This Literature & Composition course is designed to meet the requirements for one semester of a year-long 9th-grade English course. Throughout the 14 weeks, students will be guided through a variety of texts (short stories, poems, essays, novels, nonfiction, etc.) from a variety of global perspectives. Live sessions take place once per week. New material (including SAT/ACT prep vocabulary) will be provided during each class. 

📚Students will also learn grade-level appropriate vocabulary, grammar, writing skills.
📚Homework will consist of readings with text-dependent questions and short answers questions.
📚Two original essays and a short research paper will also be required during the course.

🎓Units of study include:

Unit 1: Argumentative Writing
Unit 2: Media Literacy
Unit 3: Drama
Unit 4: Novels

📅 Scope and Sequence:

Week 1--Overview of Argumentative Writing + Rhetorical Appeals (Logos, Ethos, & Pathos) 
Week 2--More Rhetorical Strategies
Week 3--Essay #1 Writing Lab
Week 4--Intro to Media Literacy
Week 5--Spotting Fake News + Digital Literacy
Week 6--Drama + Origins of Theater (Essay #1 Due)
Week 7--Romeo & Juliet (students must purchase a copy of Gareth Hinds graphic novel)
Week 8--Romeo & Juliet (cont'd)
Week 9--Essay #2 Writing Lab
Week 10--Intro to Independent Novels + Dialectical Reading Journals (Students must purchase their own copies of selected novels.)
Week 11--Overview of We Are Not From Here (Sanchez), Monster (Myers), & The Bluest Eye (Morrison)
Week 12--Overview of Legend (Lu), The Marrow Thieves (Dimaline), & Animal Farm (Orwell)
Week 13--Overview of The Dialectical Reading Journals Writing Lab
Week 14--Final course reflections (Dialectical Reading Journals due)

💜My teaching style is interactive. I am not the sage on the stage. Instead, I am a facilitator and guide. Therefore, lecture time is limited to no more than 20 minutes of each class period. The remaining class time is allocated to whole-group discussion and Socratic Seminar. In this course, we learn and grow together.