THE TEXT & THE IMAGE - Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck 7.4

Time to work with two major skills: describing and comparing. The core texts are John Steinbeck's brilliant novella 'Of Mice and Men' and its Foote/Sinise film adaptation from 1992. This unit also touches on some common grounds of discrimination, the idea of revision in literature, and what it means to be a compassionate human being.

CONTENT

We will...

...read the novella, and work with vocabulary and reading comprehension and expansion tasks, both individually and collaboratively.

...study the set-up of shorter stories (novella/short story) in preparation for the coming writing course (The Short Story), and learn new textual strategies such as pace, circular composition, intertextuality and snapshots.

...explore descriptive writing in the core text and other stories and work to develop your own writing skills in this area.

...watch the movie and compare it to the book.

...work with summarising skills and PEE(L)-structured argument.

...write a comparative essay.

TARGET

At the end of this course, you should...

...be able to explain the set-up of a short story and create your own, using the same style of plot development.

...be able to take a short text and enhance it, using devices learnt in the poetry course as well as new strategies studied in this course.

...have a good working knowledge of the core text (in order to use it freely and independently in coming tasks).

...be able to compare scenes from the movie and the book.

...be able to identify and relate to today's society the grounds of discrimination addressed in the book.

...be able to express a justified opinion on some of the actions and ideas in the book.

You will be able to see my course assessment of your shown skill so far in the scoring rubric below. 

RESOURCES

Of Mice and Men (full text)

Of Mice and Men (audio)

Wix website

ASSESSMENT

Main tasks are linked below.

Apart from what you show during your active (verbal, practical) participation in class or group discussions, which is an important part of this course, all individual written work produced in class can of course be used to show your improvement. Homework given is learning material for practice and preparation only.

You will be able to see my course assessment of your shown target skills so far in the scoring rubric below. 

Uppgifter

Test prep: Of Mice and Men clips

The opening and closing scenes.

https://elevstockholm-my.sharepoint.com/:v:/g/personal/claire_mackrory-wrangsjo_edu_stockholm_se/EbdpxlwclD1NjHPOWL4h4tcBiUmcvbGOQpWh2ICuf7THbA

M&M ending scene.mov

https://elevstockholm-my.sharepoint.com/:v:/r/personal/claire_mackrory-wrangsjo_edu_stockholm_se/Documents/Bifogade%20filer/M%26M%20ending%20scene.mov?csf=1&web=1&e=UPGF3U&nav=eyJyZWZlcnJhbEluZm8iOnsicmVmZXJyYWxBcHAiOiJTdHJlYW1XZWJBcHAiLCJyZWZlcnJhbFZpZXciOiJTaGFyZURpYWxvZy1MaW5rIiwicmVmZXJyYWxBcHBQbGF0Zm9ybSI6IldlYiIsInJlZmVycmFsTW9kZSI6InZpZXcifX0%3D

Storyline

Describe your short story in terms of the plot diagram. 1) Open your short story, and highlight, in different colours, which parts of your text contribute to which parts of the storyline development. 2) Explain which colours is which and give some reasoning behind your choice. Try to use the acadmic words where you can, and if your story doesn't follow the standard storyline curve, explain how and why.

Peer feedback

Answer: From what you heard about your text today, what made you most happy, and what made you think of things to add or change in your story?

Short story FINAL (text)

Final copy of short story, complete with title. Name at the bottom.

Short story DRAFT

First full draft of your short story. Feedback will be given on paper (matrix+in text marking and comments)

HW: Review Write Right - Show, don't tell.

Read though the PP to remind yourself of the ideas and think about how to use them in your own story. The PDF is too large to save here, but you can find it on Schoology if this version doesn't work for you.

Short story #1

Work from 20/3.

Character plan

Plan your character using this chart. Submit here.

Short story plan

Using the empty plot diagram, chart your short story. Submit here.

Short story FINAL (audio)

Your mp3 file marked with your name. Make sure you have the right format. Use an online converter if you need to.

Name, explain, exemplify, contextualise

Download the file and save it with your name. Fill is as much of the chart as you can, working from left to right (complete each column in turn, rather than each row.

Reading schedule (homework)

Find tasks and dates in link or file below.

Triple writing (homework)

Sit down in your room, or any room in your home, and start describing what you see (not people or just objects) to show the atmosphere as closely as possible. You want the reader to feel what the place is like. Check the example text for inspiration. You begin describing, but only need to write the first few (2-3) lines. Think carefully about the words you use, especially adjectives, and the importance you place on different parts of the description. When you have written the first few lines, stop and begin again, re-writing the same information in a different way, using other words than you did in the first version. And then… do it again! When you have three versions of the same information, submit (if you write by hand, take a photo of your writing and upload it). You may include a photo or drawing of the place if you like.

Plot development in M&M

Analyse and section the storyline of the book according to the plot development diagram. As we have seen, some lines are fluid, so you might not make the exact same analysis as your classmates. Present any way you like: paragraphed text, chart layout, PP, Prezi, audio or video file etc.

Edit: Embellish

You will be given a text with basic information, and be asked to bring it to life by using the devices you have studied for descriptive writing. Download the attached file and embellish two of the three fact sets to make them more vivid and exciting.

Edit: Clarify

15/5: Listen to this podcast. Stop listening at 17:40, where the interviewer gives the floor to the audience. As you listen, take notes on: 1) The different points that are discussed. 2) What Mark Haddon realised only after the book had been published, and what he has learned since about his own book. 3) What points the listening audience finds funny and why. Homework for 22/5: listen to the interview again, as homework, and improve your notes. 22/5: Your in-class task is to report, in bullet point form, on this content, to enhance the clarity of the issues raised in the podcast. (Yes, it's a bit like a review, but you're only reporting on the content, not personalising or making it an opinion piece.)

Peer feedback

Answer this question: From the feedback you got from your classmate, what was the thing you felt happiest about hearing? What did you hear that made you think of something new to add or change in your story?