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Georgia Standards

Georgia 9th Grade ELA Standards

All 110 Georgia English language arts standards for 9th grade, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in Georgia Department of Education's document, linked at the end of this page.

110 standards

Engagement & Intention for Comprehension & Composition

26 standards
Reader & Writer Identity
9.P.EICC.1.a
Create, track, and discuss personal and school goals for reading and writing, like finishing a novel each month, and update them as needed.
9.P.EICC.1.b
Reflect in discussion or writing on favorite authors, genres, topics, and techniques, explaining which ones resonate and why.
9.P.EICC.1.c
Pick high school texts to read and topics to write about that blend personal interest with what the class is studying.
9.P.EICC.1.d
Keep growing a set of reading and writing strategies, like annotating or outlining, and choose the right one when interpreting or building a text.
9.P.EICC.1.e
Help build a classroom community of readers and writers by agreeing on norms, discussing texts, sharing and hearing writing, and giving and taking feedback.
9.P.EICC.1.f
Take charge of one's own reading and writing, working with growing independence and self-direction.
Engagement & Intention
9.P.EICC.2.a
Read and write stories that tell true or imagined experiences, like a memoir chapter or a short story with a twist.
9.P.EICC.2.b
Use texts to learn, grow skills, weigh choices, and share information, like reading reviews before a decision or writing a how-to guide.
9.P.EICC.2.c
Read and write explanations to understand and teach ideas and processes, like how a bill becomes law.
9.P.EICC.2.d
Read and write analytical texts that examine and evaluate other texts and ideas, like a literary analysis essay.
9.P.EICC.2.e
Read and write texts meant to solve a problem or persuade someone to decide, like a letter urging a city council to act.
Comprehension Strategies
9.P.EICC.3.a
Know the reason for reading a text, set goals, check understanding regularly, and switch strategies when something stops making sense.
9.P.EICC.3.b
Skim and scan a text to spot the structures and sections that will help most, like a chapter's headings and summary.
9.P.EICC.3.c
Bring prior knowledge to a text, compare and combine it with new material, resolve conflicts or gaps, and expand what is known.
9.P.EICC.3.d
Keep track of meaning by summarizing passages and forming mental pictures of what a text describes.
9.P.EICC.3.e
Anticipate upcoming events or information in a text and follow those predictions to see whether they hold up.
9.P.EICC.3.f
Draw inferences about both literal and deeper meanings in a text, follow them as reading continues, and support them with evidence.
9.P.EICC.3.g
Figure out unfamiliar words and concepts using context, academic vocabulary, and word parts, like the root chron meaning time.
Writing Processes
9.P.EICC.4.a
Set a clear purpose and goals for each piece of writing and name the audience it is meant for.
9.P.EICC.4.b
Plan a text's organization by choosing the mode, genre, and structure that suit its purpose and readers, like a problem-solution essay.
9.P.EICC.4.c
Come up with content by drawing on prior knowledge, researching texts, and discussing ideas with others.
9.P.EICC.4.d
Match ideas and information to the outline, featuring the most relevant, useful, and compelling material.
9.P.EICC.4.e
Draft a text by blending ideas and information with carefully chosen words, sentences, and craft techniques that serve the purpose and reach the audience.
9.P.EICC.4.f
Assess a draft's effectiveness through self-review or peer feedback, checking whether it achieves its purpose and writing goals.
9.P.EICC.4.g
Revise using self-evaluation or feedback, strengthening organization, ideas, information, word choice, and craft so the text works better.
9.P.EICC.4.h
Edit writing carefully so it follows standard rules for grammar, usage, spelling, and punctuation.

