Unit Materials for 9th Grade English
Explore the texts and supporting materials used in each unit of 9th Grade English.
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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].
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Me, Myself, and I: Examining Personal Identity in Short Texts
Core Texts
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Excerpt: “Introduction” from Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain
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Poem: “I'm Nobody! Who are you? (260)” by Emily Dickinson (The Poetry Foundation)
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Video: “My Honest Poem” by Rudy Francisco (Button Poetry, YouTube)
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Excerpt: Counterfactual from Counting Descent by Clint Smith
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Book: Fresh Ink: An Anthology (Ember)
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Poem: “(citizen)(illegal)” by José Olivarez (Poet's House)
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Book: How Beautiful the Ordinary: Twelve Stories of Identity (HarperTeen)
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Excerpt: The Paper Menagerie from The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu
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Excerpt: Borders from One Good Story, That One by Thomas King
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Video: “Hair” by Elizabeth Acevedo (The George Washington University, YouTube)
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Poem: “Hair” by Elizabeth Acevedo
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Video: “Our fight for disability rights—and why we're not done yet” by Judith Heumann (TED Talk)
Supporting Texts
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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
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Book: Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah (One World)
Supporting Texts
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Document: “Act Number 30 of 1950”
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Article: “'Where Shall I Go?'” by David Rabkin (The Black Sash)
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Audio Interview: Mr. V. Quinta
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Audio Interview: Eddie Daniels
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Article: “The 'Crime' of Martial Sex” (Miscegnation)
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Video: “Wathint' abafazi, wathint' imbokodo” (eNCA)
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Article: “This Photo Galvanized the World Against Apartheid. Here’s the Story Behind It” by Aryn Baker/Soweto and TIME Staff (TIME)
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Speech: “Inaugural Speech” by Nelson Mandela
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Video: “South Africa's coloured community: 'Still marginalised after apartheid'” (BBC News Africa)
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Article: “Race and Racial Identity Are Social Constructs” by Angela Onwuachi-Willig (The New York Times)
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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
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Book: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
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Book: The Central Park Five: The Untold Story Behind One of New York City's Most Infamous Crimes by Sarah Burns
Supporting Texts
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Video: “History Brief: Okies During the Great Depression” (Reading Through History)
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Photo: Migrant worker on California highway by Dorothea Lange
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Photo: Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California by Dorothea Lange
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Photo: Drought refugees from Texas encamped in California near Exeter. Seven in family by Dorothea Lange
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Letter: “John Steinbeck's Letter to Claire Luce” by John Steinbeck
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Poem: “To a Mouse” by Robert Burns
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Article: “Supreme Court Denies Stay of Execution for Marvin Williams” by Brandi Grissom
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Article: “Supreme Court Bars Executing Mentally Retarded” by David Stout
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Article: “Family of John Steinbeck 'deeply troubled' by Scheduled Execution of Marvin Williams” by Thomas Steinbeck
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Article: “What is Cognitive Bias and How Does it Contribute to Wrongful Convictions” by Vanessa Meterko
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Article: “Black People are Wrongly Convicted More Than Any Other Group” by Christina Swarms
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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
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Book: In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez (Algonquin Books of Chapel)
Supporting Texts
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Video: “Who were Las Mariposas, and why were they murdered?—Lisa Krause” by TED-Ed
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Article: “The Dominican Republic under Trujillo” by The National Endowment for the Arts
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Article: “80 Years On, Dominicans and Haitians Revisit Painful Memories of Parsley Massacre” by Marlon Bishop and Tatiana Fernandez
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Painting: Haitian Massacre, 1937 by José Ramírez Conde and Roberto Flores
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Article: “Dominican Republic: Chambers of Horror” by TIME
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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
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Play: The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare (Folger Shakespeare Library)
Supporting Texts
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Short Story: “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid
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Poem: “How to Be a Man” by Simar Singh
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Video: “How to Be a Man” by Simar Singh
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Video: “We Should All Be Feminists” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (TED)
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Poem: “Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun” by William Shakespeare
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Video: “The Taming of the Shrew (2012) | Act 1 Scene 1” by Shakespeare's Globe
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Video: “Act 1 Scene 1 | The Taming of the Shrew | 2019” by the Royal Shakespeare Company
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Song: “The Man”
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Video: “The Taming of the Shrew (2012) | Act 2 Scene 1 (Part 1)” by Shakespeare's Globe
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Video: “The Taming of the Shrew (2012) | Act 2 Scene 1 (Part 2)” by Shakespeare's Globe
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Video: “Act 2 Scene 1 | The Taming of the Shrew | 2019” by the Royal Shakespeare Company
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Video: “The Taming of the Shrew (1967) (Clip)” by Franco Zeffirelli (director)
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Video: “The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare Retold (2005)” by BBC
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Video: “10 Things I Hate About You (1999) (Clip 1)” by Gil Junger (director)
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Video: “10 Things I Hate About You (1999) (Clip 2)” by Gil Junger (director)
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Video: “10 Things I Hate About You (1999) (Clip 3)” by Gil Junger (director)
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Article: “Angel Reese isn't harming women's sports. Her pearl-clutching critics are” by Mary McNamara
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Essay: “I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady
- Resource: Recommended Texts for Independent Reading
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