Ninth Grade

• Music IV: Topics in music theory include triads, traditional harmony and four-part writing. The students continue to participate in a school orchestra and choir.
• Geometry/Precalculus: The first semester is the study of geometry with emphasis on geometric relationships through constructions. The second semester begins the study of precalculus that continues through the tenth grade. This first semester focuses on the language of functions.  Students use graphing calculators (TI-83’s) to assist them in their study. Students use the text Discovering Geometry by Key Curriculum Press and Precalculus: Graphical, Numerical, Algebraic by Pearson/Addison-Wesley.
• Biology: A full-year course that includes the study of cellular biology, genetics, the theory of evolution by natural selection, human anatomy and physiology.  Students perform dissections of seven different organisms, moving from simpler life forms to more complex.  Animals dissected include earthworm, crayfish, grasshopper, squid, shark, frog and fetal pig. Students will use the text Modern Biology by Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
• Latin IV: Students continue using the texts Wheelock’s Latin Grammar along with 38 Latin Stories in the first semester. Second semester students translate selections from Caesar’s First Oration against Cataline, Cicero’s De Republica, and Virgil’s Aeneid.
• Humane Letters Seminar: This is the beginning course in the high school study of humanities.  The fields of literature, history and philosophy are integrated into a two-hour seminar in which ideas are explored through discussion. In the ninth grade Humane Letters course, the students study U.S. History from the position of political theory. Readings include The Federalist Papers (selections), The Red Badge of Courage, The Narrative of the Life of a Slave, My Antonia, To Kill A Mockingbird, Our Town, and The Old Man and the Sea.

Students also learn to write a five-paragraph essay. Using the literature or history they are reading in class, the students learn to formulate a sound thesis supported by three logical examples from the text and a simple conclusion.

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