Rationale


 * Rationale**

John Steinbeck's novel, // __Of Mice and Men__ ,// is a controversial text filled with rich descriptions and deep concepts of the main characters, Lennie and George. The depictions of the characters, their motivations and their resulting actions makes the stories climax and rising actions so important and interesting for readers. Through the use of character and description, Steinbeck is able to address many controversial issues, such as euthanasia, capital punishment and racism. The characters portray central themes of loneliness, isolation, and oppression, particularly focusing on the socially weak oppression of others throughout the novel. Since the text looks at the dreams of men and how human actions and reactions can destroy even the most detailed plans, Lennie and George seemed doomed from the start. The inner drive and personalities of the characters seem to be the central theme of the novel, enabling for further discussion of the themes and characters in the text. The focus on characters and point of view throughout the lessons were made to prepare students for the final culminating experience, which will be a videotaped interpretation of the text based on topics we have come up with, and will be discussed further later.

We hope that through this unit the students will be able to use and evaluate a wide variety of strategies during their readings in order to recognize different purposes of the story as well as describe and evaluate a variety of strategies for locating information in print and electronic resources, including mass media. In addition, we hope that the students will learn how to develop coherent and correct interpretations of materials provided throughout the novel, while interpreting and synthesizing information from the source in order to develop and explain positions in the novel. The students will get the best results in their readings if they can demonstrate a willingness to reread selections and materials for various purposes and better comprehension, while making connections between their own values, beliefs, and cultures and those reflected in the novel. In addition, the students will learn how to analyze ways in which this literary work dealt with issues involving personal identity and community and respond to these through their own ideas, experiences, and communities.

Since __Of Mice and Men__ explores several central issues, it gives a personal and up-close view of what it was like to be a migrant worker in California in the 1930’s. Many parts in the text relate to the signs of the times, which is something we want our students to acknowledge and learn about. A huge focus of the book is also on friendship versus loneliness, integrated into our introductory lesson plan. Lennie and George have a life-long friendship in which they look out for each other, and many of the other people they interact with do not believe that that kind of friendship is possible, but they are still envious of this relationship. Perhaps the biggest question that the book raises and that we want our students to notice is, what is the true meaning of friendship? The book also focuses on dreams, specifically the “American Dream” to own land, provide for oneself, and to prosper. Lennie and George have their own plans to fulfill the “American Dream” and they are willing to work and sacrifice many things to make this possible. It is important for our students to wonder what Steinbeck’s primary purpose was in writing the novel because of the various, though interrelated issues that are presented. When the goals you choose to teach literature reflect your beliefs and what you value in learning literature, how you plan to organize teaching a curriculum is affected. We value having students know about the author, John Steinbeck, as well as the time period the novel took place during the Great Depression and the idea of the American Dream. When planning this unit, we took into consideration the range of student abilities in reading, knowing something about their reading ability, which helped us in selecting a text that was not too difficult or too easy for the majority of our students. We also took student interests into account and we built on their certain leisure time activities in order to make the culminating experience more applicable to their lives. In order to do this final project, the students will be asked to make a video clip of a central theme, relationship, or topic in the novel through their own interpretations and experiences. Also, in many of our lesson plans, students will have access to computers and they can use technology tools to accommodate for individual differences in learning and backgrounds (ESL students). The varying of different instructional designs to accommodate for these differences in students through the use of technology provides teachers with various online tools for accommodating to the diversity in their classes, particularly differences in reading ability.

This unit is connected to many different learning strategies learned through classroom readings and activities as well. We are scaffolding their learning through discussion questions and journal prompts, and using Jago’s idea of reading checks through each day’s introductory journal questions on the previous nights reading. We also bring the outside in, as Langer discusses, by integrating their reading and assignments to real life experiences they have encountered. Through overt instruction we teach the question of Dreams, which undoubtedly stands at the heart of this novel as well. Characterizing George and Lennie’s shared, utopian vision is crucial to making meaning of the overall text. Establishing the modesty of this vision allows students to learn about how reality interrupts on our ideals, and the historical context of this novel helps to show this. Since the economic realities of the Great Depression changed people’s visions of what they could expect from life, George and Lennie portrayed this idea to the readers. Establishing the ideas of their dream also serves to emphasize their interconnectedness and their similarities. Steinbeck argues through his work that "the migrant workers of the thirties all shared a vision, and the great tragedy of the novel is the power of the social forces that divide them and keep them from realizing their collective potential." This novel is worthwhile for students because the ideal of unity is something that we should teach students to strive for both inside and outside of the classroom. Students can benefit from thinking about Steinbeck’s compelling story, and about the forces he sees that threaten the goals throughout the novel of Lennie and George.

Essentially, we would like students to come away from this unit with the ability to speak and write about the themes and ideas throughout Steinbeck’s novels. This text as a part of the curriculum is important because it shows students about the questions we can actually ask about ourselves. Steinbeck shows compassion as the most prevalent human trait and we want this to be analyzed and evaluated by our students because they need help in understanding what Steinbeck is arguing before they can begin to evaluate it in terms of their own experiences. In this unit, we wanted to connect the issues at hand in the novel to student experiences, and ask that the students do likewise. We would also like students to consider how Steinbeck represents issues such as friendship, racism, sexism, power, and euthanasia in the novel and suggest that they are matters of importance today through their writing prompts and essay assignment. The essay assignment includes conferencing, peer editing, and drafts in order to eliminate confusion in the writing process. Lastly, it is important for students to explore how the historical context of the Great Depression affects these considerations.

Finally, the reason we have asked students to keep a running journal as they read this novel, is to provide the class with reading checks for discussion. We will explain that they need to make entries in the journal every time they read and that the journals will be turned in periodically as a way of monitoring student reading. Primarily though, we will tell students that these journals will be a way for us to center our class discussions on the issues that are of interest to them throughout their reading. The group project due at the end of the three weeks is a key activity in facilitating learning, but it also adds to the component of team work that some students need and some topics necessitate. Also, this kind of learning activity can generate a large diversity of opinion that may not come out as easily through whole group discussions. Further, by thinking about how we might divide the students into groups, we can manipulate the learning and the interactions in a positive way.