WATERFORD PUBLIC SCHOOLS

LANGUAGE ARTS CURRICULUM

GRADE 9

STRAND

ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS

The student will understand that:

1.	Individuals can interpret characters in a play differently and those interpretations come alive through performance.
2.	Through multiple texts centered around a shared theme, readers can seek and develop personal understandings of that theme. (For example, Rites of Passage)
3.	The detailed understanding of the language of a small piece of text can illuminate characters/speakers, mood, plot, and theme of an entire text.
4.	Elements of fiction affect the reader’s interpretation and appreciation of a text. (plot, characterization, theme, narrative voice)
5.	A reader needs to adjust his/her approach to reading a text appropriately according to the structure and nature of the text and the purpose of reading the text.
6.	Devices of poetry affect the reader’s interpretation and appreciation of a poem.
7.	A reader constructs meaning from a text. This construction is based on analysis of the text, context of the text, and what the individual brings to the text.
8.	A rich and growing vocabulary enables an individual to think, read, write, speak, and listen effectively.
9.	Writing is a process that includes prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing. Each of these stages of the process is equally important to the creation of an effective, publishable piece.
10.	The writing of personal experience is a process of self-discovery.
11.	The purpose of research is to enable the writer to answer a carefully formulated question which can be answered only by finding pertinent information that is not common knowledge.
12.	A writer who uses the ideas of others without documenting them is stealing.
13.	Taking notes is both a form of recording and a form of processing ideas and information.
14.	Fiction and nonfiction are both attempts to recreate truths. Fiction’s main tool is imagination, whereas nonfiction’s main tool is factual knowledge about actual events.
15.	The process of speaking and listening lead to a greater personal insight, perspective and confidence in the ability to communicate and think effectively.
16.	The act of interpretation can be done with any media. “Text” refers not only to books.

SAMPLE ASSESSMENTS

1. (Essential understandings 1,3,7): Your task is to work with a group of fellow students to perform the play-within-a-play scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Your audience will be your fellow students. Your performance needs to vividly demonstrate your understanding and interpretations of the characters, mood, and plot of this scene.

2. (Essential understandings 2,4,10): Your task is to write a series of letters between Odysseus (from The Odyssey) and Robin (from Dove). The two voyagers will write about their journey of self-discovery. A successful result will include three letters from each voyager which reflect the individual voice of the traveler and are set in a particular place in his travels.

3. (Essential understandings 9,10,11,12): The challenge is that two of your friends are not getting along with each other and you are researching the question of how to be a good friend in order to mediate, between your two friends. Gather information by brainstorming about the nature of friendship, finding and reading a variety of appropriate print sources, and interviewing peers and members of an older generation about their experiences with friendship. Create a web site or power point presentation about what you learned about how to be a good friend. Your work will be judged by how thoroughly researched and documented it is, and by how compelling it is in describing the nature of friendship.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

1.	What makes a good book good?
2.	Would you be satisfied if you never learned another word?
3.	What can interfere with truly understanding oneself?
4.	Is a hero an outdated, naïve idea or do we always need heroes?
5.	Is love a rational or irrational force?

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Reading Skills

The student will be able to:

1.	Expand vocabulary through study of words in and out of context.
2.	Articulate an initial personal response to literary, informational, and persuasive material through class discussion and writing.
3.	Read and demonstrate basic comprehension of literary, informational, and persuasive material with at least one unit focusing around the theme of “rites of passage.” In literary material summarize plot, identify main conflict and narrator, and describe characters and setting by marking text and/or using graphic organizers. In informational and persuasive material, state the main idea, identify the method of organization, and find specific information. Identify the purpose and form of a reading and choose appropriate reading strategies.
4.	Analyze and interpret various aspects of the text as a whole and in selected passages. In literary material, explain character motivation and development, plot, mood, theme, narrative voice, and poetic devices. In literary material, interpret characters through performance.
5.	Connect his/her personal knowledge and experiences to the text. a. Describe the way a particular text relates to the student’s experiences including other texts with which s/he is familiar. b. Explain how the student’s personal understanding of “rites of passage” agrees with or contradicts one of the texts. c. Write in the voice of a character.
6.	Demonstrate ability to reflect upon and draw conclusions about a text.
7.	Make critical and evaluative judgments about a text.

Writing Skills

The student will be able to:

1.	Write at least one expository essay, one research project which attempts to answer an authentic question, and one personal narrative focusing on the student’s personal discovery.
2.	Plan to write for at least two audiences other than the teacher and generate ideas by a. Using strategies such as brainstorming and free-writing. b. Asking questions such as “5 W/How?” “What if,” and thesis questions to aid in formulating an original thesis
3.	Gather information by a. reading and viewing with a focus to find specific information. b. taking notes for the research project by paraphrasing. c. taking notes from classroom lecture and in small group discussion. d. Using and documenting sources including books, magazines, Internet sites and interviews
4.	Organize information by a. writing formal and informal outlines. b. using graphic organizers
5.	Write a draft which reflects prewriting but expands the material; then, share the draft with an audience.
6.	Revise drafts to improve a. Organization by (1) Repeating key words from the thesis and their synonyms. (2) Using logical order. (3) Using transitional expressions within and between paragraphs. b. Essay structure by (1) Checking to see that the thesis is stated at the end of the introductory paragraph and is reflected in the concluding paragraph. (2) Checking to see that each paragraph focuses on the single topic stated in the topic sentence. c. Syntax by (1) Combining simple sentences. (2) Varying sentence length. d. Development by (1) Adding examples and details. (2) Including quotes where appropriate. e Diction by using powerful nouns and verbs.
7.	Edit drafts by a. Correcting with a focus on punctuation of compound and complex sentences, subject/verb agreement, and pronoun case. b. Practicing general editing skills on models, his/her own drafts, and drafts of peers.

