Steinbeck Goes to High School: A U.K. Educational Resource Project on Of Mice and Men (2004)

John Steinbeck has long been a popular choice for teachers in England to read with their high-school literature students. Educational editions of The Pearl, The Moon Is Down, and The Red Pony are regularly reprinted for use in Key Stage 3 of the U.K. system (ages 11-14), while both The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden have been featured in advanced level studies for 16-18 year olds. But by far the most popular book has been Steinbeck's enduring classic Of Mice and Men. Every year it is the examination text for hundreds of thousands of 16 year olds in England—and the only book that is offered by every one of the five examination boards who administer testing for the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE). DCS is a U.K. educational advisory service that exists to provide innovative support for teachers of all subjects as they strive to improve their pedagogic skills. As part of that remit, their digital Media Education Centre(dMEC)in Exeter, Devon, produces printed and digital resources for classroom use. Their most successful series has been the products tailored for use by English teachers. As well as a wide range of material on poetry from different cultures and traditions, two of the most popular titles to date have been American texts: To Kill a Mockingbird and Arthur Miller's play A View from the Bridge. Martin Phillips, the director of dMEC, explains why they chose Of Mice and Men as the next text in their series: Quite simply, we selected Of Mice and Men because it is by far and away the most popular novel [End Page 163] being studied for examination at 16. Part of the assessment criteria for gcse Literature require our students to show an understanding of the social, historical, and cultural context of the works they study. On the principle of "show not tell," our productions aim to bring alive the culture of exam texts. We visited Monroeville, Alabama, (the real-life equivalent of Maycomb) to make our Mockingbird resource. We interviewed local people, both black and white, about their memories of the deep South in the 1930s. We also filmed extracts of the annual performance in the Monroeville museum and interviewed those playing the parts about their characters. It was very well received by teachers, so Of Mice and Men will follow a similar format. Martin and his colleague Tim Arnold spend most of their time working as educational advisers, running courses or working with teachers in their classrooms—but they double up as a camera crew when necessary! In July they brought their equipment to California to do the location work for the DCS project. The main focus of the visit was an in-depth interview with Dr. Susan Shillinglaw of the Center for Steinbeck Studies at San Jose State University. As well as offering a perspective on the contextual issues, such as the Great Depression, the Dustbowl, and notions of the American Dream, the interview explored different aspects of the language, themes, and characterization in the novel. Having worked with Susan, the pair then filmed a range of location material in the area: modern-day migrant workers in the lettuce fields around Soledad, exhibits at the National Steinbeck Center, Steinbeck's houses and other locations in Salinas and Monterey, and an interview with Bill Ramsey, a Salinas resident whose family arrived from Texas as "Okies" in the 1930s. All the California material will now be edited together with work completed in England using actors to explore sections of the text. This footage was devised by two local Devon teachers, Jon Seal and Connor McGee. They have been instrumental in bringing the resource to production. It is a feature of DCS's work that they draw on the expertise of cutting-edge working practitioners to inform their training programs. Jon wrote the...