Grade 9 English Language Arts
11 units matched to the New Brunswick Curriculum. Kids see this subject as “Language Arts”.
Learning focus
- Interactions: Expression. Construct and communicate personal strengths and an awareness of self, others, and the world including awareness of digital and AI-influenced environments.
- Interactions: Exchanges. Seek and provide clarification and explanation of ideas and concepts, problems, and solutions.
- Interactions: Reception. Critically reflect on the contributions of others and extend my understanding.
- Reading: Word Study. Efficiently use word structure knowledge to independently solve unfamiliar and technical words.
- Reading: Fluency. Reads unfamiliar texts with accuracy and expression, both silently and aloud.
- Reading: Vocabulary. Use a range of strategies to determine new vocabulary in all texts.
- Reading: Reading Comprehension. Construct meaning from a variety of text considering the source, intended audience, and purpose.
- Reading: Text Analysis/Criticality. Independently select, read, and examine critically a variety of texts representing all voices.
- Representing: Process. Implement effective writing strategies to enhance clarity and control in multi-modal works.
- Representing: Craft. Create a variety of texts with purpose and understand the influence of the writer/creator.
Units
Unit 1
Word Detective
Using prefixes, suffixes and Latin and Greek bases to work out new words, choosing a meaning from the sentence around a word, and subject words like product, mass and scale.
Skill descriptor: Reading: Word Study · using word parts to work out meaning
Unit 2
Forms & Features
Knowing what each text form does, how features such as an index, footnote or caption help readers, how signal words show a text's pattern, and how images, colour and design shape meaning.
Skill descriptor: Reading: Word Study · text forms and features
Unit 3
Close Reading
Reading original short passages and answering questions about theme, tone, word choice, structure and the author's purpose, using evidence from the text.
Skill descriptor: Reading: Text Analysis/Criticality, Reading: Reading Comprehension · reading closely and responding to texts
Unit 4
Literary Elements
Recognizing devices such as irony, symbolism, motif, allusion and foils in short excerpts, and describing tone and mood.
Skill descriptor: Reading: Text Analysis/Criticality, Reading: Reading Comprehension · literary elements and how they work
Unit 5
Literary Devices
Spotting allusion (a reference to something well known), analogy, juxtaposition (contrasts side by side) and flashback in short original excerpts, and explaining why a writer chooses them.
Skill descriptor: Reading: Text Analysis/Criticality · sound, image and figurative devices
Unit 6
Voices & Perspectives
How point of view and background shape a text, why oral traditions and the protocols around them matter, and asking whose voices are present or missing. This unit introduces ideas only; teachers and local First Peoples communities lead deeper learning.
Skill descriptor: Reading: Text Analysis/Criticality · voices and perspectives in texts
Unit 7
Argument & Rhetoric
Spotting ethos, pathos and logos, common fallacies such as straw man and false dilemma, loaded language and bias, and judging whether a source or media message can be trusted.
Skill descriptor: Representing: Craft · argument and rhetorical techniques
Unit 8
Digital Smarts
Telling misinformation from disinformation, checking sources before trusting them, managing passwords and privacy, spotting phishing, and citing and using other people's work respectfully.
Skill descriptor: Reading: Text Analysis/Criticality · digital and media texts
Unit 9
Language & Style
How word choice shapes feeling (connotation and denotation), how English changes and borrows words, formal and informal register, concise and varied sentences, and devices such as anaphora and rhetorical questions.
Skill descriptor: Representing: Craft · language and style
Unit 10
Grammar & Style
Semicolons, colons, dashes, commas and apostrophes, subject-verb agreement, pronoun case, misplaced modifiers, run-ons and fragments, and choosing a formal or informal register.
Skill descriptor: Representing: Craft · grammar and conventions in writing
Unit 11
Revise & Edit
Making sentences more concise, choosing transitions, fixing unclear pronouns and tense shifts, catching errors a spell-checker misses, and Canadian spelling such as colour, centre, practise and licence.
Skill descriptor: Representing: Process · revising and editing writing
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