English

Strand A is the toolkit for all of Grade 9 English (ENL1W). In class it is usually taught and assessed through the other strands; this unit gives each expectation its own lesson so you can learn it thoroughly.

• A1 Transferable Skills: name and use the seven transferable skills when you read, listen, view and create, and make a plan to grow your voice and skills.
• A2 Digital Media Literacy: digital citizenship and permission; online safety, privacy and well-being; research with a focus on misinformation, disinformation and curated information; media forms, conventions and techniques; form, message, context and audience; innovation and design; and respectful, inclusive online communities.
• A3 Applications, Connections and Contributions: use English skills across subjects and in everyday life; explore identity, self and belonging in culturally responsive texts; and analyze themes and ways of knowing in texts by First Nations, Métis and Inuit creators.

The skills here connect directly to Grade 10 English and to research, media and writing tasks in every other course.

This unit covers Strand B: Foundations of Language of the Grade 9 English course (ENL1W, 2023). It builds the skills every other part of the course depends on.

• Oral communication (B1): listening in discussions and seminars, listening strategies for talks and podcasts, using evidence from what you hear, speaking for different purposes and audiences, using and evaluating voice, gesture and body language (including how they vary across cultures), and speaking with precise, subject-specific words.
• Language foundations for reading and writing (B2): reading and spelling complex words by their morphemes, suffix spelling rules (with Canadian spelling), Greek and Latin roots for high school subjects, academic vocabulary and word forms, working out new words in context, reading complex texts fluently, and reading aloud with purpose, including Shakespeare's verse.
• Language conventions (B3): complex and compound-complex sentences, parallel structure and modifiers, parts of speech by function, verbals and active and passive voice, and punctuation and capitalization for clear meaning.

Each lesson starts with what you learned in Grade 8, teaches the Grade 9 skill with worked examples and diagrams, and ends with practice at three levels and a quiz. The skills connect directly to the Comprehension and Composition units and to every other Grade 9 course.

In this unit you will read like a Grade 9 critic. You will compare forms and genres, especially poetry, short fiction and drama, and a cultural form, the Arabic, Persian and Urdu ghazal. You will trace text patterns such as compare and contrast and check footnotes and copyright information. You will crack complex texts using grammar (passive voice, nominalization), cohesive ties and prior knowledge from other subjects, and you will predict, monitor and fix up your understanding.

You will analyze elements of style (with John McCrae's "In Flanders Fields"), narrative point of view and unreliable narrators (with Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart"), the literary devices allusion, analogy, juxtaposition and flashback, and local and global inferences in a one-act play and in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. You will evaluate visual design and camera choices in media texts, the credibility, reliability and significance of information, and perspectives and bias, including how texts address diversity, inclusion and accessibility. You will investigate cultural elements such as norms, hierarchy and taboos.

You will learn from First Nations, Métis and Inuit creators, including Richard Wagamese, Maria Campbell, Alootook Ipellie, Tomson Highway and Drew Hayden Taylor, through Indigenous Storywork, and compare how history shaped their texts. Finally, you will connect, summarize and synthesize across texts and reflect on your strategies and critical thinking with SMART goals.

Every lesson has short texts written for this site (or brief public-domain quotations), worked examples, two or more diagrams, a hands-on activity, four sets of practice questions and a quiz. Strand A (Literacy Connections and Applications) is its own unit; some of its skills are practised here.

Curriculum expectations covered: C1.1, C1.2, C1.3, C1.4, C1.5, C1.6, C1.7, C2.1, C2.2, C2.3, C2.4, C2.5, C2.6, C2.7, C3.1, C3.2, C3.3, C3.4, C3.5, C3.6, C3.7, C3.8 (The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 9–12: English, ENL1W, de-streamed, 2023, Strand C).

In this unit you'll write the way high school asks you to: for real purposes and real audiences, with research you can trust and sources you credit honestly.

You'll start by planning: choosing purpose, audience, form, genre and medium and justifying your choices; generating ideas on complex topics, including topics about diversity, equity and inclusion and topics from other subjects; researching with search plans and library databases; evaluating the currency, quality, bias and accuracy of information and verifying sources by reading laterally; taking notes, paraphrasing and synthesizing; practising academic honesty, checking copyright and citing in MLA style; and organizing content with a thesis and outline.

Then you'll draft the forms Grade 9 asks for: the literary analysis essay, the argumentative essay, informational and expository reports, personal narratives and stories, and media texts such as podcasts, videos, slides and infographics. You'll shape your voice, examine the points of view and bias in your own writing, revise for clarity, focus and coherence, edit and proofread with word-processing tools, and build handwriting and typing fluency. Finally, you'll publish and present your work safely, evaluate its effect with evidence and reflect on every stage of the creative process.

Remember from Grade 8: you planned texts on challenging topics, used SIFT and MLA citation, wrote narratives, op-eds, analytical essays, news articles and campaigns, and revised with feedback. Grade 9 builds on all of it with longer texts, more independent research, formal academic writing and the habits that carry into Grade 10 English and the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT). Every lesson has model texts written for this site (all named people, sources and figures in examples are invented unless stated), worked examples, a hands-on activity, practice with answers and a short quiz.

Curriculum expectations covered: D1.1, D1.2, D1.3, D1.4, D1.5, D2.1, D2.2, D2.3, D2.4, D2.5, D2.6, D3.1, D3.2, D3.3 (The Ontario Curriculum, English, Grade 9, De-streamed (ENL1W), 2023, Strand D: Composition: Expressing Ideas and Creating Texts). Strand A (Literacy Connections and Applications) is taught in its own unit.