Of+Mice+and+Men

=20 Teaching Ideas for //Of Mice and Men// = Page created by: Katie Christo

[|Jeopardy] 

After reading the novel, students will review by playing Jeopardy. The categories available for students to choose from include Characters, Plot, Literature Terms, and Quotations. The competition involved will motivate students to participate, and I think there is a healthy amount of peer pressure for students to do well coming from their teammates. 

  Students can choose from a list of ten options for their book project including options such as writing a magazine interview, creating a 8x8 cd cover, and creating a comic book or children's book. The students are instructed to pick an option, receive the rubric for it from the teacher, and work on it throughout the time the class is reading the book.

[|Cyberguide] 

Students are guided through research on topics related to Of Mice and Men, such as mercy killings and mental retardation.

[|Study Guide] 

This study guide covers everything from irony to characters of the novel. This could be completed while reading the text in order to keep plot and characters straight, as well as used as a study guide at the end.

[|Webquest] 

S <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 80.19%;">tudent are able to learn about the decade during which //Of Mice and Men// took place, investigating topics such as fashion, the difference in prices between then and now, and the Great Depression. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 81%;"> This was an idea I got from reading about Carol Jago's teaching methods in her own classroom, as well as from one of the classrooms I observed in during my field experience hours last semester. The teacher would lead students through the first several chapters of the novel, helping them to get historical context, characters, etc. down, and then would be divided into groups for the remaining chapters, teaching them to the class themselves. Groups could act out the highlights of a chapter, lead a class activity, plan a game, or anything of their choosing, as long as it has been approved by the teacher.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 81%;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 81%;">This is a viewing guide issued by the American Film Institute that includes explanations of film terms, like camera angles, for example, as well as questions for reflection, post-viewing activities, and assessment ideas. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 79.2%;">

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 72%;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 79.2%;">Below is a list of poems and songs that teachers on the English Companion Ning suggest as being complementary to //Of Mice and Men//. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> [|"To a Mouse" - Robert Burns] [|"Dream Deferred" - Langston Hughes] [|"Eleanor Rigby" - The Beatles] - complements the theme of loneliness [|"Meant to Live" - Switchfoot] - "...whether mice or men have second tries"

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;"> [|Lessons]

The Steinbeck Institute's list of lesson plans created by teachers in the NEH Steinbeck Institute, 2007.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;"> This is an anticipation activity in which students respond to questions prior to reading the novel, and then take a stance in the class (sort of like the students were instructed to do in //Freedom Writers//) based on how strongly they feel (for example, on a scale of 0-6).

"AGREE/DISAGREE 1. Having a friendship is more important than having a romance. 2. A person should protect his/her loved ones NO MATTER WHAT! 3. Suicide is never the answer. 4. If a person is hooked up to a breathing machine, he/she should be unplugged. 5. It is okay to assist a person with suicide if he/she suffers mentally. 6. It is okay to assist a person with suicide if he/she suffers physically. 7. Nobody really ever achieves the American dream. 8. Loneliness is the worst feeling one could experience. 9. Women are manipulative. 10. Running away or hiding from a mistake will always haunt you."

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;"> Students are instructed to create rough sketches for six cells of a story board, encompassing all main ideas of the plot. Then they use digital cameras to take photographs of themselves acting the parts, and use comic life software, to create the graphic novel with themselves as characters.

The idea came from [|this] page of a discussion on the English Companion Ning, but her actual link to the assignment will not open for me.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;"> A teacher on the English Companion Ning uses the following journal prompts to lead into //Of Mice and Men//: "A journal topic pertaining to the novel's main theme. ("Tell me about someone who's important to you and why," OR "Tell me about two people who are important to each other and why.")

By the way, NEVER //force// them to write about themselves.

150-175 words T <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 81%;">his should take 20 min max."

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">[|Blog Project]

Each student is assigned a particular character from the novel and is asked to make "facebook-style" updates twice a week from that character's point-of-view. This teacher, I believed, used blogs, but I think this could be an interesting assignment to actually make professional facebooks, as we are in Multi-Modal Literacies class now, and even went so far as to create a group for each novel we are <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">reading throughout the class where people could discuss the book instead of only posting "facebook-style" status updates. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;"> [|by: Gary Harwood and David Hassler]

I got this idea from a post on the English Companion Ning that someone used another photographer's photographs of migrant workers. However, I used to be a Photojournalism student and took a class with at Kent State University with Gary Harwood, the photographer for this book, and now how much time he spent on this book, ensuring everything accurately depicts their lives. It would be an interesting way to really tie the time period of //Of Mice and Men// to current migrant workers.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;"> This idea came from Dr. Pytash's class. I think having a fishbowl discussion, or more specifically a sort of mock trial to discuss George's motives in killing Lennie at the end of the novel, could lead to some very good insight into the two characters.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">[|Powerpoints]

This link contains all sorts of presentations about The Great Depression, including The New Deal, information on the causes, statistics, and about the stock market crash.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">Lesson

This lesson shows teachers how //Of Mice and Men// can be taught to teach students about symbolism and allegory.


 * 18. Ongoing Journal as Characters**

This was an idea I had that would allow teachers to really be able to see if students are reading the text, and further, if they are comprehending it on a higher level. Students could keep written journals or blogs from the point-of-view of one of the characters. After each chapter or two, students would write an entry about what their character is thinking, going through, etc. This assignment could be graded either through formative assessment, summative assessment, or both.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">[|Newspaper guidelines]

Students are put in groups of about four, and are expected to create a newspaper that would be delivered to people living at that time. There are specific guidelines for what is expected, like a cartoon and advertisements, and each student must contribute at least one article to the newspaper.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;"> This is an idea I had for teaching the historical context of the novel. Students will be given a brief overview of the Great Depression, and then will be given a sum of money (the average income of people during the Great Depression) and will be asked to budget it, taking into consideration their spending today, such as food, clothing, car expenses, etc. Inflation will be taken into consideration, as well.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;"> I came up with this idea for getting students to really think about the themes and main events of the novel in relation to the characters. Students will be asked to create a 12-track soundtrack taking into consideration the themes and events of the novel: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 81%;">The sort of songs that students choose (with a large focus on the lyrics of these songs) will demonstrate their understanding of the characters and their lives during the time.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">loneliness
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">dreams and ambitions
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">pessimism and optimism
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">racial prejudice
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">friendship
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">losing a friend

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;"> Before reading the novel, students are put into groups and asked to create a brochure for the book, including information on the Great Depression, John Steinbeck, and two additional topics of their choice. This project helps students to gain the knowledge necessary to begin reading the book themselves, rather than just being given the information by the teacher.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">[|Dorothea Lange Photos]

At several different parts of the English Companion Ning, I saw teachers refer to using her photographs when teaching //Of Mice and Men// and helping students to understand the life of a migrant worker.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">[|Questions]

This is a collection of questions for discussion that could be used in a classroom discussion format, or for specific activities such as journal entries or exit slips.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">[|Lessons]

This website, Lesson Planet, has so many different worksheets and lesson ideas for teaching //Of Mice and Men//.