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High School Lesson Plan
Visiting Poet, Elizabeth Rivers, with Elise Brand at Souderton
High
The
Beats / Allen Ginsberg
10
minutes
Icebreaker: What do you hate about modern life? What would
you like to change?
10
minutes
Introducing the Beats: They wanted big change! 1000 Poets
for Change, modern Beats descendents. The conventional
world of the 1950's, post World War 11 culture, people
wanted to get back to a "normal' family life, spend
money, do all the things they couldn't during the war:
burn fuel, take trips, eat without rationing, buy fashionable
clothes, t.v. etc. but not everyone fit into an ideal
life…the outsiders had to rebel against cultural
norms, express themselves.
What's
in a Name? African-American:" beat," whipped
(12 Years a Slave), exhausted, beaten down Ginsberg, beatific
angels Beatles honoring these poets, plus rhythm, by choosing
their name
Who
were the Beats?
Jack Kerouac, "On the Road" writing prose from
the heart and soul, a kind of tapping into your unconsciousness,
choosing to ignore grammar rules.
Ginsberg:
an outsider: Jewish, homosexual,(a criminal activity then)
communist associates, criminal associates, drugs, alcohol,
insanity in his family, opposed to materialism, machine
world (inhuman), cold war, (war with Russia vs. war with
terrorists today) atomic bomb. Counter-cultural! As an
idealist he protested against wars, worked to help refugees,
lived a simple life (second hand clothes, small apartment),
went to India, learned Hindu and Hare Krishna beliefs.
Listen
/watch you tube, Ginsberg reading "Howl" first
few lines, or last section on Moloch, the god of war and
materialism. Successful obscenity trial re "Howl",
no more censorship of literature.
His
poetry: partly based on Whitman's long line, each line
a breath. Less artificial than traditional poetry).
20 minutes
"A Supermarket in California" text available
via Google)
First
the poem is read out loud by volunteers, each student
taking one sentence.
Students work in groups of 3-4
10
minutes
Group discussion.
15
minutes
Writing exercise based on Ginsberg's idea of place (the
supermarket) where something happens. (HERE: the pencils,
desks, computers, windows, hall, lights, people or HERE
wherever you imagine, your room at home, world of nature,
city streets, etc. Emphasis on using distinctive details).
15
minutes
Students share their work
15
minutes
Visiting poet reads a poem, Q and A, etc. as time permits.
Final
evaluation: why didn't we read this poem as a choral reading
as compared with "Song of Myself"? What is the
difference in tone between these two poems?
Daniel
Radcliffe on free verse and Ginsberg
