| ACADEMIC STANDARDS - LANGUAGE ARTS - 9th GRADE |
STANDARDS FOR LANGUAGE ARTS
This document has been formatted to separate skills and strategies into the following headings for the ease of the user. It is understood however, that reading and writing skills develop simultaneously and are integrated throughout a balanced curriculum. State adopted content and performance standards recommend that, in addition to regular school reading (as measured by number of books or pages read, or minutes of daily reading), students read a good representation of narrative (i.e. contemporary and classic literature) and expository (i.e. magazines, newspapers, on-line information) text appropriate for grade level:
 |
By grade 4, students read half a million words annually |
|
By grade 8, students read one million words annually |
|
By grade 12, students read two million words annually |
Ninth Grade Standards
 |
Reading/ Literature |
1. Reading is a process which includes demonstrating comprehension, analyzing and interpreting printed texts, and making extensions and applications of a text
- All students will complete a minimum of 600 pages per quarter of Outside Reading. Materials can be selected from the following: fiction, non-fiction, drama, short stories
- All students will demonstrate a thorough understanding of their reading.bullet
2. All students will complete a systematic vocabulary study which focuses on word origins, literal/figurative meanings, and denotative/connotative usage.
3. All students will comprehend, analyze, and evaluate the purpose, form and effect of consumer, workplace, and public documents.
4. All students will read and respond to historically or culturally significant works of world literature within the themes and issues of the specific cultural or historical context.
5. All students will identify and analyze the use of the following literary techniques:
- Structural features: purpose and characteristics of genre; comparison of themes between genres.
- Elements of fiction: character, setting, plot, theme, point-of-view.
- Literary devices: irony, tone, symbolism, foreshadowing, parallel structure, paradox, imagery, figures of speech; allusion; oxymoron.
- Dramatic Structure: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement.
|
|
Writing |
1. Writing is a process through which a writer shapes language to communicate effectively in terms of purposes, audiences, and contexts.
- All students will write coherent and focused texts which convey a well-defined perspective and tightly-reasoned argument with an awareness of audience and purpose and control of language.
- All students will respond to selected literary works by writing organized, formal essays which contain a thesis sentence, appropriate concrete detail, relevant commentary and elaboration, and a conclusion. These writings will be multi-draft and polished in the final form.
2. All students will experience the following types of writing:
- Autobiographical/biographical
- Descriptive
- Response to literature
- Summary
- Narration
- Researched report.
3. All students will produce a multi-page word-processed document based on work in which the student has located and evaluated information; synthesized and revised such information; integrated appropriate citations; and used the proper MLA format.
|
|
Language Conventions |
1. All students will write and speak with a command of standard English conventions. Students will use the South Tahoe High School English Department Editing Guide to identify and correct errors in conventions in their own writing and speaking, in conjunction with direct classroom instruction.
|
|
Speaking and Listening |
1. All students will formulate reasonable judgments about oral and media communications and support those judgments with convincing evidence.
2. All students will deliver focused and coherent oral presentations that incorporate gestures, tone, and vocabulary tailored to audience and purpose. Student speaking will demonstrate command of standard English and the appropriate organizational and delivery strategies.
|
|
Study Skills |
1. All students will exhibit the organization and test-taking strategies necessary for academic success.
|
|
