If it is important for them to learn to use the present tense like this, 
it's likely all of your students already have experience telling jokes. 
All they have to do is write in that joke telling mode. Here's an 
example cribbed from Garrison Keillor.

So a Guy (likely Guy Noir) walks into a book store looking for an 
opinion about an author and asks the clerk behind the counter, "Do you 
like Kipling?"

And the counter clerk says, "I don't know . . . I've never Kipled."

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [_mailto:_ 
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of MCJ
> Sent: Friday, May 11, 2007 10:58 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Literary present
> Paul E. Doniger wrote:
> > Hello all,
> > I'm looking for advice: This year, many of my high school sophomores
> > seem unable (unwilling?) to write about literature in the present
> > tense. They discuss events in a novel, story, etc., only as past tense
> > events.
> > For example, a student wrote in one of his journals for /Brave New
> > World/: "Bernard was with Lenina when he* *met John, the Savage." How
> > can I get students to think in the present and write "Bernard is ...
> > he meets" instead? Has anyone else struggled with this problem? I'm
> > looking for teachable moments, here.

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