Language - Of Mice and Men

Thanks for this comprehensive pack.

The volume of materials present an impressive amount of work and thinking about helping students to explore lots of perspectives, social analysis, and literary considerations Steinbeck deployed as part of his character development. With that said, the activity guides lead students through a series of fact-gathering and menial tasks that focus on recording of information, quantitative documentation, and little in the way of critical thinking and writing structures, historical contextualization that leads to current, practical application, or even just basic plot development. Additionally, the use of excessive, superflous clip art and non-standard terms and phrases as part of the instructional content, "the reason that the characters don't live in the towns is because..." with Bart Simpson graphic, makes this seem like a remedial exercise at best. If you elect to use this resource, please choose to edit it aggressively to create a more direct analysis of Steinbeck's writing style, how it applied historically to a nation of transient, migrant labor during the depression, the themes and tones of inter-character relationships as evidenced through the dialogue and where these same themes resonate in today's world.