SUGGESTED RESOURCES

9^th Grade Resource List

Vocabulary Texts:

Vocabulary for Achievement, 3^rd Course

Vocabulary for the High School Student – A

Building Vocabulary Skills

Grammar/Writing Texts:

Writer’s Inc.

Prentice Hall Grammar – Level 3

Heath, Grammar, Level 3

Practice in Style

Literature:

Anthologies/Collections (class sets available):

Elements of Literature – 3^rd Course (Holt, Rinehart, Winston)

Literature and Language 9 (McDougall, Littel)

Prentice Hall Literature Gold

Book of Short Stories (Harcourt Brace)

Man the Voyager (Harcourt Brace) Ed. W.T. Jewkes

Growing Up Black – Ed. Jay David

Six Great Modern Plays (includes Glass Menagerie)

Close Up – An Anthology of Plays – Ed. Sylvia Brodkin

Flex-Text B (Barn Burning, Graduation, A Christmas Memory)

Poetry with Pleasure (Kirkpatrick & Goodfellow)

Anthologies/Collections (few copies available):

Rites of Passage: Stories of Growing Up Black from Around the World – Ed. Tonya Bolden

Grandfathers: Reminiscences, Poems… -- Nikki Giovanni

Danger: True Stories of Trouble and Survival – Ed. James O’Reilly et. al.

Coming of Age – Ed. Bruce Emra

Rogue Wave and Other Red-Blooded Sea Stories – Ed. Theodore Taylor

Stay True: Short Stories for Strong Girls – Marilyn Singer

The Way Things Never Were – Norman H. Finklestein

Primary Fiction/Non-fiction/Drama:

Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

Bless Me Ultima – Rudolfo Anaya

Dove – Robin Lee Graham

The House on Mango Street – Sandara Cisneros

Jordan Freeman Was My Friend – Richard White

Lilies of the Field – William E. Barnet

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – William Shakespeare

The Odyssey – Homer

Snow Bound – Henry Mazer

Thanksgiving Visitor – Truman Capote

Wizard of Earthsea – Ursula K. LeGuin

The Yearling – Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

The Learning Tree – Gordan Parks

Speak – Laurie Anderson

The Car – Gary Paulsen

Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck

Red Sky at Morning – Richard Bradford

A Gathering of Heroes – GregAlan Williams

Secondary Literature (Primarily for Literature Circles/Independent Reading):

Time Machine – H.G. Wells

Ah Wilderness – Eugene O’Neill

A Bell for Adano – John Hersey

Blind Sunday – Jessica Evans

Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keyes

Jump Ship to Freedom – James Lincoln and Christopher Collier

Lisa, Bright and Dark – Theodore Isaac Rubin

The Snow Goose – Paul Gallico & Beth Peck

The Mouse that Roared – Leonard Webberley

Films:

Ah, Wilderness!

Barn Burning

Capote: A Christmas Memory

The Glass Menagerie

Gordon Parks Visions

Great Expectations

The Learning Tree

Lilies of the Field

Midsummer Night’s Dream (multiple versions)

Of Mice and Men

The Odyssey Parts I and II (made for TV movie)

The Odyssey (Education: Film Strips)

Search for Ulysses

The Yearling

Father of the Bride (1991)

O Brother, Where Art Thou

The Straight Story

SUGGESTED CONNECTIONS

1. Teaching of The Odyssey connects to the study of ancient Greece and Ancient History.

2. Teaching of Shakespeare connects to the study of the Elizabethan Era.

3. An oral history project connects students to Waterford senior citizens and connects literature to students’ own lives.

GRADE 10

STRAND

ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS

The student will understand that:

1.	The staging of a scene is a way of interpreting a play’s particular time, place, and mood.
2.	Through multiple texts centered around a shared theme, readers can seek and develop personal understandings of that theme. (For example, Facing hatred)
3.	The detailed analysis of a speech and thought of a character/speaker can illuminate the larger issues of the text and of the character/speaker.
4.	Elements of fiction affect the reader’s interpretation and appreciation of a text. (All of the above plus setting, imagery, symbolism)
5.	A reader needs to adjust his/her approach to reading a text appropriately According to the structure and nature of the text and the purpose of reading the text.
6.	In poetry every word counts towards the creation of sound and meaning.
7.	A reader constructs meaning from a text. This construction is based on analysis of the text, context of the text, and what the individual brings to the text.
8.	A rich and growing vocabulary enables an individual to think, read, write, speak, and listen effectively.
9.	Conferencing teaches a writer how a reader views a piece so that the writing can be revised to be more effective.
10.	The power of a persuasive argument is that it helps the writer discover his/her own beliefs and communicate them to others.
11.	Finding an accurate answer to a research question requires evaluating sources and being prepared to document sources.
12.	A writer who uses the ideas of others without documenting them is stealing.
13.	The writer adjusts content and style depending on audience, purpose, and form of a piece.
14.	Fiction and nonfiction are both attempts to recreate truths. Fiction’s main tool is imagination, whereas nonfiction’s main tool is factual knowledge about actual events; however, some pieces defy classification.
15.	The process of speaking and listening lead to a greater personal insight, perspective and confidence in the ability to communicate and think effectively.