Situating Texts

6 standards
Context
9.P.ST.1.a
Draw on prior knowledge, research, and discussion to decide which parts of context matter most for a text, like its historical moment or culture.
9.P.ST.1.b
Weigh how a text's context, like the era or culture it comes from, affects both the author's purpose and the audience's purpose.
9.P.ST.1.c
Examine how context guides an author's choices and an audience's reactions, both when interpreting texts and when creating them.
Author, Audience, & Purpose
9.P.ST.2.a
Use what is known about a writer, readers, and setting to pin down a text's purpose, in reading or writing, and judge how well it succeeds.
9.P.ST.2.b
Identify a clear point of view when reading, and develop a distinct perspective of one's own when writing, by weighing author, audience, and context.
9.P.ST.2.c
Use an understanding of how writers adapt to context and audience to pick the key ideas, the clearest design, the strongest wording, and the best craft moves.

Author’s Craft

12 standards
Reading like a Writer
9.P.AC.1.a
Recognize, use, and analyze literary, expository, and rhetorical elements, explaining or judging how each one affects the audience and serves the purpose.
9.P.AC.1.b
Recognize, use, and analyze powerful or effective language, explaining or judging how particular word choices affect readers and advance the purpose.
9.P.AC.1.c
Explain, analyze, and evaluate how an author's sentence structure and syntax shape the audience's response and serve the purpose, like repetition in a speech.
9.P.AC.1.d
Describe, analyze, and evaluate how a text's design and organization, including its formats, patterns, and features, affect readers, accessibility, and purpose.
Writing like a Reader
9.P.AC.2.a
Blend literary, expository, and rhetorical elements in writing to appeal to an intended audience and achieve a specific goal, like a persuasive speech with a story.
9.P.AC.2.b
Craft word choices deliberately to shape how readers respond, think, decide, and question, in service of a specific purpose.
9.P.AC.2.c
Decide on sentence structure and syntax while writing to suit and persuade the audience and fulfill the purpose, like a short sentence for emphasis.
9.P.AC.2.d
Structure writing with deliberate formats, patterns, and features, like a numbered list or cause-and-effect order, to guide readers and support the purpose.
Text Design
9.P.AC.3.a
Read and produce texts across modes and genres, like podcasts, editorials, and short films, learning how features affect meaning, tone, style, purpose, and audience.
9.P.AC.3.b
Apply knowledge of mode and genre to judge what ideas and information a text should include, like evidence in an editorial or sensory detail in a memoir.
9.P.AC.3.c
Apply knowledge of mode and genre to decide how a text's ideas and information should be ordered, like a lab report's fixed sections.
9.P.AC.3.d
Read and create multimodal texts that combine genres, features, and craft techniques, like an infographic or video essay, to sway an audience and meet a purpose.

Collaboration & Presentation

9 standards
Collaboration
9.P.CP.1.a
Show up to group discussions and team meetings prepared, having read and thought about the material, ready to contribute actively.
9.P.CP.1.b
Work with teammates to agree on norms, goals, and procedures and keep a shared project productive.
9.P.CP.1.c
Play an active part in discussions and team projects by proposing ideas, hearing out others, and giving useful feedback.
9.P.CP.1.d
Collaborate with peers to debate topics, research questions, work through problems, and read and produce texts together.
Presentation
9.P.CP.2.a
Present ideas, information, and texts clearly so listeners can follow along.
9.P.CP.2.b
Choose and combine the modes and genres that best suit a presentation's purpose and audience, like pairing a speech with slides and data.
9.P.CP.2.c
Change tone, pacing, and gestures to match the purpose and audience of a presentation, like slowing down for a key point.
9.P.CP.2.d
Hold a two-way exchange with an audience by posing questions and responding to the ones listeners ask.
9.P.CP.2.e
Memorize and recite all or part of notable poems and speeches suited to ninth grade, like a Shakespeare soliloquy, to build background knowledge.

