CBSE Board English Core Syllabus for Class 9

CBSE SYLLABUS FOR CLASS 9  ENGLISH

SECTION A: READING 15 Marks

Q 1 & 2 The reading section will have two unseen texts as shown below:

Care should be taken to cover all the text types, ie discursive and literary while selecting the passages. A poem may
or may not be used as one of the three texts.  Apart from a poem, prose literary texts may include excerpts from
authentic literature such as short story, autobiography, biography, travelogue, novel etc.
Whenever a poem or a prose/literary text is used, the other two texts should be discursive. If a poem is seleted then,
the length of the poem may be between 14 to 25 lines.

SECTION B: WRITING 20 Marks
The writing section comprises four writing tasks as indicated below.

Q. 3 A short composition of about 50 words in the form of a Notice, Message or Diary Entry.    3 Marks

Q. 4 A composition of about 100 words in the form of Biographical sketch, Data Interpretation, Dialogue
Writing or Description (People, Objects or Events) 5 Marks

Questions 4 & 5 will assess students' skill of expressing ideas in clear and grammatically correct English, presenting
ideas coherently and concisely, writing a clear description, a clear account of events, expanding notes into a piece of
writing,  transcoding information from one form to another or using a style appropriate for a notice, message or diary
entry.75

Q. 5 An extended writing task of  about 120 words in the form of a Formal/Informal Letter or Email. The long
piece of writing will assess the use of appropriate style, language, content and expression. 6 Marks

Q. 6 An extended writing task of about 120 words in the form of an Article, Speech, Debte, Newspaper/
School Magazine Report or Story. 6 Marks
Students' skill in expressing ideas in clear and grammatically correct English, planning, organising and presenting
ideas coherently by introducing, developing and concluding a topic, comparing and contrasting ideas and arriving at
a conclusion, presenting an argument with supporting examples, using an appropriate style and format and expanding
notes into longer pieces of writing and creative expression of ideas will be assessed.

Qs 5 & 6 will make use of a visual/ verbal stimulus and one of the questions will be thematically based on MCB.
Important Note on Format and Word Limit:
• Format will not carry any separate marks and in most cases, format will be given in the question paper.
• The word limit given is the suggested minimum word limit.  No candidate may be penalised for writing
more or less than the suggested word limit provided the topic is covered adequately.  Stress should be
on content, expression, coherence and relevance of the content presented.

SECTION C: GRAMMAR  15 Marks
This section will assess Grammar items in context for 15 Marks. It will carry 5 questions of 3 marks each.

Questions 7 & 8 will have Multiple Choice Questions. The test types for MCQs include the following:
• Gap filling
• Sentence completion / Dialogue completion

Questions 9,10 & 11 will be based on response supplied by students  (Supply Type). The test types will
include the following:
• Sentence reordering
• Editing / Omission
• Sentence transformation

Questions 7 to 11 will test grammar items which have been dealt with in class IX.  Different structures such as verb
forms, sentence structure, connectors, determiners, pronouns, prepositions, clauses, phrases etc., can be tested
through formative assessment over a period of time.  As far as the summative assessment is concerned, it will
recycle grammar items learnt over a period of time and will test them in context.
Tests types used will include gap-filling, cloze (gap filling exercise with blanks at regular intervals), sentence completion,
recording word groups into sentences, editing, dialogue-completion and sentence-transformation.76
The grammar syllabus will be sampled each year, with marks allotted for:
Verbs forms
Sentence structures
Other areas
Note: Jumbled words in reordering exercise to test syntax will involve sentences in a context.  Each sentence will be
split into sense groups (not necessarily into single words) and jumbled up.

Section D: LITERATURE 20 Marks

Q 12 will have the following arrangement:

12 A: An extract from poetry with three questions based on reference to context requiring the students to supply the answers.
3 Marks

12 B: An extract from a short story with three reference to context questions requiring the students to supply the answers. 3 Marks

12 C: An extract from a play with three reference to context questions requiring the students to supply the answers. 3 Marks

Q 13 Two out of three short answer type questions based on prose, poetry and play of 3 marks each. The questions will not test recall but inference and evaluation.(30 - 40 words each) 6 Marks

Q 14 One out of two long answer type questions to assess personal response to text (story, poem or play) by going beyond the text/ poem/story or extract.  Creativity, imagination and extrapolation beyond the text and across two texts will also be assessed. (150 words) 5 Marks Novel/Long Reading Text 10 Marks

Q 15 Type of Questions: Global questions on theme and plot involving interpretation and
inference . 5 marks

Q16 One out of two character sketches in 100 words. 5 marks