Students are expected to read, log, and respond to outside reading. Technology is utilized through timed writings and typed essays. Communication skills are developed through group projects and oral presentations. Building on composition skills learned in previous years, students write descriptive and narrative compositions, as well as expository and persuasive papers. All ninth graders accumulate a writing portfolio of various types of compositions they choose to write.
Students study vocabulary from literary works.
Grammar and usage skills are taught through a variety of activities and sentence combining exercises. Students compose a variety of expository, descriptive, narrative, and persuasive writings stemming from fiction and non-fiction. Students memorize and recite a poem each month. Students also respond personally and analytically to outside reading, prepare and deliver formal and informal oral presentations, conduct research and document their results using APA style citations, and analyze a wide variety of literature, including Antigone, A Tale of Two Cities, Black Boy, The Hound of the Baskervilles, They Cage the Animals at Night, The Picture Bride, and Romeo and Juliet. Students improve their command of language usage through grammar activities, revision, and sentence combining activities.