Grammar Conventions

11 standards
Grammar, Usage, & Mechanics
9.L.GC.1.54
Master punctuating quoted evidence, using capital letters, quotation marks, commas, end marks, and parenthetical citations correctly.
9.L.GC.1.57
Master gerunds, participles, and infinitives and their phrases, forming and using each one according to its job in the sentence.
9.L.GC.1.58
Master using tense and aspect to signal a verb's mood, like the subjunctive in a hypothetical statement or a formal request.
9.L.GC.1.59
Master using a colon to lead into a quotation when a complete independent clause introduces it.
9.L.GC.1.60
Keep practicing dashes to set off interruptions, add emphasis, or signal a sudden shift in thought.
9.L.GC.1.61
Keep consulting a style guide, like the MLA Handbook, to resolve complicated grammar, usage, and punctuation questions.
Syntax
9.L.GC.2.a
Use syntax knowledge to understand, analyze, and evaluate many kinds of texts, noticing parallel structure, like a series of matching phrases.
9.L.GC.2.b
Vary sentence patterns and rework sentences for impact, keeping verb tenses, aspects, and moods consistent throughout.
9.L.GC.2.c
Write consistently in the active voice so the writing stays clear and concise.
9.L.GC.2.d
Develop ideas and information with added details and description to meet a purpose or hold the reader's interest.
9.L.GC.2.e
Recognize and write sentences with parallel structure, using matching grammatical forms to balance related ideas, like a series of matching verb phrases.

Vocabulary

10 standards
General, Academic, & Specialized Vocabulary
9.L.V.1.a
Learn a growing range of everyday, academic, subject-area, technical, and career-related words through high school print, digital, and multimedia texts.
9.L.V.1.b
Use everyday, academic, subject-area, technical, and professional vocabulary clearly and precisely, adjusting style for settings like a job interview or lab report.
Word Analysis
9.L.V.2.a
Take apart unknown words and phrases using word origins, common Greek and Latin roots, base words, and affixes to find their meaning in ninth-grade texts.
9.L.V.2.b
Figure out what words and phrases mean in context by analyzing their part of speech, like a word used as a noun in one sentence and a verb in another.
9.L.V.2.c
Create words from Greek and Latin roots, base words, and affixes and use them correctly, like forming autograph from auto and graph.
9.L.V.2.d
Apply knowledge of parts of speech to pick precise, effective words and phrases when writing, like a strong verb instead of a weak verb plus an adverb.
Meaning & Purpose
9.L.V.3.b
Analyze how words relate to each other to work out both the literal and emotional meanings of words and phrases in different contexts.
9.L.V.3.c
Analyze subtle differences in the feelings and associations of words with similar dictionary meanings, like curious versus nosy.
9.L.V.3.d
Use print and digital resources, including dictionaries, style guides, and online tools, to pin down the meaning of unfamiliar or multiple-meaning words and phrases.
9.L.V.3.e
Make deliberate word choices in writing and speaking by using print or digital resources to sort out the shades of meaning between close synonyms.

Context

7 standards
Purposes & Audiences
9.T.C.1.a
Use knowledge of whether a text serves a subject-area, personal, or technical purpose to understand it, like reading a manual differently from a diary.
9.T.C.1.b
Evaluate how a text's context and language affect the way its audience receives it.
9.T.C.1.c
Create and self-assess multimodal texts or presentations that serve several purposes for a specific audience, using clear features from each mode included.
Authors & Speakers
9.T.C.2.a
Examine differing viewpoints on one issue across several texts, like two op-eds on school start times, and analyze how each develops its perspective to sway beliefs.
9.T.C.2.b
Identify how much a speaker's reliability or credibility strengthens or weakens a text.
9.T.C.2.c
Determine why attitudes toward a topic have changed over time and how those shifts show up in texts, like changing views on social media.
9.T.C.2.d
Research answers to academic and personal questions by combining information from a range of credible sources into one clear understanding.

