Through the following activities the students are asked to think, perform and write in a news-oriented way. Consequently, they will learn to pull from these real life situations a foundation for fiction, as Twain did. When the interview is done, have the students repeat the exercise switching roles. Ask the students how they changed the way that they held their bodies and the way that they spoke when they were being interviewed. Have the students write a short newspaper article about the person that they interviewed.
Scene Have the students bring in a newspaper article to share with a small group.
The group should read each article and select the one that holds the most interest for them, then make a list of the specifics from the chosen article including, place, people involved, what happened, and why. Have the students present their scene for the class. After the scenes have been performed, ask the whole class what pieces of the stories might work in a fictional novel. In his later life, one of Twain's projects became trying to alter the spelling of words and phrases. He wanted to use simplified spelling or the phonographic alphabet.