot," which asks them to determine the meaning of a figurative phrase in context. Students are prompted to discuss why the author used the n-word in Chapter 6, engaging them in considering the connotative impact of a specific word choice.
Lesson 5
Movement and Time
Students are asked in the "Words in Motion" activity to conduct a careful close reading of an action sequence and to "pay close attention to the way [Card] communicates motion through words." Students practice narrating movements using "strong descriptive phrases" (optional Step 5) and are prompted to notice verbs and descriptive language that create motion. The activity explicitly directs students to focus on how language produces visual and kinetic effects in a scene.
Lesson 6
Performance Is Personal
Students review specific vocabulary words (puerile, invective) listed for homework and are prompted to discuss charged words used in the text (the lesson raises the question about the author's use of the slur and the n-word). The Text Structure activity asks students to cite and explain how the opening conversations create tension and stylistically differ from the main text, and the Parent Plan supplies quoted lines from the novel that students can analyze for tone.
Lesson 7
Leaders Motivate
Students complete activities that require interpreting quoted phrases (the "Complete the Thought" matching task) and then apply those quotes to characters, which asks them to explain why a quote fits a character. Students read background material on John Locke and Demosthenes and write a journal entry reflecting on why Peter and Valentine adopt those rhetorical personas, which involves analyzing persuasive language and purpose. The Things to Know section defines key terms (power, authority, leadership), giving students explicit word meanings to use in discussion.
Lesson 9
Conflict Within and Without
Students are asked to interpret the Latin phrase "Veni, vidi, vici," learn its literal meaning, and write one- to two-paragraph journal entries speculating why the author chose this allusion and how it foreshadows plot developments. The Veni, vidi, vici activity explicitly asks students to consider contemporary connotation (smugness, social power) and to identify moments in the text where the phrase's tone could apply. The student activity page also requires students to write paragraphs describing how identified conflicts impact relationships, plot development, and character change, which asks students to make inferences from textual language and events.
Lesson 10
View from Valentine
Students are asked to review and learn explicit vocabulary definitions (dirigible, albedo, ascetic, impassively, feint) before reading and again in the review section, so they practice determining technical meanings. The Parent Plan notes a skill of assessing how point of view or purpose shapes content and style, and students are asked to consider how narration from third-person omniscient affects the story. The acrostic activity requires students to select words tied to characters or to craft sentences from chosen initial letters, giving practice in deliberate word selection.
Lesson 11
Thud, Whump, Huut
The lesson explicitly defines and asks students to review the term onomatopoeia (Things to Know; Things to Review). Students are asked to compare book text to a movie or comic adaptation and to "take notes on the differences," specifically noting what information or dialogue was omitted or changed in the film (Option 1) and listing omitted or changed narration/dialogue in the comic activity (Option 2). The comic activity directs students to decide whether Marvel "communicate[d] through pictures the message of the omitted words," which requires evaluating the effect of omitted words.
Final Project
Think-Tac-Toe
Students complete a vocabulary section that asks them to use the word "invective" in a sentence, define a polyglot, and choose the correct word (puerile, ascetic, dirigible) to fit sentences, which requires determining word meanings and appropriate usage. The acrostic puzzle and answer key require knowledge of literary and technical terms (e.g., onomatopoeia, anachronism, convergent/divergent), so students must identify and apply those word meanings. The Parent Plan explicitly states that students will "determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings," linking the activities to the skill of word-meaning determination.
Unit 2: Grammar, Part II
Lesson 2
Capitalization and Numbers
Students read explicit explanations and tips for commonly confused word pairs (e.g., envelop/envelope pronunciation, everyday/every day usage, fewer/less rule) and record notes and examples on activity pages. Students complete a fill-in-the-blank letter using a provided word bank, choosing each word based on contextual cues and then check their answers against an answer key. Students are asked to review word groups, revisit missed items, and add their own examples to reinforce differences in meaning and usage.
Lesson 3
Sentence Fragments and Run-on Sentences
Students practice precise word meanings and usage through multiple 'Commonly Confused Words' activities requiring correct use of pairs such as foreword/forward, good/well, hear/here, and imply/infer. Students must write a 1–2 page narrative that uses all target words correctly and naturally and explicitly "show the difference" between word pairs. The lesson text includes explicit notes about connotation/formality (for example, the discussion that the informal sense of "hopefully" meaning "I hope" is considered informal) and guidance distinguishing adjective/adverb roles for good/well.
