English Department

Essential Knowledge and Skills

Students in English Nine study a variety of essay forms. Students will explore themes, ideas and definitions of the essay form. Students will write essays modeling these forms. Students will complete research and essay assignments reflecting their knowledge of the texts and expressing valid and supportable arguments.

Indicators of Student Learning

Upon the completion of this course, students will:

Reading Comprehension

Word Analysis and Vocabulary Development

• Determine word meaning through word parts, definitions, and context clues • Determine word meaning through contextual inferences

Comprehension of literary and informational text

• Read fiction and non-fiction pieces

• Continue to practice active reading techniques such as predicting and questioning

Identify and analyze various modes of essays

• Recognize literary elements including introductions, thesis statements, topic sentences, evidence, concrete details, conclusions.

• Evaluate argument and evidence

Written Language

Strategies

• Write coherent and focused text that convey a well defined perspective and tightly reasoned argument

• Demonstrate an understanding of elements of discourse, (e.g.) purpose, speaker, audience, form, when completing narrative, expository, persuasive or descriptive writing assignments.

• Revise and edit to strengthen ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency and conventions

Applications

• Write responses to literature that demonstrate an understanding of the significant ideas in the work.

• Write at least two essays per quarter, combining rhetorical strategies to produce texts that demonstrate a command of standard American English.

Inquiry, Research, and Oral Presentation

Inquiry/Research

• Formulate questions to examine multiple points of view

• Gather information from multiple sources

• Examine creditability of primary and secondary sources • Use citations where appropriate

Oral Language

• Speak with a command of Standard English conventions

• Deliver focused and coherent presentations of their own that convey clear and distinct perspectives with solid reasoning.

• Deliver oral response to literature.

• Recite poems with attention to performance details in order to achieve clarity and aesthetic effect, and to demonstrate understanding.

Technology

• Collaborate with peers to use technology to compile and produce projects and other creative works.

• Create and give multi-media presentations

Assessments

Upon the completion of this course students will:

• Demonstrate increased competency in Reading Comprehension by answering specific teacher generated questions and defining vocabulary words in context.

• Demonstrate increased competency in Written Language as evidenced by a pre and post essay for each semester.

• Demonstrate increased proficiency in research, inquiry and oral presentation by expressing ideas clearly, explaining research process, presenting ideas and information in written and oral response.

• Demonstrate competency in technology by creating projects and multimedia presentations.