Unit 1: Identity
In this unit, students read various texts including works of fiction and nonfiction to analyze how authors develop themes through complex ideas and characters. With these texts, students will use the critical approaches to assist in their analyses. Finally, they will compose an analysis of characters from two or more texts who are used to develop a theme connected to identity.
Text options may include:
The Joy Luck Club, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Kindred, To Kill a Mockingbird, March (Books 1 - 3)
Unit 2: Storytelling and the Hero's Journey
In this unit, students will read the
Odyssey and
A Lesson Before Dying as well as other, shorter fiction and nonfiction works,to expand their understanding of the "hero's journey" and to continue to work with the critical approaches, focusing on the archetypal approach. After analyzing Homer's style and choices, students use the
Odyssey as a mentor text to create an original episode for Odysseus' journey. Their original story will use the structure and language of an epic to create tension or surprise and to illustrate a theme.
Unit 3: Alienation and Belonging
In this unit, students will read various informational and fictional texts, including
Lord of the Flies, in order to analyze how ideas and themes are shaped by specific details. They will continue working with the critical approaches, focusing on the sociological approach, to connect to the unit's themes. Students will compose a response to an AP-style essay prompt defending, challenging, or qualifying the author's assertions about human nature.
Text options may include:
Lord of the Flies, Dear Martin, Their Eyes Were Watching God
Unit 4: Experience and Loss of Innocence
In this unit, students will continue their examination of how authors develop universal themes and transform source material using the texts
Romeo and Juliet and
Othello. Students will also read and analyze literary critique to trace the development of ideas and reasoning in nonfiction texts. The unit will conclude with students composing a an essay examining the literary evolution of Romeo and Juliet to analyze the timelessness and appeal of the play's central characters and themes and how they are depicted in changing time periods. .
Text options may include:
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Dear Martin,
Service Learning Project:
Students will complete the Grade 9 Service Learning Project in either Unit 1 or Unit 2. They will compose a personal belief statement and create an action plan advocating for a group/cause/belief based on what they know about themselves and what they discover about their community.
Note: The BCPS ELA curriculum provides teachers and students with choices that allow for personalized, responsive, and engaging instruction. Students should read the majority of the unit's novel-length work(s) outside of class time. The suggested unit sequences and text options may vary.