CURRICULUM MAP
9TH
Grade English
West Jordan Middle School
Miss Harris
2013–2014 SCHOOL YEAR
Theme for the Year: The Human Experience and Forming Our Identity
First Quarter
THEME of FIRST QUARTER: Who am I? What can I offer to the people around me?
Units Covered: Literary Elements and the Short Story
AUGUST:
● Create collages to get to know our class
● Set goals for the year
● Begin our first book club novel: Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie
SEPTEMBER:
● Write an essay on what it means to be a good student
● Review elements of plot
● Begin a short story unit, studying a variety of different types of short
stories, including “Love,” “the Lottery,” and “the Most Dangerous Game”
OCTOBER:
● Continue short story unit, focusing on Edgar Allan Poe’s works
● Write our own short stories and present to the class
● Learn to “read” the literary medium of film
Second Quarter
THEME of SECOND QUARTER: What can I better recognize in the world around me?
Units Covered: the Novel – Honor, Literary Nonfiction
NOVEMBER:
● Read a variety of informational texts as models for our own writing
● Read a novel as a class, incorporating nonfiction texts to analyze themes
DECEMBER:
● Finish novels
● Review and improve our skills in writing argumentative essays
JANUARY:
● Create theme notebooks and write an argument essay on a theme from
our novel
Third Quarter
THEME of THIRD QUARTER: What qualities can I develop to offer more to the
people around me?
Units Covered: Epic Poetry—Heroism, Poetry—Beauty
JANUARY:
● Explore the definition of a hero and look at examples of modern heroes
● Learn about the hero’s journey
FEBRUARY:
● Read the Odyssey
● Take part in an “everyday hero” challenge
● Create booklets comparing Odysseus to other heroes
MARCH:
● Begin a poetry unit, studying a variety of different figurative language
Fourth Quarter
THEME of FOURTH QUARTER: How can my choices shape and govern the
people around me?
Units Covered: Poetry—Beauty, Drama—Fate
MARCH:
● Study the sonnet and William Shakespeare’s life
● Write our own sonnets and poetry
APRIL:
● Begin reading Romeo and Juliet
● Review for the new SAGE test
MAY:
●
●
Finish Romeo and Juliet and watch the movie
Put together an end of year writing portfolio, revising and showcasing
our best work
JUNE:
●
Review for and take our final exam
Summary and Order of Units for 9th Grade:
Literary Elements and the Short Story
● Enduring Understanding Statement: We effectively communicate the human
experience by sharing it with others.
● Language Arts Essential Question: How do we tell stories?
● Cross-Curricular Essential Question: How do we share experiences
effectively?
Items to Cover:
○ Narrative writing
○ Inference
○ Evidence—sufficient and quality
○ Author’s craft—structure, events, and time to create effects
○ Figurative language
○ Word relationships
○ Euphemism and oxymoron
○ Semicolons and colons
Literary Nonfiction—Reflection (The Memoir, The Essay, and The Speech)
● Enduring Understanding Statement: Reflection is necessary for evolution
and change.
● Language Arts Essential Question: How is reflecting different from
remembering?
Cross-Curricular Essential Question: How is reflecting different from
remembering?
Items Covered in the Novel
The Novel—Honor
● Enduring Understanding Statement: Understanding what honor is helps us
interpret events and behaviors.
● Language Arts Essential Question: Is honor inherent or bestowed?
● Cross-Curricular Essential Question: What is honorable?
Items to Cover:
○ Theme
○ Argument Writing
○ Summarizing
○ Character—motivations, development, interactions, impact on plot and
theme
○ Informational text—outline events, order of points, introduction,
connections, claims and development, point of view, purpose, stylistic
techniques
○ Compare historic U.S. documents
○ Discussion
○ Group discussion
○ Context
Epic Poetry—“Heroism”
● Enduring Understanding Statement: Heroism has many faces.
● Language Arts Essential Question: Are epic heroes brave, smart, or lucky?
● Cross-Curricular Essential Question: What does it mean to be heroic? Who
or what is a hero?
Items to Cover:
○ Theme
○ Summarizing
○ Character—motivations, development, interactions, impact on plot and
theme
○ Informational texts—comparing, details
○ Using evidence in writing
○ Evaluate speaker
○ Parallel structure
○ Phrases and Clauses
Poetry—“Beauty”
● Enduring Understanding Statement: There is beauty and clarity in the
organization of elements.
● Language Arts Essential Question: How does poetry reveal what we might
not otherwise recognize?
● Cross-Curricular Essential Question: What elements of the world’s form and
structure provide beauty and clarity?
Items to Cover:
○ Connotation
○ Informational text—central ideas, details, summarizing
○ Research—sources, citation
○ Presentation—must use digital media
○ Figurative Language
Drama—“Fate”
● Enduring Understanding Statement: Choices bring consequences and affect
outcomes.
● Language Arts Essential Question: Are we governed by fate or free will?
● Cross-Curricular Essential Question: Are we governed by chance or choice?
Items to Cover:
○ Explanatory Writing
○ Character—motivations, development, interactions, impact on plot and
theme
○ Text connections to well-known texts
○ Informational texts—implication, evidence, quality
○ Discussion
○ Academic words (Appendix A)--Tier two words (what the Standards
refer to as general academic words) are far more likely to appear in
written texts than in speech. They appear in all sorts of texts:
informational texts (words such as relative, vary, formulate, specificity,
and accumulate), technical texts (calibrate, itemize, periphery), and
literary texts (misfortune, dignified, faltered, unabashedly). Tier Two
words often represent subtle or precise ways to say relatively simple
things—saunter instead of walk, for example. Because Tier Two words
are found across many types of texts, they are highly generalizable.