Homework:  Required!  Plan on 2-3 hours / week

English 9 is a year-long English composition course which fulfills A-G guidelines. This course is  a total of four units, separated into three trimesters. Each unit is centered around a theme,  including fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, allowing students to explore a breadth of topics,  discuss symbolic usage across texts, and dive deeper into the process of writing and reading  analysis. By the end of the academic year, students should have firm grasp on grammatical  concepts (the foundation which builds our writing), creative skills (the methods in which we  express in our writing), and how to research and argue a thesis (a position).

Each class will review weekly assigned reading, unpacking plot, layered symbolism, and the  construction of sentences which stand out as examples of quality writing. Close reading will be a  central cornerstone of class discussion, ensuring students can analyze, extrapolate, and articulate  literary elements within the text. Participation in class discussion is encouraged. Grammar and  syntax will also be reviewed, to ensure students have an understanding of paragraph  construction.

Homework is assigned weekly, reflected on the Google Classroom (a code will emailed prior to  the in-person trimester beginning to all enrolled students and respective parents). Homework will  often include a portion of reading from the required text, and this will serve as a guide for  portions of in-class discourse. Writing assignments will parallel the text or lesson, ensuring  students can put into words what he/she is learning from the text and/or class lectures. Each  assignment will be worth 10 points. Each Unit is allotted one Key Assignment. Students will be  given plenty of time to complete each and will be expected to present their work to the class.  Each Key Assignment will be worth 100 points. Each assignment is graded and returned weekly  with written feedback. Student participation in class discussion and in-class work also contribute  to the trimester’s final grade. Please review the grading rubric below for more details.

A Final Portfolio will be due twice: before winter break and again at the end of the school year.  This assignment will include handwritten notes taken by students during lectures, scanned copies  of key assignments with written feedback, and a letter of reflection discussing areas of growth  from each student. Students are reminded to keep returned, graded work so assignments can be  included in the portfolio. Plenty of time will be given for students to gather and prepare  materials.

Fall

The fall trimester will include both Unit I and Unit II. That said, learning will start remotely a  few weeks before in-person instruction begins at Huckleberry to ensure enough time is had to  complete both units. This is due to Huckleberry following a trimester system and guidelines  following a semester system, and, with fall being our longest session, it makes most sense to

front-load the work so that students can adjust and have lighter reading/course work as the year  progresses.

Unit I will cover memoirs/auto-biographical and non-fiction writing. The reading will include  Sherman Alexie’s semi-autobiographical novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time  Indian, which we will begin reading before in-person instruction, dissecting the concepts of  Truth (subjective) and Fact (objective) and role of the narrator’s perspective and the author’s  voice. Discussions will initially be held via Google Classroom, until classes officially start;  students will be guided on how to dissect the writing. The second reading will be the historical  biography by Mary Gordon, Joan of Arc. Because both works are relatively brief, students will  be able to complete both works with a manageable reading schedule. Weekly assignments will  focus on extrapolating layered symbolism, researching the time/culture around the narrative, and  unpacking the meaning of the writing.

Unit II will begin half-way through fall session and focus on historical US documents and  speeches. Class discussion will center around each speech’s implementation of the Aristotelean  rhetorical appeals––Logos, Pathos, and Ethos––as well as the inclusion or avoidance of logical  fallacies. Speeches include “the Gettysburg Address,” “Letter from a Birmingham Jail," and  Hemingway’s “Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech.”

Each Unit concludes with a Key Assignment. Unit I will end with a Narrative Essay and/or  Elevator Speech, and Unit II will conclude with a research-driven Argumentative Essay. Students  will present these to the class and turn in physical copy. Written feedback and grade will be given  and returned for inclusion in each student’s portfolio, the first of which will be submitted in the  first two weeks of winter break.

Winter

Unit III will unpack writings from different cultures and settings. The reading for winter session  will include: Fathers & Sons by Ivan Turgenev and The Chosen by Chaim Potok. Class discourse  will center around central and repeating themes and symbols, along with syntactical construction  from excerpts, studying how the paragraphs are created. Weekly assignments will respond to the  reading and the author’s purpose in what they write.

The Key Assignment consists of an Informative Essay on either a culture or a topic of interest  from the student. Cultures can stem from the readings, the student’s familial culture, or any area  of interest a student has and wishes to research and share. Due to the academic cycle, winter  session will not include a portfolio (submitted after Unit II and Unit IV). Thus, 20% of the grade  will instead be allocated to class participation and attendance. Details will be reviewed in class  so all students understand how grades will be tallied.

Spring

Unit IV will dive into the rich and unique world of poetry. Students will learn poetic devices–– creative literary tools writers use to express themselves––to add poetic and complex beauty to  their respective writings, as well as how stanzas are structured and treated differently from  prosaic paragraphs. Weekly readings will be spent analyzing stand alone poems from various  literary movements and cultures, the thematic motifs of each movement, and the biographical  background of each poet. Please review the reading list from a complete list of poems.

Students will have time to write their own poems in response to each week’s reading. This will  serve as preparation for the spring session Key Assignment. The Key assignment will be to write  and recite an original poem in the style of a given poet. Poem should also reflect poetic devices.  Once the spring session has concluded, students will submit the second and final Portfolio.

Reading List

Fall (Unit I & II)

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Joan of Arc by Mary Gordon

“The Gettysburg Address” by Abraham Lincoln

“Letter from a Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King, Jr

“Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech (1954)” by Ernest Hemingway

Winter (Unit III)

Fathers & Sons by Ivan Turgenev

The Chosen by Chaim Potok

Spring (Unit IV)

“Sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar

“Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou

“Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll

“The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe

“Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot

“‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers” by Emily Dickinson

“Sonnet 18” & “Sonnet 73” by William Shakespeare

Grade Rubric

40% Key Assignments

-Each Key Assignment must follow MLA guidelines, include work cited pages, and respond to  each prompt completely.

-In the trimester with two Key Assignments, each will hold a respective 20% value toward the  trimester grade.

40% Weekly Assignments

-Each assignment will be worth 10 points.

-This allotment of points includes both homework and in-class work which is turned in.

20% Portfolios

-In our fall and spring trimesters, 20% of the total grade is allocated to the portfolio.  OR

20% Attendance & Participation (Winter Session ONLY)

-Attendance is only reduced if student is absent without cause

-Parents or student need only send an email verifying absence to ensure full points -If students aren’t keeping up with work or participating, points will get reduced. -If student is struggling with assignments, he/she is encouraged to speak with me