ELA 9: Introduction to Literature (Foundational)—Semester B - Course Introduction

Here's what the next 36 weeks of your life are going to look like. We hope you have a sturdy Wifi connection and a library membership, because things are about to get literary. In each unit, you'll be:

• Unit 1: Playing around with words and reading some iconic short stories
• Unit 2: Closely reading some seriously twisted poetry
• Unit 3: Taking baby steps with through To Kill a Mockingbird—maybe you've heard it?
• Unit 4: Analyzing a book where Death is a main character, and comes off like a totally chill dude
• Unit 5: Returning to short stories and breaking down their text structure, now that you're a pro at that sort of thing
• Unit 6: Checking out some of the most influential pieces of theater ever, but not having to perform a musical theater standard even once
• Unit 7: Calling out editorial writers and history's greatest speechmakers for their flagrant use of rhetoric
• Unit 8: Tying it all together with a research project based on The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, one of the most important bestsellers of the past decade

It might seem like a lot, but each lesson is accessible, has recaps and reviews, activities with some very helpful hints, and is, best of all, Shmoopy.

So, are you ready to kick off Unit 1 and play around with words?

(Please say yes, or else this will be one awkward year.)

Objectives

By the end of this course, you should be able to

• analyze literature and its themes on a personal and universal level.
• identify major genres and text structures of fiction and nonfiction.
• apply ninth grade-level language skills concerning reference materials, morphemes, word usage, and sentence structure.
• use both general and domain-specific vocabulary, as well as context clue skills.
• complete novel studies to determine iconic themes, symbols, and motifs in major works of twentieth-century literature.
• analyze journalism, essays, memoirs, letters, diaries, and novel-length nonfiction for theme, point of view, rhetoric, and language.
• analyze writing for bias and purpose.
• read short stories, poetry, and plays to determine what makes their formats and styles unique.
• compare authors, genres, perspectives, and styles.
• create words, poetry, art, essays, and research papers in response to major works, as well as the unit's topics and real-world issues.

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