Help students understand the art of writing with humor. Students will engage in reading of the following works: "A True Story, Repeated Word for Word as I Heard It"; "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses"; "The Story of Grandfather's Old Ram" from Roughing It; "Jim Smiley and his Jumping Frog"; "Seventieth Birthday Speech"; "Talking with Spirits" from Life on the Mississippi; "The House Beautiful" from Life on the Mississippi; "The Royal Nonesuch" from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; and "Tom Sawyer Whitewashing the Fence" from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Students will analyze Twain's wit and observations. Then students will attempt to replicate his literary style and humor as they make their own observations about people they know and then incorporate these humorous details into a fictional work.
courtesy of Knovation
