I'm teaching the freshmen to write longer, better, more creative sentences. As part of the process, I taught them that a series of short sentences is rhythmically repetitive, and annoying, much like a techno song. To drive home the point of the analogy, I demonstrated the difference in drum beats using a software-based drum machine called Hydrogen. It's a free program that I discovered, and I use it a lot at home when I'm composing and recording music with my computer-based recording studio. The kids seemed to enjoy it, so here's a link for you to the Hydrogen site where you can download the program.
http://www.hydrogen-music.org/hcms/
Enjoy!