Lesson 4
Modifier Errors
Students practice choosing correct words in context in the "Commonly Confused Words, Set XI" activity (fill-in-the-blanks, word sorting, and spot-the-fake) and consult explanatory tips for pairs like peak/peek/pique and passed/past. Students identify and rewrite sentences with misplaced and dangling modifiers in the "Modifier Problems" activity and correct sample answers that show how moving or rewording modifiers changes sentence meaning. Homework and Option 2 require students to analyze and create sentences that show how adverb placement (only, almost, just, nearly, etc.) alters meaning, and Option 2 requires creating a quiz that includes at least one misplaced adverb error.
Lesson 5
Hyphens and Apostrophes
Students read about commonly confused word pairs (pore/pour, principle/principal, quiet/quite, sit/set) and complete a cloze story where they must choose the correct word from context. Explanations and notes define word meanings and parts of speech (e.g., principle is a noun; principal can be an adjective) and a chart shows verb forms for sit/set. In the hyphens activity, students explain how hyphen placement changes sentence meaning and rewrite sentences (e.g., small animal surgeons vs. small-animal surgeons; two-hundred-year-old vs. two hundred year-old).
Lesson 6
Word Choice
Students practice determining precise meanings for commonly confused words (e.g., stationery/stationary, than/then) and learn rules for restrictive vs. nonrestrictive clauses (that vs. which). Students identify and "translate" clichés, cross out redundant phrases, and rewrite wordy sentences to clearer forms. In the College Essay Editor activity, students revise a draft to replace vague, clichéd, or weak word choices with specific, vivid language and consider formal vs. informal registers.
Lesson 8
Parallelism
The lesson provides explicit instruction on commonly confused words, including definitions and parts of speech (e.g., there is an adverb, their is a possessive adjective, they're is a contraction) and detailed guidance on to/too/two uses (preposition/infinitive, adverb, number). Students are directed to choose the correct word in contextual sentences on activity pages (the Hidden Plan Puzzle and the Terrible Advice Column) and to "figure out how they are used in the sentence to confirm the correct spelling." The activities require students to write corrections in context and decode or correct passages, giving repeated practice determining word meaning by usage.
Final Project
Wrapping Up
Students are asked to create an Explanatory Guide that can "translate" idiomatic expressions and clichés for English learners, which requires them to determine and explain figurative meanings. Students planning a slideshow must "clearly define any terms and provide examples," and may explain differences among commonly confused words, requiring attention to how word choice affects meaning. The unit test asks students to identify grammatical functions (e.g., gerund vs. participle, passive vs. active), which has students analyze how words and phrases function in context.
Unit 3: Informational Texts
Lesson 1
What Are Informational Texts?
The Parent Plan explicitly lists as a skill: "Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary describing political, social, or economic aspects of history/social science." The homework Question #5 asks students to infer the meaning of the phrase "egalitarian ethos" from context and then look up the words in the dictionary. The Student Activity Page prompts students to locate bolded or italicized vocabulary words and notes that informational texts may include a glossary to define unfamiliar words.
Lesson 2
Outliers
Students are directed to look up chapter vocabulary in context, use a thesaurus to find synonyms, consider denotation and connotation, and try inserting synonyms into sentences to test meaning. Students are asked to locate and compare dictionary definitions and the book's in-text definition of "outlier" (e.g., definitions on pp. 3 and 7) and to re-read specific paragraphs to understand how an analogy (the Roseto study) functions. Students answer guided questions about how Gladwell uses analogy and other strategies to clarify the term "outlier."
Lesson 5
Harlan, Kentucky
Students are instructed to lightly underline unfamiliar words in the reading and then complete Activity 1 (Chapter 6 Vocabulary) where they guess meanings from context sentences and then look up definitions. The Student Activity Page provides specific words with context sentences (primeval, contingent, subpoenaed, acquiesced, irascible, unequivocal) and spaces for students to record guesses and dictionary definitions. The lesson asks students to verify inferred meanings by consulting a dictionary/web resource (Collins Dictionary) and to note pronunciations, and the Parent Plan lists skills such as using context clues, analyzing word parts, and consulting reference materials.
Lesson 6
The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes
Students are asked to determine vocabulary meanings using dictionaries, context clues, synonyms, and antonyms in multiple vocabulary activities and matching exercises. The Parent Plan explicitly lists skills such as determining or clarifying the meaning of words and phrases, verifying preliminary determinations, and consulting reference materials. Students also analyze types of speech (mitigated speech and euphemisms) and answer questions about what phrases like "we mitigate when we're being deferential to authority" mean.
