Ninth grade language arts skills

IXL has more than 100 ninth grade language arts skills to learn and review! As you work through a skill, questions will adapt to match your level. Keep answering questions to reach mastery!

Reading strategies Reading

Writing strategies Writing

Vocabulary Vocab

Grammar and mechanics Grammar

Reading strategies

A. Main idea

1
Determine the main idea of a passage

B. Theme

1
Match the quotations with their themes

2
Analyze the development of themes

C. Author's purpose and perspective

1
Identify audience and purpose

D. Tone

1
Which text is most formal?

2
Compare passages for subjective and objective tone

3
Compare passages for tone

E. Literary devices

1
Interpret the meaning of an allusion from its source

2
Recall the source of an allusion

3
Interpret figures of speech

4
Classify figures of speech: euphemism, hyperbole, oxymoron, paradox

5
Classify figures of speech: review

6
Analyze the effects of figures of speech on meaning and tone

F. Close-reading strategies: literary texts

1
Identify the narrative point of view

2
Analyze character development

3
Analyze craft and structure in literary passages

G. Close-reading strategies: informational texts

1
Analyze the impact of word choice on meaning and tone

2
Analyze craft and structure in informational passages

H. Analyzing literature

1
Analyze short stories: set 1

2
Analyze short stories: set 2

I. Analyzing poetry

1
Identify elements of poetry
•
Coming soon: Analyze poetry

J. Analyzing informational texts

1
Analyze rhetorical strategies in historical texts: set 1

2
Analyze rhetorical strategies in historical texts: set 2

3
Analyze the development of informational passages: set 1

4
Analyze the development of informational passages: set 2

K. Analyzing arguments

1
Trace an argument: set 1

2
Trace an argument: set 2

L. Novel study

1
Analyze passages from To Kill a Mockingbird: Part 1

2
Analyze passages from To Kill a Mockingbird: Part 2

M. Drama study

•
Coming soon: Analyze passages from Romeo and Juliet

N. Nonfiction book study

1
Analyze passages from Night: Part 1

2
Analyze passages from Night: Part 2

O. Business documents

1
Read workplace emails and memos

2
Read business letters and notices

P. Graphic organizers

1
Read graphic organizers

Writing strategies

Q. Organizing writing

1
Order topics from broadest to narrowest

2
Organize information by topic

R. Topic sentences and thesis statements

1
Choose the topic sentence that best captures the main idea

2
Identify thesis statements

S. Developing and supporting arguments

1
Distinguish facts from opinions

2
Identify stronger and weaker evidence to support a claim

3
Choose the best evidence to support a claim

4
Identify supporting evidence in a text

5
Evaluate counterclaims

6
Choose the analysis that logically connects the evidence to the claim

7
Transition logically between claims, evidence, analysis, and counterclaims

8
Classify logical fallacies

T. Persuasive strategies

1
Identify appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos in advertisements

2
Use appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos in persuasive writing

U. Craft and style

1
Use personification

V. Writing clearly and concisely

1
Transitions with conjunctive adverbs

2
Avoid double, illogical, and unclear comparisons

3
Identify sentences with parallel structure

4
Use parallel structure

5
Remove redundant words or phrases

W. Active and passive voice

1
Identify active and passive voice

2
Rewrite the sentence in active voice

X. Editing and revising

1
Use the correct frequently confused word

2
Identify and correct errors with frequently confused words

3
Identify and correct errors with frequently confused pronouns and contractions

4
Correct errors with commonly misspelled words

5
Correct errors with signs

6
Correct errors in everyday use

7
Suggest appropriate revisions

Y. Research skills

1
Understand a Works Cited entry (MLA 8th–9th editions)

2
Recognize the parts of a Works Cited entry (MLA 8th–9th editions)

3
Use in-text citations (MLA 8th–9th editions)

4
Identify plagiarism

Vocabulary

Z. Prefixes and suffixes

1
Word pattern analogies

2
Word pattern sentences

3
Words with pre-

4
Words with re-

5
Words with sub-

6
Words with mis-

7
Words with un-, dis-, in-, im-, and non-

8
Words with -ful

9
Words with -less

10
Words with -able and -ible

AA. Greek and Latin roots

1
Sort words by shared Greek or Latin roots

2
Use Greek and Latin roots as clues to the meanings of words

3
Use words as clues to the meanings of Greek and Latin roots

4
Determine the meanings of Greek and Latin roots

5
Determine the meanings of words with Greek and Latin roots

