Grade 9 - English

English I Fundamentals (Credit: 1.00)

English I continues to build on the sequential development and integration of communication skills in four major areas: reading, writing, speaking, and listening. It most specifically focuses on deepening and furthering students' understanding in the following ways:  Reading reinforces reading comprehension skills by teaching students how to understand and appreciate poetry, drama, informative nonfiction, and fiction; shows students how to analyze, evaluate, and interpret a text; reinforces awareness of the elements and structure of narrative prose; guides students through readings of drama, a novel, and selections from well‐known poetry, and short stories.  Writing furthers students’ understanding of sentence structures; reviews parts of speech and their types, including in‐depth studies on verbs (transitive, intransitive, conjugation, tense, voice, mood); develops students’ understanding of the types and functions of phrases and clauses; teaches language history and etymology to help students build on knowledge of word structures, including prefixes, roots, and suffixes; expands on students’ vocabulary skills; reviews spelling skills; gives students the opportunity to develop their abilities in writing speeches, short essays, poetry, friendly/business letters, and short stories.  Speaking offers students experience in delivering a speech; teaches skills that enable students to become effective speakers and communicators, weaving these skills together throughout the course.  Listening teaches effective listening comprehension skills, weaving these together throughout the lessons.  Special Topics incorporates research skills, including Internet, library, reference material, and multimedia use; includes mass media structure and influence.