Lesson 7
Rice Paddies and Math Tests
The lesson provides an explicit vocabulary list (autonomous, efficacy, recompense, disparagement) with definitions that students are expected to review. The Parent Plan skills require students to "identify and correctly use patterns of word changes" (e.g., analyze, analysis) and to "consult general and specialized reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses)" to determine precise meanings and parts of speech. The skills also ask students to "draw evidence from literary or informational texts" and to "cite strong and thorough textual evidence," which supports close reading practices that can include word-level analysis.
Lesson 8
With Malice Toward None
Students read Lincoln's "Second Inaugural Address" and are asked to identify rhetorical strategies and literary devices (parallelism, antithesis, allusion) and explain their intended effect on the audience. The activity page directs students to identify quotes from the speech, name the literary device used, and state the device's effect, and the Parent Plan asks students to analyze particular sentences and adjectives used in the speech. The lesson also directs students to analyze tone and how word choice contributes to a persuasive, unifying message.
Lesson 9
Writing about History
Students are shown the connotative meaning of the word "squaw" (noting it is antiquated and offensive). Students compare primary testimonies, secondary summaries, and pro‑Chivington newspaper editorials and complete activities that ask them to evaluate point of view, rhetoric, and differences/consistencies between firsthand and secondary accounts. The Parent Plan and activities ask students to evaluate a speaker's point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric and to write an editorial using facts to persuade, which requires attention to word choice and tone.
Lesson 10
Science Writing
Students read specific pages about forces and answer direct comprehension questions that define technical terms such as equilibrium, centripetal force, and centrifugal force, practicing determination of meaning in context. Students complete an "Investigating Claims in Science Writing" activity that asks them to explain how the author supports claims and to identify the methods (e.g., explanation, example, illustration, highlighting) the author uses to clarify scientific terms. The Parent Plan Skills explicitly instruct students to "determine the meaning of symbols, key terms, and other domain-specific words and phrases" and to "determine how an author explains or clarifies a scientific phenomenon," indicating students practice interpreting technical vocabulary and tracing explanatory support.
Lesson 11
Technical Writing
Students are asked to identify and define jargon and specialized vocabulary by creating a glossary, including drafting and finalizing glossary entries and highlighting the first use of terms. Students annotate a passage to underline and mark subject-specific or possibly unfamiliar vocabulary and to indicate which words should be highlighted in the revised document. Students are instructed to adopt an appropriate formal style and objective tone for technical writing and to make wording appropriate to an audience that may know little or nothing about the topic.
Lesson 12
Logical Fallacies
Students are given and practice technical vocabulary (e.g., premise, non-sequitur, straw man, ad hominem, ethos/pathos/logos) through fill-in-the-blank items and definitions in the Things to Know and Part I activity. Students identify rhetorical word choices and emotional language in Gehrig's speech when asked which positive words or phrases appeal to the audience's emotions (pathos) and to identify how ethos/logos/pathos function. Students highlight and annotate speeches (Andrew Jackson, politicians) to find loaded terms (e.g., "savages") and identify how specific worded claims create fallacious reasoning.
Unit 4: Drama
Lesson 1
What Is Drama?
Students are given explicit definitions of drama-specific vocabulary (e.g., tragedy, comedy, farce, melodrama, spectacle, musical, script, stage directions, blocking, set pieces, props, proscenium, thrust, theater-in-the-round, amphitheater). Activities ask students to review and use those terms (vocabulary review, labeling stage areas, and identifying stage types from video clips). The lesson directs students to watch clips and record genre and stage-type identifications, reinforcing technical meanings in context.
Lesson 2
How to Read Drama
The Student Activity Page for Diction/Language asks students to identify figurative language, explain symbolism and similes, analyze dialect, and explain how language evokes feelings in the audience. Students read the play Trifles (video and script) and answer guided questions about how the playwright uses specific words and dialect to show differences between characters and to trigger empathy. The answer key supplies concrete examples (e.g., "She was like a bird herself," bird as symbol, omission of -ing, use of "awful" as an adverb) that students are directed to notice and explain.
Lesson 3
Life and Times
Students are shown explicit vocabulary definitions in the "Things to Know" section (e.g., Tenements defined as "unsafe and overcrowded apartment buildings" and Presage defined as "a foreknowledge or warning"). Nemiroff's introduction uses the word "presaged" and the lesson provides a parenthetical gloss ("foretold") for that usage. Students are also asked to "review stage directions from Lesson 1," which exposes them to technical theatrical terminology.
