EN11-1 responds to and composes increasingly complex texts for understanding, interpretation, analysis, imaginative expression and pleasure Students: compose personal responses to texts and consider the responses of others explain how various language features, for example, figurative, grammatical and multimodal elements, create particular effects in texts and use these for specific purposes apply and articulate criteria used to evaluate a text or its ideas develop creative and informed interpretations of texts supported by close textual analysis (ACELR062) EN11-3 analyses and uses language forms, features and structures of texts, considers appropriateness for purpose, audience and context and explains effects on meaning Students: analyse how language choices are made for different purposes and in different contexts using appropriate metalanguage, for example, personification, voice-over, flashback and salience (ACEEN002) use appropriate form, content, style and tone for different purposes and audiences in real and imagined contexts (ACEEN011) showing the rise and fall of tension across the six chapters. Students label the graph with important events and indicate the stages in the structure of the novel: exposition, rising tension, climax and resolution. Students identify the main settings of the novella: The ‘green pool’ (pp1-2, 112-113) The ranch, including the bunkhouse, Crook’s shed and the barn (pp19, 75-6, 95). As a class, discuss the different ways in which each setting is presented. Students should explain what is the symbolic significance of these two settings? How are they important to the ideas raised in the novella? Students engage in the study of character and: identify the seven main characters in the novel. draw a character web indicating the connections between these characters. develop a detailed character profile of George, including physical appearance, personality, attitudes and beliefs, aspirations, role in the novella. This may be developed as a class where evidence can be drawn from the text to support points. Organise information in a set of notes, using the following table: Divide class into 6 groups. Allocate one of the other main characters to each of these groups. Students can use the table above to build a profile of the allocated character. Each group reports back to the class. Students share character profiles. Students discuss, and perhaps add to, these criteria of successful characterisation: Convincingly ‘human’: neither all good nor all bad; not always predictable, but true to nature; three-dimensional, not stereotyped or flat
Students: appreciate and explain how composers may transform and adapt texts for different purposes, contexts and audiences, for example, appropriations in popular culture transform and adapt texts for different purposes, contexts and audiences (ACEEN050) investigate text structures and language features related to specific genres for different purposes and audiences (ACEEN052). EN11-5 thinks imaginatively, creatively, interpretively and analytically to respond to and compose texts that include considered and detailed information, ideas and arguments Students: compose critical and creative texts that explore increasingly complex ideas. Of the three texts (the novella and the two film versions), which presents the final scene with the greatest impact? Explain why. Teacher information - Steinbeck deliberately wrote Of Mice and Men as a ‘novel play’ – that is, a novel that could be readily adapted into a play. In fact, Steinbeck himself adapted the novella into a play script for a stage production, directed by George S. Kaufman, which opened on Broadway the same year the novella was published (1937). This production was chosen as Best Play in 1938 by the New York Drama Critics’ Circle. Students choose a scene from the novella and write their own play versions. The Wikihow guide cited here outlines steps that might be involved in such a task – students should focus on part 2, ‘Writing the play’, in this resource. It will also be helpful to study examples of play scripts to familiarise students with the conventions of formatting. Wikihow resource showing how to write a play based on a novel: EN11-1 responds to and composes increasingly complex texts for understanding, interpretation, analysis, imaginative expression and pleasure Students: investigate, appreciate and enjoy a wide range of texts and different ways of responding develop creative and informed interpretations of texts, supported by close textual analysis (ACELR062). Exploring connections between and among texts: themes The following activities may be used to explore the themes in this text as well as in other related material Students have already read two essays discussing the idea of dreams in Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. In fact, there is a dichotomy of ideas in the novella: dreams and reality. Students research and define ‘dichotomy’ and write notes on this dichotomy as it relates to several characters in the text. Students can use the following table: Examples of texts dealing with the dichotomy of dreams and reality: Mercutio’s Queen Mab