What your child learns in Grade 9 in Alberta
Grade 9 is the last year of junior high and builds towards senior high. Students work with rational numbers, exponents, polynomials and linear relations, explore biological diversity, chemical change, electricity and space, and study governance, rights and economic systems. Grade 9 is also a year of Provincial Achievement Tests.
Grade 9 subjects in the Alberta Curriculum
Math
Big Ideas
- Number: develop number sense, including powers, exponent laws, rational numbers, the order of operations and square roots
- Patterns and Relations: use patterns to describe the world and solve problems, including linear relations, linear equations and polynomials
- Shape and Space: use direct and indirect measurement to solve problems, describe the properties of circles, similar shapes, scale diagrams, symmetry and the surface area of 3-D objects
10 units, including exponents & powers, rational numbers, square roots, polynomials.
English Language Arts
Big Ideas
- General Outcome 1: students listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to explore thoughts, ideas, feelings and experiences
- General Outcome 2: students listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to comprehend and respond personally and critically to oral, print and other media texts
- General Outcome 3: students listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to manage ideas and information
8 units, including close reading, literary elements, voices & perspectives, argument & rhetoric.
Science
Big Ideas
- Unit A: Biological Diversity: how living things pass on their characteristics, and how human activity affects variety among and within species
- Unit B: Matter and Chemical Change: the properties of materials, the periodic table and what happens during chemical change
- Unit C: Environmental Chemistry: how chemical substances move through the environment and affect living things
10 units, including biodiversity & heredity, reproduction, elements & compounds, atoms & electrons.
Social Studies
Big Ideas
- Canada: Opportunities and Challenges: Grade 9 looks at issues that Canadians face today, in two parts
- 9.1 Issues for Canadians: Governance and Rights: how Canada is governed and how the rights of individuals and groups, including Indigenous peoples, are protected
- 9.2 Issues for Canadians: Economic Systems in Canada and the United States: how the two countries organize their economies and trade with each other
6 units, including governing canada, rights & responsibilities, treaties & indigenous rights, economic systems.
French Immersion
Big Ideas
- Listening and speaking in French grow every day when French is the language of learning.
- Reading French texts of many kinds builds comprehension and the habit of reading for meaning.
- Writing in French for a purpose and an audience uses the conventions of the language.
9 units, including registres et exposés oraux, la fable, le roman et ses personnages, les figures de style.
Core French
Big Ideas
- Applications: using French to communicate in everyday situations, to explore and to have fun.
- Language competence: understanding and using the sounds, words, sentences and texts of French.
- Global citizenship: learning about Francophone communities in Alberta, Canada and the world, and about other cultures.
11 units, including past, present, future, asking questions, putting events in order, needs and opinions.
What to look for on the report card
Look for comments on planning ahead for senior high course choices, explaining reasoning in math and weighing perspectives in social studies and English. The Provincial Achievement Tests are separate from the report card.
Alberta report cards describe learning with Beginning, Approaching, Meeting, Exceeding. See what each level means.
Grade 9 students also take the Provincial Achievement Tests (PATs) and screening. Read the PAT guide.
Competencies grow alongside subject learning in every grade. Read about competencies.
Ready for Grade 9?
Grade 9 builds on what your child practised in Grade 8. If a skill feels shaky, a few short practice sessions before or early in the year can help:
- Math: squares & square roots, percents & gst, ratios, rates & proportions, fraction operations, integer operations
- English Language Arts: talking & working together, close reading, reading detective, whose story is it?, literary devices
- Science: mixtures, solutions & whmis, particles & matter, viscosity & flow, density & buoyancy, pressure & pascal's law
- Social Studies: japan: land, beliefs & values, tokugawa japan & isolation, from isolation to adaptation, where the renaissance began, renaissance art, printing & science
- French Immersion: les registres de langue, parler et se faire comprendre, la légende, le théâtre, le schéma narratif
- Core French: past, present, future, asking questions, how often?, opinions and reasons, comparing and contrasting
Common questions
What do kids learn in Grade 9 in Alberta?
Grade 9 covers math, english language arts, science, social studies, french immersion, core french in the Alberta Curriculum. Grade 9 is the last year of junior high and builds towards senior high. Students work with rational numbers, exponents, polynomials and linear relations, explore biological diversity, chemical change, electricity and space, and study governance, rights and economic systems. Grade 9 is also a year of Provincial Achievement Tests.
How is Grade 9 reported in Alberta?
Alberta report cards describe learning with Beginning, Approaching, Meeting, Exceeding. Students in Grade 9 also write the Provincial Achievement Tests (PATs) and screening, which is separate from the report card.
How can I help my Grade 9 child at home?
Short, regular practice works better than long sessions: 10 to 15 minutes a few times a week, on the skills your child's teacher flags. Read together, use math in real life, and praise effort.
Practise Grade 9 skills with Gradelings
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