Unit Materials for 9th Grade English

Need to purchase texts for this course?

You can request a current spreadsheet with all unit texts needed to teach Fishtank ELA for the 2025-26 school year by emailing [email protected].

Fishtank Learning partners with two text vendors who offer convenient ordering options for a school or district adoption: The Reading Warehouse and Mackin. You can request an introduction to the appropriate representative by emailing [email protected].

Note: Some of the links below are Amazon affiliate links. This means that if you click and make a purchase, we receive a small portion of the proceeds, which supports our non-profit mission.

Me, Myself, and I: Examining Personal Identity in Short Texts

Core Texts

Book: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain (Crown) — 1170L
Poem: “I'm Nobody! Who are you? (260)” by Emily Dickinson (The Poetry Foundation)
Video: “My Honest Poem” by Rudy Francisco (Button Poetry, YouTube)
Poem: “Counterfactual” by Clint Smith
Book: Fresh Ink: An Anthology (Ember)
Poem: “(citizen)(illegal)” by José Olivarez (Poet's House)
Book: How Beautiful the Ordinary: Twelve Stories of Identity (HarperTeen)
Book: The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu (Saga Press) — 950L
Book: One Good Story, That One by Thomas King (Harper Perennial)
Poem: “Hair” by Elizabeth Acevedo (The George Washington University, YouTube)
Written Text: “Hair” by Elizabeth Acevedo (Medium)
Video: “Our fight for disability rights—and why we're not done yet” by Judith Heumann (TED Talk)

Supporting Texts

Article: “In 'Turning Red' I Finally Saw Myself Reflected in a Main Character” by Evelyn Kwong (The Toronto Star)
Resource: Recommended Texts for Independent Reading

You Laugh But It’s True: Humor and Institutional Racism in Born a Crime

Core Texts

Book: Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah (One World)

Supporting Texts

Map: Bantustans, Republic of South Africa and South-West Africa
Document: “Act Number 30 of 1950”
Article: “'Where Shall I Go?'” by David Rabkin (The Black Sash)
Audio Interview: Mr. V. Quinta
Audio Interview: Eddie Daniels
Photo: The Signs that Defined the Apartheid
Article: “The 'Crime' of Martial Sex” (Miscegnation)
Photo: Scene of Alexandra Township (1)
Photo: Scene of Alexandra Township (2)
Photo: Umlazi Township crate housing
Video: “Wathint' abafazi, wathint' imbokodo” (eNCA)
Photo: Police at Sharpeville Massacre
Article: “This Photo Galvanized the World Against Apartheid. Here’s the Story Behind It” by Aryn Baker/Soweto and TIME Staff (TIME)
Speech: “Inaugural Speech” by Nelson Mandela
Video: “South Africa's coloured community: 'Still marginalised after apartheid'” (BBC News Africa)
Article: “Race and Racial Identity Are Social Constructs” by Angela Onwuachi-Willig (The New York Times)
Article: “Tyla’s racial identity: South African singer sparks culture war” by Danai Nesta Kupemba (BBC)
Resource: Recommended Texts for Independent Reading

Power, Justice, and Culpability: Of Mice and Men and The Central Park Five

Core Texts

Book: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Book: The Central Park Five: The Untold Story Behind One of New York City's Most Infamous Crimes by Sarah Burns

Supporting Texts

Video: “History Brief: Okies During the Great Depression” (Reading Through History)
Photo: Migrant worker on California highway by Dorothea Lange
Photo: Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California by Dorothea Lange
Photo: Drought refugees from Texas encamped in California near Exeter. Seven in family by Dorothea Lange
Letter: “John Steinbeck's Letter to Claire Luce” by John Steinbeck
Poem: “To a Mouse” by Robert Burns
Article: “Supreme Court Denies Stay of Execution for Marvin Williams” by Brandi Grissom
Article: “Supreme Court Bars Executing Mentally Retarded” by David Stout
Article: “Family of John Steinbeck 'deeply troubled' by Scheduled Execution of Marvin Williams” by Thomas Steinbeck
Article: “What is Cognitive Bias and How Does it Contribute to Wrongful Convictions” by Vanessa Meterko
Article: “Black People are Wrongly Convicted More Than Any Other Group” by Christina Swarms
Movie: When They See Us by Ava DuVernay
Resource: Recommended Texts for Independent Reading

¡Viva Las Mariposas! Voice and Agency in In the Time of the Butterflies

Core Texts

Book: In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez (Algonquin Books of Chapel)

Supporting Texts

Video: “Who were Las Mariposas, and why were they murdered?—Lisa Krause” by TED-Ed
Article: “The Dominican Republic under Trujillo” by The National Endowment for the Arts
Article: “80 Years On, Dominicans and Haitians Revisit Painful Memories of Parsley Massacre” by Marlon Bishop and Tatiana Fernandez
Painting: Haitian Massacre, 1937 by José Ramírez Conde and Roberto Flores
Article: “Dominican Republic: Chambers of Horror” by TIME
Painting: Paradise for a Tourist Brochure, 1990 by Freddy Rodríguez
Resource: Recommended Texts for Independent Reading

Gender and Power in The Taming of the Shrew

Core Texts

Play: The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare (Folger Shakespeare Library)

Supporting Texts

Short Story: “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid
Poem: “How to Be a Man” by Simar Singh
Video: “How to Be a Man” by Simar Singh
Excerpt: Excerpts from the Declaration of Independence and the Declaration of Sentiments (G9, U5, L3)
Video: “We should all be feminists” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (TED)
Poem: “Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun” by William Shakespeare
Video: “The Taming of the Shrew (2012) | Act 1 Scene 1” by Shakespeare's Globe
Video: “Act 1 Scene 1 | The Taming of the Shrew | 2019” by the Royal Shakespeare Company
Song: “The Man”
Video: “The Taming of the Shrew (2012) | Act 2 Scene 1 (Part 1)” by Shakespeare's Globe
Video: “The Taming of the Shrew (2012) | Act 2 Scene 1 (Part 2)” by Shakespeare's Globe
Video: “Act 2 Scene 1 | The Taming of the Shrew | 2019” by the Royal Shakespeare Company
Video: “The Taming of the Shrew (1967) (Clip)” by Franco Zeffirrelli (director)
Video: “The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare Retold (2005)” by BBC
Video: “10 Things I Hate About You (1999) (Clip 1)” by Gil Junger (director)
Video: “10 Things I Hate About You (1999) (Clip 2)” by Gil Junger (director)
Video: “10 Things I Hate About You (1999) (Clip 3)” by Gil Junger (director)
Article: “Angel Reese isn't harming women's sports. Her pearl-clutching critics are” by Mary McNamara
Essay: “I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady
Resource: Recommended Texts for Independent Reading

Unit Materials for 9th Grade English

Need to purchase texts for this course?

Me, Myself, and I: Examining Personal Identity in Short Texts

Core Texts

Supporting Texts

You Laugh But It’s True: Humor and Institutional Racism in Born a Crime

Core Texts

Supporting Texts

Power, Justice, and Culpability: Of Mice and Men and The Central Park Five

Core Texts

Supporting Texts

¡Viva Las Mariposas! Voice and Agency in In the Time of the Butterflies

Core Texts

Supporting Texts

Gender and Power in The Taming of the Shrew

Core Texts

Supporting Texts

Request a Demo

Contact Information

School Information

What courses are you interested in?

ELA

Math

Any other information you would like to provide about your school?

We Handle Materials So You Can Focus on Students