Unit Materials for 9th Grade English
Explore the texts and supporting materials used in each unit of 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 Bookshop 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
-
Excerpt: “Introduction” from Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain
-
Poem: “I'm Nobody! Who are you? (260)” by Emily Dickinson (The Poetry Foundation)
-
Video: “My Honest Poem” by Rudy Francisco (Button Poetry, YouTube)
-
Excerpt: “Counterfactual” from Counting Descent 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)
-
Excerpt: “The Paper Menagerie” from The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu
-
Excerpt: “Borders” from One Good Story, That One by Thomas King
-
Video: “Hair” by Elizabeth Acevedo (The George Washington University, YouTube)
-
Poem: “Hair” by Elizabeth Acevedo
-
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
-
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
-
Article: “The 'Crime' of Martial Sex” (Miscegnation)
-
Video: “Wathint' abafazi, wathint' imbokodo” (eNCA)
-
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 Wilson” 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 Wilson” 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
-
Poem: “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid
-
Poem: “How to Be a Man” by Simar Singh
-
Video: “How to Be a Man” by Simar Singh
-
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 Zeffirelli (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 (The Los Angeles Times)
-
Essay: “I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady (Ms. Magazine / New York Magazine)
- Resource: Recommended Texts for Independent Reading
Star-Crossed Love in Romeo and Juliet
Core Texts
-
Play: Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (Folger Shakespeare Library)
-
Graphic Novel: Romeo and Juliet by Gareth Hinds (Candlewick) (teacher copy)
Supporting Texts
-
Video: “Romeo and Juliet (1968) | Act 1, Scene 5 | Clip 1” by Franco Zeffirelli (director)
-
Video: “Romeo and Juliet (1968) | Act 1, Scene 5 | Clip 2” by Franco Zeffirelli (director)
-
Video: “Romeo + Juliet (1996) | Act 1, Scene 5” by Baz Luhrmann (director)
-
Video: “Romeo and Juliet (1968) | Act 2, Scene 2” by Franco Zeffirelli (director)
-
Video: “Romeo + Juliet (1996) | Act 2, Scene 2” by Baz Luhrmann (director)
-
Video: “Romeo & Juliet (2009) | Act 2, Scene 2” by Shakespeare's Globe
-
Video: “Romeo and Juliet (2018) | Act 2, Scene 2” by the Royal Shakespeare Company
-
Video: “Pizza My Heart (2005) | Act 2, Scene 2” by Andy Wolk (director)
-
Video: “Gnomeo & Juliet (2011) | Act 2, Scene 2” by Kelly Asbury (director)
-
Video: “West Side Story (1961) | The gangs fight scene” by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins (directors)
-
Video: “West Side Story (2021) | La Borinqueña (Sharks Version)” by Steven Spielberg (director)
-
Article: “Steven Spielberg Refused to Subtitle the Spanish in West Side Story For This Important Reason” by Emma Dibdin (Town & Country)
-
Video: “Rosaline (2022) | Official Trailer” by Karen Maine (director)
-
Podcast: “Steve McQueen, Erica Whyman on Romeo and Juliet, Gender-swapped theatre” by Front Row (BBC)
-
Video: “Romeo and Juliet—importance of a female Mercutio” by the Royal Shakespeare Company
-
Video: “& Juliet (2022) | Official Trailer” by Broadway
-
Book: Teach the Torches to Burn: A Romeo & Juliet Remix by Caleb Roehrig (Feiwel & Friends)
-
Video: “Redefining Juliet (2016): Retelling Shakespeare like never before” by BBC Four
-
Article: “What Is Fatalism?” by Alan Cuncic
-
Article: “What is Free Will?” by Fishtank Staff
- Resource: Recommended Texts for Independent Reading