Structure & Style

7 standards
Organization
9.T.SS.1.a
Analyze whether a text's structure works for its intended readers, giving them what they need and expect.
9.T.SS.1.b
Write and organize texts with a structure and features that fit the mode, genre, purpose, and audience, like a cover letter or a feature article.
9.T.SS.1.c
Lead readers through a text with transitions between ideas and paragraphs that make the writing flow as a whole.
9.T.SS.1.d
Write coherent texts with an introduction that sets the focus and hooks readers, purposefully developed support, and a memorable conclusion.
Craft
9.T.SS.2.a
Analyze how figurative, connotative, and rhetorical language builds meaning, tone, or mood in many kinds of texts.
9.T.SS.2.b
Use literary devices, figurative and rhetorical language, and appeals to create effects that fit the purpose and audience, like a vivid metaphor in a speech.
9.T.SS.2.c
Choose a formal or informal style to suit the audience, purpose, and context, like formal for a research paper and conversational for a podcast script.

Techniques

14 standards
Narrative Techniques
9.T.T.1.a
Describe how narrative techniques like archetypes, multiple perspectives, plot structure, and symbolism work together, citing evidence from the text.
9.T.T.1.b
Analyze how an author's goal drives choices about plot, conflict, narrative devices, wording, and other craft moves, like a twist ending meant to unsettle readers.
9.T.T.1.c
Analyze how a socially relevant theme develops across a text, comparing passages within and between texts and supporting the analysis with reasons and evidence.
9.T.T.1.d
Analyze how literary works borrow themes, plot patterns, or character types from other eras, like a modern novel echoing The Odyssey.
9.T.T.1.e
Use a range of narrative techniques to build complex characters who change, set mood through setting, and develop a theme while engaging readers.
Expository Techniques
9.T.T.2.a
Analyze and evaluate how informational writing uses expository techniques and organizational patterns, like cause and effect, and what effect they have.
9.T.T.2.b
Analyze texts that give conflicting information or opposing views and pinpoint where they disagree on facts or on how to interpret them.
9.T.T.2.d
Write cohesive informational texts that show how ideas relate, include varied kinds of information, and use a tone suited to the audience and purpose.
Argumentative Techniques
9.T.T.3.a
Read, discuss, and critique arguments, evaluating how their techniques shape meaning and the central idea, like how evidence is chosen and arranged.
9.T.T.3.b
Recognize and analyze how texts use ethos, logos, and pathos, the appeals to credibility, logic, and emotion.
9.T.T.3.c
Use argument techniques strategically, like anticipating counterclaims, to strengthen writing and engage readers.
9.T.T.3.d
Use rhetorical devices and appeals to shape how texts are drafted and revised, like adding an emotional story to a persuasive essay.
Poetic Techniques
9.T.T.4.a
Read, discuss, and critique a range of poems, evaluating how poetic techniques like line breaks and imagery shape meaning and theme.
9.T.T.4.b
Write poetry for an intended purpose using poetic techniques and conventions, like meter, form, and figurative language.

Research & Analysis

6 standards
Research & Inquiry
9.T.RA.1.a
Develop questions that guide research, connect complex topics, explore creative solutions, narrow the focus, or refine a piece of writing.
9.T.RA.1.b
Back up a thesis or research question with what analysis uncovers, giving proper citations.
9.T.RA.1.c
Blend paraphrases, summaries, and quotations into original writing in ways that strengthen it, citing each idea in MLA format.
Curating Sources & Evidence
9.T.RA.2.a
Find information on a central argument, topic, or question by searching trustworthy print and online sources, including academic databases.
9.T.RA.2.b
Analyze information from several sources, spotting misconceptions, conflicting facts or views, and author bias, and checking that it is valid, relevant, and accurate.
9.T.RA.2.c
Follow MLA guidelines when answering inference questions about texts or citing evidence, and give each source a basic works cited entry.

Periods & Movements

2 standards
9.T.PM.1.a
Trace how an archetypal story, myth, event, or figure is portrayed across two or more time periods, like the hero's journey from The Odyssey to modern films.
9.T.PM.1.b
Identify the leading writers and key works of one era of English or American literature, like the Harlem Renaissance, and discuss its themes and style.

The official Georgia documents

The plain-English lines on this page are EMStudio's own explanations of Georgia's standards, not the official wording, which Georgia Department of Education publishes in the documents above. Codes and strand names identify each standard.