Lesson 4
A Raisin in the Sun
Students are directed to determine the meanings of vocabulary words using context in the Act I excerpts and to consult a dictionary if needed (Activity 1 and the Student Activity Page). The Parent Plan skills explicitly list determining or clarifying unknown words, using context clues, and consulting reference materials to find pronunciation and precise meanings. The lesson explains the technical drama term "beat" and has students analyze dialect and vernacular (including a concrete example of Walter's AAVE features) and listen to accent samples to note how speech shapes impressions of speakers.
Lesson 5
Act II
Students are asked to determine meanings of specific vocabulary (coquettishly, plaintively, rebuffs, amiably, epitaph, reverie) by reading each word in context and writing an initial definition, then consulting a dictionary to revise it (Activity 1 and Student Activity Page). The Parent Plan Skills explicitly list determining or clarifying the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words, using context as a clue, and consulting general and specialized reference materials. The answer key and vocabulary review guidance provide direct practice in decoding word meanings from the play's text.
Lesson 6
Act III
Students are asked to define the word "defer" and explain the concept of a "dream deferred," which requires determining word meaning. In the "A Dream Deferred" activity students identify five similes in the poem and analyze the final line "Or does it explode?", comparing that image with the other similes. The homework quiz asks students to match vocabulary words from the play (e.g., precipitately, deliberately, prefigured) to definitions, requiring students to determine word meanings used in the text.
Lesson 8
Shakespeare
The Parent Plan skills list explicitly instructs students to determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words, use context clues, consult reference materials, and verify inferred meanings. The Activity sheet's Step 2 directs students to use contextual clues or a dictionary and notes peculiarities of Shakespearean spellings and meanings. Questions and teacher notes prompt students to interpret challenging words and phrases (e.g., left-hand page notes) and to watch for hidden meanings when identifying speaker meaning.
Lesson 9
Romeo and Juliet
Students read Act I and answer targeted comprehension questions, including interpreting Juliet's line "My only love sprung from my only hate!", which requires determining the meaning of that phrase in context. Students are given explicit definitions for terms such as "comic relief" and "dowry," so they learn some technical/domain-specific meanings. Students are prompted to look for comic relief and to summarize important events, which requires them to interpret worded actions and dialogue in context.
Lesson 10
Figurative Language
Students identify and analyze figurative language in Romeo and Juliet by circling oxymorons and underlining paradoxes in Romeo's speech, explaining meanings of two oxymorons and one paradox, and discussing why Shakespeare uses them. Students complete a Puns, Idioms, and Euphemisms activity where they underline idioms and explain meanings, fill in real meanings for euphemisms, and locate or create puns. Students rearrange and mark the rhyme scheme of the Prologue sonnet and explain what conflict the sonnet summarizes, and the Parent Plan explicitly lists determining figurative and connotative meanings and analyzing the cumulative impact of specific word choices as listed skills.
Lesson 11
Nuanced Meaning
Students read Act III excerpts and identify meanings of bolded words in context by selecting definitions from a provided word box. Students complete Part II by matching archaic terms (e.g., gyves, fleer) to modern meanings and check answers against an answer key. Students find synonyms with positive and negative connotations in Part III and use each in sentences, and they rewrite character exchanges as modern text messages to convey emotions and tone through word choice.
Lesson 12
Time and Tension
Students are directed to search the play for specific time-related words (minute, hour, day, to-night, to-morrow, etc.) and record how many times each occurs. Students analyze Friar Lawrence's monologue (listing the ways time is mentioned) and examine Capulet's repeated use of "tomorrow" and the Nurse's repeated use of "day." Students answer questions about how these repeated time words and references create tension, suspense, and foreshadowing, and explain how tension can be created without explicit time words.
Final Project
Drama
The lesson's skills list explicitly states students will "Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings." The unit test includes items asking students to identify literary devices (pun, idiom, euphemism, oxymoron) and to match quotations to speakers, which requires attention to wording in context. The Playlist and News project prompts require students to select song lyrics and quote excerpts and explain why those words fit a character or article, asking for some interpretation of word choice.
Semester Exam
Semester Exam
Students review and practice figurative language devices (foreshadowing, oxymoron, pun, idiom, euphemism) and are asked to define and give examples in multiple fill-in and short-answer items. Students practice word-level nuance by identifying clichés, rewriting wordy sentences, correcting misplaced modifiers, and explaining why active voice and avoiding jargon are preferable. Students analyze rhetorical language in Informational Texts by identifying logos, pathos, ethos, logical fallacies, mitigated speech, and evaluating Gladwell's language in Outliers, linking word choice to persuasive effect.