John Steinbeck

This is another lesson for Of Mice and Men based on theme. (Can you tell I'm in the middle of a unit?) This lesson pertains to the euthanasia that occurs in the novel, and is actually two lessons that will occur at different times. The first page of the handout is meant to introduce the topic of euthanasia when Candy's dog gets put down in chapter 3. For this part of the lesson, I introduce the term euthanasia. Then I ask students to form an opinion about Candy's dog being euthanized.

This lesson and handout work well with the first chapter of Of Mice and Men. Another sheet you might create to go with this lesson would be a character sheet to help students keep track of the characters as they are introduced. There are a lot of important locations in this story.

This sheet serves to help students organize the locations and it gives them a visual of what part of California the characters are in. As you read together the first chapter of the novel, stop periodically as the locations are discussed and take notes on the organizer.

 I am teaching Frank Galati's adaptation of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.  It is a choice I've had to make because of time, but one I'm very glad to have as the play is wonderful.  In order to introduce the students to the experiences that the Joad family has throughout the play, I created an Animoto movie.  I paired the images/photographs and quotes that I found with Bruce Springsteen's "Ghost of Tom Joad."  The majority of images are Dorothea Lange's photographs.

Objective: To understand the importance of the discovery of the pearl by creating a newspaper article. Goal: SWBAT · Explain the events that lead to Kino’s discovery of the pearl · Identify the important aspects of the discovery · Predict what the discovery may mean for Kino and his family · Write an article for the local newspaper regarding the discovery Students: ninth grade class consisting of 32 students with a 17:15 ratio of girls to boys. The class has mixed nationalities.

This lesson will support students in their analysis of characters in The Grapes of Wrath.  Once students have read chapter 10, they should be able to begin the project. 
1.  Break students up in small groups of 3-4 students and either assign or let them choose one of the characters who has been described in more detail during the first 10 chapters (Tom Joad, Pa Joad, Ma Joad, Muley Graves, Jim Casy, Grampa Joad, Al Joad, Rose of Sharon, etc. )