9th Grade Honors English Curriculum
Each week we cover a different writing concept or technique, including analysis of a reading from Interpretations of Literature as an example or as a basis for a writing exercise, lecture and/or writing workshop. Tests include weekly quizzes covering textual content and vocabulary for the week's reading, and midterm and final exams that include sentence corrections on the SAT model, identifications based on class readings, and short essay questions.
The 9th grade class is geared towards grammar, convention and writing fundamentals, reading comprehension and making the students comfortable with the writing process itself.
Assigned Readings
Short Fiction [Fall]
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Adventure of the Speckled Band"
Edgar Allan Poe, "The Cask of Amontillado"
O. Henry, "The Last Leaf"
Hernando Tellez, "Just Lather, That's All"
Stephen Benet, "The Blood of the Martyrs"
Poetry [early Winter]
Rudyard Kipling, "If"
Edgar Guest, "It Couldn't Be Done"
Emma Lazarus, "The New Colossus"
Paul Laurence Dunbar, "Sympathy"
Walt Whitman, "0 Captain! My Captain!"
Lord Byron, "The Destruction of Sennacherib"
Percy Shelley, "Ozymandias"
Alfred Lord Tennyson, "The Charge of the Light Brigade"
Non-fiction [Winter]
Booker T. Washington, "The Struggle for an Education"
Ibid, "The Atlanta Compromise"
W.E.B. DuBois, "Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others"
Various articles/essays
Drama [late Winter]
Sophocles, Antigone
Novel [Spring]
Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
Assignments
Students write 2-3 page writing assignments tailored to develop the particular skills covered that week, quarterly creative writing assignments (three short stories and one
poem) and a 5 page term paper at the end of the year on a novel. All of these assignments must show continued improvement of the student's mastery of critical analysis, the language and conventions of literary criticism and the techniques of persuasive writing covered in class.
Characterization in Doyle: Dr. Roylott as an Antagonist
Internal Conflict in Benet and Tellez
Choice of topic (metaphor, theme or rhythm) comparing two poems
Argumentative paper on Washington vs. DuBois debate
Various topics on articles, usually of the "summarize and agree/disagree" type
Conflict in Antigone: Religious vs. State Law
Three five-page short stories and one poem (sonnet)
Choice of topic (character and/or plot analysis, theme: justice and revenge) on The Count of Monte Cristo [TERM PAPER]