Using Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn," John Knowles'"A Separate Peace," and Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," a study examined the effects of Astute Activities--teaching techniques which increase students' cognitive ability and creativity--on student performance in two senior English classes in a small rural high school. Subjects, nine students from the 1984 senior class and five students from the 1985 senior class, participated in the activities as part of their English class assignments. Activities included mind mapping, brainstorming, creative writing exercises using characters from the novels, and discussions of various issues from the characters' perspectives. Cognitive ability was measured using the Language Arts Test of Cognitive Functioning (LATCF), and writing ability was evaluated with a writing pre- and posttest. Results indicated that Astute Activities stimulated most students' thinking, increased their awareness of issues, increased the creativity of their work, both written and spoken, and matured their writing. However, LATCF scores showed only slight improvement in overall cognitive functioning for both groups, and pretest and posttest scores also indicated only slight improvement in writing ability. Implications for improving rural education are addressed. (An appendix includes the LATCF as revised for seniors, pictures of student projects, sample student papers, and student evaluations. Thirty-three references are attached.) (MM)