English Language ArtsLevel 8 Lesson 53

Mrs. Morrisey

Grammar Grabber

What time it is.

Grammar Grabber

What time is it?

Quickwrite: (5 minutes)

If you were Adams, would you have

trusted that the hitchhiker that you

kept seeing was real? Explain.

Quickwrite: (5 minutes)

If you were Adams, would you have

trusted that the hitchhiker that you

kept seeing was real? Explain.

Lesson ObjectiveRadio Drama

The Hitchhiker

What is Radio Drama?

(a dramatized, purely acoustic performance broadcast in audio media)

More about Radio Drama?No Visual ComponentDependent upon narration, dialogue, music and sound effectsListener imagines the story

Radio Drama History

•1880s French engineer requested patent•1920s English radio drama begins in US•1930s radio drama popular in US and other countries

• Mysteries, thrillers, soap operas, and comedies

•1950s-60s radio drama lost popularity w/advent of television

Radio Drama Elements

Narration(the process of telling a story or describing what happens)

Dialogue(conversation, talking between two or more people)

Gives Information

Characterization

Builds Suspense

Sets Tempo

Music(enhanced performance through creation of dramatic mood)

Sound Effects(artificially created sounds to enhance content of a drama or film)

The Hitchhiker Introduction

The Hitchhikerby: Lucille Fletcher Ronald Adams

sets out on a cross-country journey...

Questions from the Story

1. What is Ronald Adam's original destination?2. Why does the repeated sight of the hitchhiker give Adams “the willies”?3. What does Adams learn about his mother at the end of the play?

4. What kind of relationship did Adams have with his mother? Cite evidence to support your answer.5. Omit

Questions from the Story

6. Reread lines 171-208. What do the stage directions and dialogue tell you about the hitchhiker's appearance and actions? What dothese elements tell you about Adam's feelingsand actions? Cite specific details in your answer.

7. Who do you think the hitchhiker is? Give proof from the play to support your conclusion.

Questions from the Story

1. What is Ronald Adam's original destination?

California 2. Why does the repeated sight of the hitchhiker give Adams “the willies”?

Everywhere he looks, the hitchhiker is there.

This is not possible.

3. What does Adams learn about his mother at the end of the play? She had a nervous breakdown

Questions from the Story

4. What kind of relationship did Adams have with his mother? Cite evidence to support your answer.

Close. Loving. Nurturing. Mother dotes over him before he leaves. He tells his mothernot to come out in the rain. He calls his motherat the end of the story for comfort. Mother hasnervous breakdown because of his fate.

5. Omit

Questions from the Story

6. Reread lines 171-208. What do the stage directions and dialogue tell you about the hitchhiker's appearance and actions? What dothese elements tell you about Adam's feelingsand actions? Cite specific details in your answer. He was ominous, drab, dreary. Adamswas afraid and uncomfortable about the hitch-hiker's presence.

Questions from the Story

7. Who do you think the hitchhiker is? Give proof from the play to support your conclusion.

The hitchhiker is Adams. At the end of the story, Ms. Whitney reports his death, whenand where it occurs. Also, no one sees the

hitchhiker but him.

Questions from the Story

8. What are some similarities and differences between the characters, settings, and endings Of “The Tell-Tale Heart” and The Hitchhiker? Present your answers in a Venn diagram.

–Beginning lines... “I'm not mad.”–Vexation (the hitchhiker, the glass eye)–Mental Illness–Death

http://www.cbs.com/shows/the_twilight_zone/video/621863317/the-twilight-zone-the-hitch-hiker

Viewing The Hitchhiker

1. Reviewed Radio Drama2. The Hitchhiker Questions

What did we learn in

this lesson?

View The Hitchhiker.

Write a 1-2 page paper comparing and contrasting

the written version with the video of the play.