Language Arts 9 assignment
Due Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Mrs. Marston

Poems: Maud Muller by John Greenleaf Whittier, How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix by Robert Browning, Eldorado by Edgar Allen Poe
Short Story: “So What” by Taha Mohammed Ali
Choose one. Writing assignments must be handwritten and may be illustrated.

1. Inspired by Maud Muller by John Greenleaf Whittier
Write: Compare / contrast Maud Muller’s reality with the Judge’s reality.
How would it be if “what might have been” happened?

2. Inspired by How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix by Browning Draw a map: 3 horses and riders leave Ghent at midnight, Lockeren at dawn, Boom at sunrise, Duffield in early morning, Mechelm at mid morning, Aershot at noon, Hasselt (one horse falls down), Looz and then Tongres in the afternoon, Dalhelm in late afternoon (dome-spire in sight) (second horse goes down), Aix at twilight.
Write: It is a time before automobiles when the fastest way to travel was on horseback. Something (or someone) important needs to get from one town to another. Write an exciting story with rush and force at the steady, rapid rhythm of galloping horses (te TUM te te TUM te te TUM te te TUM). Use rhyme, alliteration, refrain to make the story “sing.”

3. Inspired by Eldorado by Edgar Allen Poe.
WRITE a story about a quest. Use the following elements of narrative story (CAST):
C - gallant knight pilgrim shadow
A - journeyed singing search grew old boldly ride
S - sunshine shadow Eldorado mountains of the moon Valley of the Shadow
T - searching for unattainable disappointment Land of Gold is not of this world

4. Inspired by “So What” by Taha Mohammed Ali
Write: Imagine living ten years without any shoes. What would happen to your feet? What would happen to your self-esteem if all of your friends had shoes and you did not? What would be some advantages to having no shoes? How deeply and passionately would you want to have shoes?
Writing tips:
Make the paragraph the unit of composition Use the active voice.
Put the statements in positive form. Use definite, specific, concrete language.
Omit needless words. Avoid a succession of loose sentences.
Express coordinate ideas in similar form. Keep related words together.
In summaries, keep to one tense. Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end.