Ninth Grade Composition and Literature (E9) (rev. 3/11)

I. Introduction:

The transition from middle school to high school is a significant and, in many cases, difficult one for young people. They come to us with all sorts of expectations -- some outrageous, some legitimate. They are, at once, apprehensive and excited about the coming years at the high school. With respect to academics, ninth grade students come needing more exposure to the literature of their own and other cultures; further instruction in basic and higher writing skills; and development of their ability to think and to read abstractly and critically. The ninth grade program was conceived with these emotional, psychological, and academic factors in mind.

Ninth grade English emphasizes writing and reading. Writing instruction gives students important writing skills and trains them in a variety of types of writing. Specific writing assignments are organized under the broad categories of informal, formal and creative writing.

The literature instruction concentrates on the intensive reading of literary, which may be organized around a specific theme, such as justice and vengeance, choice and responsibility, prejudice, family relations, and love. Literary study emphasizes the analysis of the various aspects of works, such as style, structure, and setting. Students respond to the literature with various kinds of writing.

Successful completion of Forms of E9 will prepare students to meet the reading and writing requirements of the upperclass elective program, from which students, as sophomores, juniors, and seniors, will choose -- with teacher input and guidance -- specific courses that are appropriate for their individual needs and interests.

II. Writing

Rationale and Goals

It is important for students to be able to write in a variety of modes, as a means both of communication and of self-discovery. Writing is a tool students will use throughout the Lincoln-Sudbury curriculum, as well as in college and the work place. Writing researchers have divided writing into three basic categories: informal, formal, and creative. Research also shows that professional writers view writing as a stage-by-stage process and that students should develop writing in this manner.

The goals of the writing instruction, therefore, are as follows:
• To give students practice in informal, formal, and creative writing
• To teach them, through practice, the value of a process approach to writing (For an outline of the steps of the writing process see Appendix)
• To give them practice in specific writing skills, such as logical organization, diction, figurative language, precise punctuation, parallelism, transitions, conciseness, etc. (For a more complete list of writing skills, see Appendix)
• To make them more at ease with the act of writing
• To make them intelligent editors of their own writing
• To help them appreciate the importance of clear, expressive writing as a means of thinking independently and communicating in a real, personal voice

Method

Teachers use a combination of lecture, discussion, and in-class writing during which students receive individual help with their writing. Specific methods or techniques used commonly by teachers include the following:

• requiring and responding to drafts of compositions
• using writing conferences
• organizing students into peer editing groups
• grading for specific criteria only (A teacher, for example, may announce to the class that for the present assignments s/he will only be grading students on thesis, organization, and development, while ignoring other technical matters.)
• using writing models to teach a specific form of writing
• using literature as a springboard to writing assignments
• using technology productively and responsively (see the English Department statement and school policy regarding plagiarism and cheating)

Specific Types of Writing

Specific types of writing that teachers may require students to do are listed below by broad category (informal, formal, creative).

Informal:
journal
letter
personal narrative
personal remembrance
satire
interview
dialogue
free response to a prompt
free response to art/music

Formal:
expository essay
persuasive essay
descriptive essay
critical (analytical) essay
essay test

Creative:
poem
short story
one-act play
myth/legend
song lyrics
new ending to a short story/novel
another scene for a play
parody
rewrite of a story using a different setting or point of view

III. Literature

Rationale and Goals

There are many possible approaches to the teaching of literature: by theme, by genre, and by setting are just three possibilities. Many of the approaches achieve several goals: 1. Helping the students grasp the complexity of a subject; 2. forcing the student to confront and evaluate contradictory interpretations of the same topic; 3. revealing to the student the essential ambiguity of the subject. 4. encouraging the students reconsider their own ideas about the subject; and 5. highlighting the inclusiveness that is a crucial feature of our curriculum, e.g., gender, race, class and culture.

The broad goals of the study of literature are as follows:
• To introduce students to the study and close analysis of novels, short stories, lyric poetry, drama, nonfiction, and film.
• To expose students to a variety of perspectives on the social, ethical, and philosophical issues that the literature addresses
• To help students clarify their own thinking about such issues
• To make students more proficient at abstract and critical thinking
• To acquaint students with the formal elements of literature and to help them understand how these elements combine to produce a work of imagination which is moving and meaningful
• To continue students’ development as writers

Method

Teachers use some combination of discussion, lecture, and student presentation or group activity. Discussion is generally the primary means of instruction. The discussion questions range from the specific and technical to the broad issues raised by a piece of literature. Students may work in groups to analyze together a specific aspect of a work or a single, short work, subsequently presenting their interpretation to the class. Student groups may have a longer term project, such as performing a scene or act of a play, writing their own short play, or making a film that draws on material of the course.

Students use some of the forms of writing to respond to the literature. Teachers evaluate students’ grasp of the reading through these writing assignments and through their participation in class discussion.

Expectations

Students are expected to participate in all classroom activities. Students will be required to read nightly. There will be a minimum of four to six major writing assignments per semester.

Readings

Most readings for E9 are drawn from the following list:

African Myths
All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque
Animal Farm, Orwell
Antigone, Sophocles
Assistant, Malamud
Au Revoir Les Enfants, Malle
Bean Trees, Kingsolver
Bless Me, Ultima, Anaya
Catcher in the Rye, Salinger
Children’s Hour, Hellman
Children’s Story, Clavell
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Haddon
Dawn, Wiesel
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson
Ellen Foster, Gibbons
Epic of Gilgamesh
Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury
Feed, M.T. Anderson
Great Expectations, Dickens
Gulliver’s Travels, Swift
Heart is a Lonely Hunter, The, McCullers
House on Mango Street, Cisneros
Inherit the Wind, Lawrence and Lee
Into the Wild, Krakauer
Iron and Silk, Salzman
Julius Caesar, Shakespeare
Gathering of Old Men, Gaines
Lesson Before Dying, Gaines
Lord of the Flies, Golding
Lost in Place, Salzman
Metamorphosis, Kafka
Night, Wiesel
Nine Stories, Salinger
Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck
Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway
Our Town, Wilder
Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry
Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare
Secret Lives of Bees, Kidd
Separate Peace, Knowles
Stepping Stones (anthology)
Sudden Fiction International (anthology)
Tale of the Unknown Island, Saramago
Tale of Two Cities, Dickens
Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare
Things Fall Apart, Achebe
Twelve Angry Men, Rose
Wait Till Next Year, Goodwin
Walkabout, Marshall
White Deer, The, Thurber

Most films for E9 are drawn from the following list:

Films:
Au Revoir Les Enfants
Cinema Paradiso
Dead Poets Society
Elephant Man
Field of Dreams
Good Will Hunting
Great Expectations
Hand, The
Inherit the Wind
Into the Wild
Julius Caesar
Last Days, The
Life is Beautiful
Lord of the Flies
Of Mice and Men
Princess Bride, The
Rain Man
Raisin in the Sun
Romeo and Juliet (Zeffirelli and Luhrmann versions)
School Ties
Shakespeare in Love
Slamnation
Stand and Deliver
Taming of the Shrew (Zeffirelli)
Ten Things I Hate About You
Truman Show, The
Twelve Angry Men
Wall-E
West Side Story