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Search every subject world, from Preschool to Grade 12. The first five courses of every subject path are free.

12 courses

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English · Grade 9

Close Reading and Evidence

Learners practice reading a short passage three times with sharper questions each time, separating what a text states from what it suggests. They choose the strongest and most thorough evidence for a claim, weave quotations into their own sentences honestly, and write commentary that explains how the evidence proves the claim. An original story and a short public-domain excerpt from Jack London's “To Build a Fire” are the practice texts; the quiz uses a passage learners have not seen.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 120 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions
Free starter

English · Grade 9

Narrative Structure and Perspective

Learners examine who tells a story and how the telling is arranged. They compare one event told from two points of view, test a narrator's reliability with Poe's “The Tell-Tale Heart,” untangle stories told out of order, and see how pacing stretches or shrinks time. An optional Going further lesson shows how Ambrose Bierce bends time to build one of fiction's most famous endings.

  • 5 lessons
  • About 130 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions
Free starter

English · Grade 9

Vocabulary, Syntax and Style

Learners treat words and sentences as a writer's tools. They unlock unfamiliar words with context clues, roots and even sentence structure (using Lewis Carroll's “Jabberwocky”), weigh connotation to describe tone and mood in Poe's “The Fall of the House of Usher,” analyze Dickens's famous parallel opening, and interpret figurative language in Carl Sandburg's “Fog.” The quiz applies these tools to unseen sentences and to Tennyson's “The Eagle.”

  • 4 lessons
  • About 125 min
  • Quiz: 10 questions
Free starter

English · Grade 9

Analytical Paragraphs and Claims

Learners learn to write the basic unit of literary analysis: a paragraph that makes an arguable claim and proves it. Using Kate Chopin's “The Story of an Hour,” they separate claims from summary and opinion, assemble paragraphs from claim, evidence, commentary and a closing link, diagnose weak paragraphs and revise them. They then plan and write about stories they have never seen.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 135 min
  • Quiz: 10 questions
Free starter

English · Grade 9

Compare Literary Forms and Genres

Learners compare the toolkits of poetry, drama and prose fiction, then see how form shapes meaning: line breaks in William Carlos Williams's “The Red Wheelbarrow,” rhyme and compression in Robert Frost's “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” and the Prologue of Romeo and Juliet, which gives away the ending on purpose. They examine how genre conventions set up expectations, and compare a poem and a prose passage on the same idea. An optional Going further lesson tells one event in three forms.

  • 5 lessons
  • About 130 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions
Free starter

English · Grade 9

Read Informational and Argumentative Texts

Learners read nonfiction the way they read literature: closely and critically. They find the central idea of an excerpt from Frederick Douglass's Narrative and summarize it objectively, map the structure of a feature article on cool roofs and city heat, compare a neutral article with a student op-ed to uncover purpose and point of view, and sort claims of fact, value and policy while tracing an argument's reasons.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 130 min
  • Quiz: 10 questions

English · Grade 9

Research Questions and Source Evaluation

Learners begin real research the way researchers do: with a good question. They narrow broad topics into focused, researchable questions, tell primary from secondary sources in a local-history investigation, judge credibility with five questions and lateral reading, and plan searches while recording the details they will need to cite. All sources are invented for practice, so learners can test their judgment safely.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 125 min
  • Quiz: 10 questions

English · Grade 9

Argument, Counterargument and Reasoning

Learners take arguments apart and put them back together. They map claim, reasons, evidence and the reasoning that links them in a student argument about phones in class, test whether evidence is relevant and sufficient, learn to spot six common fallacies, and write a paragraph that states a counterclaim fairly before rebutting it. An optional Going further lesson weighs two letters on the same local issue and builds a qualified claim.

  • 5 lessons
  • About 140 min
  • Quiz: 10 questions

English · Grade 9

Personal and Imaginative Writing

Learners write true and imagined stories with craft. They practice showing rather than telling through precise words and telling details, use dialogue and pacing to reveal character, shape a personal essay from an engaging opening to a reflective ending, and revise a draft for voice and purpose. Model passages are original, and learners write a scene and a reflective narrative of their own.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 130 min
  • Quiz: 10 questions

English · Grade 9

Revision, Grammar and Rhetorical Choices

Learners use grammar as a set of choices rather than a list of rules. Working on one student report about a community mural, they combine choppy sentences with phrases and clauses, repair faulty parallelism, join ideas with semicolons and colons while fixing comma splices, and decide when active or passive voice, concision and sentence position best serve their audience. They finish by revising a paragraph and explaining their choices.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 125 min
  • Quiz: 10 questions

English · Grade 9

Discussion, Listening and Presentation

Learners study the thinking behind good talk. Using a transcript of students discussing “The Last Ferry,” they learn to ask questions that move a discussion forward, to paraphrase, build on and respectfully challenge ideas, and to summarize where a group agrees and disagrees. They listen critically to a student speech full of distorted evidence, then plan a clear, honest presentation of their own. Speaking practice is offered as optional, unscored activities.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 125 min
  • Quiz: 10 questions

English · Grade 9

A Comparative Reading and Writing Portfolio

The Grade 9 capstone. Learners compare how Paul Laurence Dunbar's poem “We Wear the Mask” and an original story about a teenager working a hotel front desk treat the theme of hidden feeling. They plan a comparative thesis, choose an organization, draft and revise comparative paragraphs against a rubric, and assemble a small portfolio from the year with a reflection grounded in evidence of growth. An optional Going further lesson adds Dunbar's “Sympathy” for a three-way comparison.

  • 5 lessons
  • About 150 min
  • Quiz: 10 questions