ICSE Board Class 9 Syllabus for English

The ICSE Board syllabus for Class 9 English is designed to enhance students' proficiency in the language, focusing on literature, grammar, and writing skills. The syllabus is divided into two main components: English Language (Paper 1) and English Literature (Paper 2). Here's an overview of the topics typically covered in the ICSE Class 9 English syllabus:

1. English Language (Paper 1)

A. Composition

Descriptive Essay: Writing essays that describe a person, place, event, or situation in detail.
Narrative Essay: Writing essays that narrate an event or a series of events in a coherent and engaging manner.
Argumentative Essay: Writing essays that present arguments for or against a particular topic, along with supporting evidence.
Reflective Essay: Writing essays that reflect on personal experiences, thoughts, or ideas.
Story Writing: Creating imaginative stories with a clear beginning, middle, and end, incorporating plot, characters, and dialogue.

B. Letter Writing

Formal Letters: Writing formal letters for various purposes, such as applications, complaints, requests, and official communications.
Informal Letters: Writing personal letters to friends, family, or acquaintances, expressing thoughts, feelings, and experiences.

C. Comprehension

Unseen Passages: Reading and understanding unseen prose passages, followed by answering questions based on the content, theme, and vocabulary of the passage.

D. Grammar

Parts of Speech: Understanding and using nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections correctly.
Tenses: Correct usage of different tenses (past, present, future) in various forms (simple, continuous, perfect).
Active and Passive Voice: Converting sentences from active voice to passive voice and vice versa.
Direct and Indirect Speech: Converting sentences from direct speech to indirect speech and vice versa.
Punctuation: Correct use of punctuation marks (commas, periods, semicolons, colons, etc.).
Sentence Structure: Understanding and forming simple, compound, and complex sentences.
Transformation of Sentences: Changing the form of a sentence while retaining its meaning, including affirmative to negative, exclamatory to assertive, and so on.
Synthesis of Sentences: Combining two or more sentences into a single sentence using conjunctions, relative pronouns, etc.

2. English Literature (Paper 2)

A. Prose

Short Stories and Essays: Study of selected short stories and essays, focusing on themes, character analysis, plot development, and language.
Critical Appreciation: Analyzing and critically appreciating prose passages, identifying literary devices and the author's intent.

B. Poetry

Selected Poems: Study of selected poems from prescribed textbooks, focusing on themes, poetic devices, rhyme scheme, and the poet's message.
Poetic Devices: Understanding and identifying poetic devices such as simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration, rhyme, and meter.

C. Drama

Play: Study of a selected play, focusing on the plot, characters, themes, and dramatic techniques.
Character Sketches: Writing detailed character sketches of major and minor characters from the play.

Textbooks Typically Used:

Prose and Poetry: A selection of short stories, essays, and poems prescribed by the ICSE Board.
Drama: A play chosen from the prescribed ICSE literature textbook.

3. Internal Assessment

Oral Skills: Assessing students' speaking and listening skills through activities like debates, discussions, recitations, and oral presentations.
Project Work: Completing projects related to literature, such as book reviews, creative writing, or research on authors and their works.

Additional Skills Focused On:

Vocabulary Building: Expanding vocabulary through the study of synonyms, antonyms, idioms, and phrases.
Reading Skills: Developing reading comprehension and analytical skills through regular reading assignments.
Writing Skills: Enhancing writing abilities through continuous practice in different forms of writing (essays, letters, reports).