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Activities on "ON THE ROAD"
Warm-up:
to introduce the
subject of the Unit, Beat Literature, the teacher will play a few songs
from
musicians known and revered by Kerouac and friends: Dizzy Gillespy,
Chet Baker,
etc. The music, unfamiliar as it might be to the younger generations,
will
nevertheless be useful to recreate a little bit of atmosphere of the
Fifties'.
(5 minutes)
Pre-reading
:
as a pre-reading individual activity, students will
be asked to complete the following short outline of Kerouac's life,
choosing
between two possible items in brackets.
(Jack/Paul) Kerouac was born in Lowell, Massachussetts, in 1922, the
son of (French/Italian)-Canadian
immigrants. He received a stern (Catholic/Protestant)
upbringing and was
educated at Columbia University. At the end of the war he began
(working/traveling) back and forth across the USA, and in (New
York/Dallas) he
started his lasting friendship with the poet Allen Ginsberg, with the
experimental (musician/novelist) William Burroughs and the
intellectual
Neal Cassady. The influence of Cassady on Kerouac was (little/enormous);
his total lack of inhibitions, his enthusiasms, his (love/hate)
of
adventure made Kerouac idolize him and consider him the archetypal
hero. After
four months of traveling, in October (1967/1947) Kerouac went back to
New York
and completed the (autobiographical/romantic) novel "The Town
and
the City", which came out in 1950. In 1957 the publication of "On the
Road" marked his (failure/success). The writer then started
leading
a very (busy/solitary) life and became addicted to alcohol and
drugs. At the age of (85/47) Kerouac
died.
(5 minutes)
While-reading:
First
activity- learners
will receive a copy of the excerpt and the teacher will ask them to
read it
silently once. During this first reading, they will have to underline
with
different colors the names of people and
places and all direct speech in the text.
(20 minutes)
At this point
the teacher will check students’understanding of the text: he/she will
ask
learners to name the characters and the places mentioned in the
excerpt. All
unknown words and expressions will be translated, if necessary.
(10
minutes)
Second
activity- in plenary
again, the teacher will ask them to observe carefully the parts of the
text
previously underlined and to determine the place of departure and that
of
arrival of the gang's car, and also the apparent motivation of the
journey.
(5 minutes)
Third
activity- then,
students will have to answer to a few comprehension questions, written
on a
sheet of paper: each student will answer one question orally, starting
from the
first row of desks.
For example:
1. What is the "noble function" mentioned in the first
paragraph?
2. Where is the group of friends bound for?
3. How did Dean call New
York?
4. Were they happy or not back there in New York City?
5. Are they
listening to the radio or not?
6. What do Dean and Sal do on the dashboard of
the car?
7.What are Dean's plan for Marylou in San Francisco?
8. Is Ed Dunkel a
careful driver?
9. How much is the
amount of the fine the "mean cop" charged Dean?
10. How many
hitchhikers do they take along ?
11. What
is a "hobo" and was Dean's father one of them?
12. When still a boy,
where did Dean go to alone on a freight train?
13. Do they like New Orleans'
atmosphere and music?
14. On the Algiers' ferry, do Dean and Marylou leave the
car or not?
(15 minutes)
Fourth
activity- students
will now be asked to concentrate on the characters in the text: they
will have
to list some features of the characters’s physical appearances and
states of
mind.
(The main
characters are : Dean, Sal, Marylou, Ed Dunkel, the Jewish bum and the
hungry
hitchhiker)
(10 minutes)
Fifth activity- learners
must now concentrate on
Kerouac's narrative method: they will observe the text and look for the
narrator. The teacher will, then, ask these questions, for example:
1.does the narrator speak in the first
person?
2.who is "we" referring to?
3.why could we say Kerouac's style is
"syncopated"?
4.what is a syncopated rhythm?
5.in which way could this narrative style be
compared to jazz music?
(10 minutes)
Sixth activity- focusing on the language, students are
asked to choose one or more answers from a list written on the
blackboard by
the teacher and to explain their choices.
For example: The language used by Kerouac
may be defined:
detached
detailed
dry
colloquial realistic simple
pictorial poetic
(10 minutes)
Seventh
activity- students must find the dominant
semantic areas in the text and name them, while the teacher writes
their
suggestions on the blackboard.
(The semantic areas might be: happiness,
youth, escape, freedom (sexual), journey, boredom...etc.)
(10 minutes)
Post-reading:
As a wrap-up activity, the teacher will
ask students to express their opinions about the text read, not only
likings or
dislikings, but motivated thoughts are expected to be formulated in
this last
minutes of discussion.
(20 minutes)
Homework:
As a homework,
learners will be given the
opportunity to choose between two assignments: a short essay (200 words
more or
less) with these instructions- On the
basis of the elements gathered so far, outline the reasons why you
think “On
the Road” is a "cult book". Or a web search for further information
about the book and its author, about the true people hidden behind the
characters not discussed during the lessons: who is Old Bull Lee, who
is Carlo,
for example.
8/13
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