American Literature- History and Creative Juice

These past few weeks have been very busy for the English 11 course, American Literature. We have covered the Colonial Period, and are just finishing up the Age of Reason. This past time period can prove to be boring at times because it is filled with nonfiction (real documents and essays). Basically we covered the entire period and finished up with some Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. We read about The Declaration of Independence and aphorisms.

While studying aphorisms, I introduced the idea of the "Shortest Short Story".  Ernest Hemingway was said to have written the shortest story ever: Baby shoes: never worn. For sale. This gave way to a creative moment in class. I had students write as many short stories they could! These are a few of the top ones:

• Telling without knowledge but being believed
• They say they won't, but they will
• Betrayal is the maker of this evil
• Slowed my pace, missed my chance
• First moment of insane courage; last moment of insanity 
• I loved him. He loved her

We also watched a parody of The Declaration of Independence! Below is the video- see if you see the allusions to the past. Doing my best to make the "boring" fun!