Ninth Grade Literature/Composition, Honors Literature/Composition
Integrates writing, grammar and usage, literature, speaking, listening, and critical thinking skills. Presents the writing process: planning, drafting, revising, editing, and proofing; the study of form in personal narratives, descriptions, and expository papers with emphasis on persuasive writing. Includes reading a variety of multicultural literature: short stories, novels, tales, poetry, mythology, drama, and nonfiction. Emphasizes oral and written response to literature, distinguishing characteristics of various genres, literary elements, and vocabulary study. Prior approval required for honors courses.
Civics/Citizenship Education, Honors Civics/Citizenship
Focuses on basic concepts and principles of the American political system. Covers the structure and function of the American system of government, the roles and responsibilities of citizens to participate in the political process, and the relationship of the individual to the law and legal system. Stresses critical analysis of public issues. Integrates and reinforces social studies skills. This course is designed to be completed in one quarter or one semester. This course meets the state's Citizenship requirement for graduation. Prior approval required for honors courses.
Health
Explores the mental, physical, and social aspects of life and how each contributes to total health and well-being; emphasizes safety, nutrition, mental health, substance abuse prevention, disease prevention, environmental health, family life education, health careers, consumer health, and community health. Students will take their health class half of the year and civics/citizenship the other half.
Biology I
The biology curriculum is designed to continue student investigations of the life sciences that began in grades K‐8 and provide students the necessary skills to be proficient in biology. This curriculum includes more abstract concepts such as the interdependence of organisms, the relationship of matter, energy, and organization in living systems, the behavior of organisms, and biological evolution. Students will investigate biological concepts through experience in laboratories and field work using the processes of inquiry.
Honors Biology I
Introduces science process skills and laboratory safety, research, nature of biology, cellular biology, biochemistry, genetics, evolution, classification, diversity of life, human body, and ecology. Prior approval required for honors courses.
Algebra 1
The fundamental purpose of Algebra 1 is to formalize and extend the mathematics that students learned in the middle grades. The critical areas, organized into units, deepen and extend understanding of linear relationships, in part by contrasting them with exponential phenomena, and in part by applying linear models to data that exhibit a linear trend. Coordinate Algebra uses algebra to deepen and extend understanding of geometric knowledge from prior grades. The final unit in the course ties together the algebraic and geometric ideas studied. The Mathematical Practice Standards apply throughout each course and, together with the content standards, prescribe that students experience mathematics as a coherent, useful, and logical subject that makes use of their ability to make sense of problem situation.