Summary of course content and activities:
Grade 9 English is a mixture of grammar, poetry, short stories, novel studies, vocabulary enrichment, and writing. With each lesson, we will first examine the author to learn more about his or her own background so that we can better understand and interpret his/her work. We will be looking at the culture, the values, the assumptions, and contexts surrounding each of the pieces of literature. Students are introduced to and taught the structure of the five-paragraph essay. In this course we do quite a bit of reading of short stories and poetry, we also read "The Bronze Bow" by Elizabeth George Speare, "The Pearl" by John Steinbeck and "Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare.
Philosophy statement for and/or behind teaching this course:
To many people, literature is reading. Reading; however, is not literature: it is simply the process through which we experience literature. Literature is a gift from God. Through literature, God enables man to communicate, not only his experiences but also his ideas, feelings, and beliefs. We should not merely read literature to escape from the world. Rather we should use literature as a vehicle to encounter the world. Literature can put us face to face with man in his world - man that acts both in ways pleasing to God and in ways displeasing to God. Literature can help us to know more about creation, our fellow man, God, and ourselves. Good literature causes us to think.
Pre-requisite(s):
Language Arts 8
Materials and resources provided by NSA, purchased by student, and/or recommended:
Provided by NSA:
- The Bronze Bow, by Elizabeth George Speare
- The Pearl, novel by John Steinbeck
- Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare
- Various e-text readings provided with the lessons
Recommended but not required:
- Hard copy Dictionary and Thesaurus
Forecasted amount of time required to complete each week's lesson:
4-6 hours (In a regular school, you would have 6.7 hours of class time a week plus the time to do your homework. In a high school English class that could easily be 1-2 hours of homework a night. That's another 5-10 hours a week. This is for a one-semester English course, so divide the total 12-17 hours in half for a whole semester course and it would be 6-9 hours per week) So, if you are spending 4-6 hours each week on a lesson, you are doing great!
Description of student evaluations, quizzes, and tests:
There are three major grading periods. Exams and essays are weighted more heavily than regular assignments.