Course Syllabus

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2026 - 2027Syllabus

Faculty

Section Teacher
Mr. J. Donnici 
Ms. S. Chan
Mr. C. Ruttenberg
Mr. W. Paul
Mr. R. Roberts

Course Description

ENGLISH 9 builds on the foundations of English 8 by inviting students to explore more complex texts and perspectives. How do language and story shape our views of self, justice, belonging, and change? Students analyze how authors use structure, symbolism, and tone to communicate deeper meaning — and they begin to experiment with these tools in their own writing. Through group work, independent reading, and reflective writing, students strengthen their voice and learn how to support their ideas with evidence. They continue to practise quote integration and refine paragraph structure.

Unit 1

  • Big Idea: Language and story can be a source of creativity and joy.
  • Topics: Discussion & Listening, Argumentation, Paragraph Structure, Thesis, Evidence
  • Texts: Summer Reading Books

Unit 2

  • Big Idea: Exploring stories and other texts helps us understand ourselves and make connections to others and to the world.
  • Topics: Theme, Symbol, Metaphor, POV, Analysis, Quote Integration
  • Texts: Various Short Stories

Unit 3

  • Big Idea: Texts are socially, culturally, and historically constructed.
  • Topics: Pacing, Tone, Rhetorical Devices, Justice, Oppression, Perspective
  • Texts: Various poems and oral speeches

Unit 4

  • Big Idea: People understand text differently depending on their worldviews and perspectives.
  • Topics: Language change, visual texts, literary devices, synthesis, reader response, multi-paragraphing
  • Texts: Macbeth

Unit 5

  • Big Idea: Questioning what we hear, read, and view contributes to our ability to be educated and engaged citizens.
  • Topics: Bias, close reading, subtext, inter-text synthesis
  • Texts: Lord of the Flies

Contacting Me

  • As the teacher for this course, I can be contacted in the following ways:

    I am available for contact by email during these times: Mon - Fri, 8am - 5:00pm. 

    I am happy to meet in person as well, at any time during the school day when I am not teaching. To make the most of any conversations outside of regular class hours, please email me with as much notice as possible, stating clearly what you would like to talk about and when you are available. Connection blocks (Mon/Th 11:05-11:35) are a great time for in-person meetings. Please honour any sessions you arrange by coming prepared, having done what is expected of you as a student, and by committing to the course of action that’s recommended to you, for improved learning. 

Assessment and Evaluation

In Grades 8 and 9, the following outcomes are assessed on the 4pt Proficiency Scale: 

 

  • Analysis [15%]
  • Connections/Synthesis [10%]
  • Thesis [10%]
  • Citation/Quote Integration [10%]
  • Support/Evidence [5%]
  • Organization [15%]
  • Editing [10%]
  • Speaking [15%]
  • Style [10%]

Students do not receive an overall percentage; instead, they will see either Emerging, Developing, Proficient, and Extending on progress reports. 

Major Assessments will include Written Responses in various modes, Discussion, and Multimodal Presentations

Course Expectations

As students enter the Graduation Years, they should expect to have to read, think, and write independently outside of instructional hours. How much time really depends on individual aptitude in this subject area, as well as how engaged and productive you are during lessons; how much extra quality time it takes for one to achieve the desired results is another consideration. A task which could/should take an hour to complete might, for a variety of reasons, consume your attention longer. Getting something done well is often several steps beyond merely getting something done. 

 

See St. George’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Guidelines in the Student Code of Conduct. We do not want to read AI-generated work in English; hence all tasks are, by default, Level 0 on the SGS AI Use on Assessments table. If you have Grammarly or other invasive writing tools installed in your browser, constantly prompting you to settle for words and thoughts which are not your own, please shut them down when doing any coursework. A good question to ask yourself before you submit anything for assessment is “How much of me (my thinking and my current ability) is genuinely represented in this work?” Another one: “Would I be confident in my ability to do this again with pen and paper?” 

AI slop is boring. We are interested in what you can do, grammatical errors and all.

Resources / Materials

You should bring your laptop, charged and ready to go — even though we will mostly NOT be on screens. Don’t forget your Notebook. Have with you whatever text/papers we are working on at the time as well. We will do a lot of annotation, so pens, pencils, and even highlighters should be part of your regular kit. Reading a book on the side? Bring that, too. 

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