BB. Homophones

1
Use the correct homophone

2
Identify and correct errors with homophones

CC. Foreign words and expressions

1
Use etymologies to determine the meanings of words

2
Use context as a clue to the meanings of foreign expressions

3
Use the correct foreign expression

DD. Word choice and usage

1
Choose the word whose connotation and denotation best match the sentence

2
Use words accurately and precisely

3
Replace words using a thesaurus

4
Explore words with new or contested usages

EE. Analogies

1
Analogies

2
Analogies: challenge

FF. Context clues

1
Determine the meaning of words using synonyms in context

2
Determine the meaning of words using antonyms in context

3
Use context to identify the meaning of a word

GG. Reference skills

1
Use dictionary entries

2
Use dictionary definitions

3
Use dictionary entries to determine correct usage

4
Use thesaurus entries

Grammar and mechanics

HH. Spelling

1
Learn to spell words with prefixes: bi-, tri-, uni-

2
Learn to spell words with suffixes: -al, -ian, -ure

3
Spell words with affixes: review

4
Spell words with base elements: bio, geo, graph, logy, photo, scope, tele

5
Learn to spell common words: set 1

6
Learn to spell common words: set 2

7
Spell common words: sets 1 and 2

8
Learn to spell common words: set 3

9
Learn to spell common words: set 4

10
Spell common words: sets 3 and 4

11
Spell common words: review sets 1–4

II. Sentences, fragments, and run-ons

1
Is the sentence declarative, interrogative, imperative, or exclamatory?

2
Identify sentence fragments

3
Identify run-on sentences

4
Choose punctuation to avoid fragments and run-ons

JJ. Phrases and clauses

1
Is it a phrase or a clause?

2
Identify prepositional phrases

3
Identify appositives and appositive phrases

4
Identify dependent and independent clauses

5
Is the sentence simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex?

6
Combine sentences using relative clauses

KK. Nouns

1
Form and use plurals: review

2
Form and use plurals of compound nouns

LL. Pronouns

1
Identify and correct errors with subject and object pronouns

2
Subject and object pronouns review

3
Pronouns after "than" and "as"

4
Identify and correct pronoun errors with "who"

5
Use relative pronouns: who and whom

6
Use relative pronouns: who, whom, whose, which, and that

7
Identify vague pronoun references

8
Identify all of the possible antecedents

9
Correct inappropriate shifts in pronoun number and person

MM. Verb types

1
Identify transitive and intransitive verbs

2
Identify linking verbs, predicate adjectives, and predicate nouns

3
Identify participles and what they modify

4
Identify gerunds and their functions

5
Identify infinitives and infinitive phrases

NN. Subject-verb agreement

1
Identify and correct errors with subject-verb agreement

2
Identify and correct errors with indefinite pronoun-verb agreement

3
Identify and correct verb agreement with compound subjects

OO. Verb tense and mood

1
Form the progressive verb tenses

2
Form the perfect verb tenses

3
Identify and correct inappropriate shifts in verb tense

4
Identify the verb mood

5
Correct errors with verb mood

PP. Adjectives and adverbs

1
Choose between adjectives and adverbs

2
Form and use comparative and superlative adjectives

3
Good, better, best, bad, worse, and worst

4
Form and use comparative and superlative adverbs

5
Well, better, best, badly, worse, and worst

QQ. Conjunctions

1
Use the correct pair of correlative conjunctions

RR. Misplaced modifiers

1
Misplaced modifiers with pictures

2
Select the misplaced or dangling modifier

3
Are the modifiers used correctly?

SS. Restrictive and nonrestrictive elements

1
What does the punctuation suggest?

2
Commas with nonrestrictive elements

TT. Commas

1
Commas with direct addresses, introductory words, interjections, interrupters, and antithetical phrases

2
Commas with series, dates, and places

3
Commas with compound and complex sentences

4
Commas with coordinate adjectives

5
Commas: review

UU. Semicolons, colons, and commas

1
Use semicolons and commas to separate clauses

2
Use semicolons, colons, and commas with lists

3
Semicolons, colons, and commas: review

VV. Dashes, hyphens, and ellipses

1
Use dashes

2
Use hyphens in compound adjectives

3
Decide whether ellipses are used appropriately

WW. Apostrophes

1
Identify and correct errors with plural and possessive nouns

2
Identify and correct errors with compound and joint possession

XX. Capitalization

1
Correct capitalization errors

YY. Formatting

1
Formatting quotations and dialogue

2
Capitalizing titles

3
Formatting titles

4
Formatting and capitalizing titles: review