1. Of Mice and Men Controlled Assessment
GCSE English Language
Unit 3a
Understanding written texts (extended reading)

2. Your Controlled Assessment
Explore the ways John Steinbeck presents and uses settings in ‘Of Mice and Men’.
Extended Reading Task
1200 words
Total of four hours

4. Assessment Criteria A03 ‘Sophisticated and impressive’
Band 5 A/A* marks
Sophisticated interpretations of texts
Sophisticated engagement with writers’ ideas and attitudes; sophisticated interpretations using imaginatively selected supporting textual detail
Sophisticated analysis of aspects of language and structure

5. Assessment Criteria A03 ‘Sophisticated and impressive’
Band 5 A/A* marks
Sophisticated interpretations of texts
Sophisticated engagement with writers’ ideas and attitudes; sophisticated interpretations using imaginatively selected supporting textual detail
Sophisticated analysis of aspects of language and structure

7. Of Mice and Men: BBC In Context (10 minutes each)
Jim Crow Laws:

9. The Great Depression of America
The Wall Street crash of 1929 made many people out of work. It forced people, like George and Lennie, to travel from ranch to ranch to find work. People like George and Lennie were known as migrant /itinerant workers.

10. Migrant/itinerant workers:
Migrant/itinerant workers usually travelled alone. This would have been very lonely – a theme in the novella. - How are George and Lennie different?

11. Settings The opening of the novel in the brush
The closing of the novel in the brush
The bunkhouse
Crooks’ room
The Barn
The ‘Dream’

12. Focused listening As you read along, think about:
1) How the brush described:
colour, nature, animals
2) How George and Lennie are depicted
What is their relationship?

13. The brush What are we introduced to? Soledad /Salinas river The brush
George
Lennie
What happened in Weed
Their dream

14. The brush What are we introduced to? Soledad /Salinas river The brush
George
Lennie
What happened in Weed
Their dream
Soledad =solitude
How does this aid meaning /support themes /context?

15. The brush What are we introduced to? Soledad /Salinas river The brush
George
Lennie
What happened in Weed
Their dream
How is the brush depicted?
What adjectives are used?
At first glance...
At a second glance....
How does this aid meaning?
Cyclical narrative – ends where it begins – why?

16. The brush What are we introduced to? Soledad /Salinas river The brush
George
Lennie
What happened in Weed
Their dream
The brush allows Steinbeck to introduce us to the main characters:
What do we find out about their relationship?
What is significant about it?
Individually: what do we discover about George?
About Lennie?

17. The brush What are we introduced to? Soledad /Salinas river The brush
George
Lennie
What happened in Weed
Their dream
The opening allows us to find out how they ended up here:
What do we find out about Weed and their lives previous to this opening?
Why is this significant?
Foreshadowing: it also hints towards future events

18. The brush What are we introduced to? Soledad /Salinas river The brush
George
Lennie
What happened in Weed
Their dream
We are also introduced to their dream:
What is it: for George, for Lennie?
What is significant about their dream?
- American Dream
Do they truly believe it is achievable?

19. George
“If I was alone I could live so easy... And what I got...I got you! You can’t keep a job and you lose ver’ job I get. Jus’ keep me shovin’ all over the country all the time. What do we find out about George? Create a brainstorm of his descriptions

20. Starter
On your post it: What is important about the novel having a circular narrative? Extension: How is foreshadowing used?

21. Homework What is George and Lennie’s dream and why is it significant?
- Give at least two interpretations
Due next lesson.

22. Learning Objectives
Must: Provide ‘confident,’ developed interpretations Should: Analyse language features in convincing detail Could: ‘Sophisticated’ analysis of language
Band 4
High band 4
Band 5

23. Lennie
Add to your brainstorm: actions Lennie carries out. How does Steinbeck use language to depict Lennie?
AO3 - Sophisticated analysis of aspects of language and structure

24. How does Steinbeck use language to depict Lennie?
Animalistic Child -like
Figurative language = Similes
Metaphors
Personification
Hyperbole….
Use the terminology to show you know what you’re talking about!
What separates us as humans, from animals?
Adults from children?

25. Line of confidence
How confident would you feel structuring a developed response to the question below, to a sophisticated level? How does Steinbeck use language to depict Lennie?

26. How does Steinbeck use language to depict Lennie?
From the offset, Lennie is described as George’s ‘opposite:’ ‘......’
Throughout the opening Steinbeck uses similes and metaphors to compare Lennie to an animal...
Furthermore, Steinbeck makes Lennie appear childlike…
Steinbeck uses these descriptions …
Develop
each starting phrase using PEEFWE.
Extension: Why do George and Lennie travel together?

27. How does Steinbeck use language to depict Lennie?
From the offset, Lennie is described as George’s ‘opposite:’ ‘......’
Throughout the opening Steinbeck uses similes and metaphors to compare Lennie to an animal...
Furthermore, Steinbeck makes Lennie appear childlike through using phrases such as ‘look what I done.’ This reflects a child’s behaviour, wanting attention and praise.
Steinbeck uses these descriptions in order to reflect Lennie’s state of mind: child-like and instinctive rather than logical like an animal.
Develop
each starting phrase using PEEFWE.

28. Peer assessment
1) Identify PEEFWE in one paragraph 2) What band would you give it and why –use the wording of the criteria. 3) Target – related to the criteria!
Must: Provide ‘confident,’ developed interpretations Band 4
Should: Analyse language features in convincing detail High band 4
Could: ‘Sophisticated’ analysis of language Band 5

29. Line of confidence
How confident would you feel structuring a response now, for George?

30. Extension:
“Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place. They come to a ranch an’ work up a stake and then go inta town and blow their stake...the y ain’t got nothing to look ahead to... With us it ain’t like that. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us.... We’re gonna have a little house... An live off the fatta the lan’...”
What is at the heart of their dream?

31. Foreshadowing
Hints made by the author to what might happen Can you find any examples from the text? Why do you think it is used? - ‘The best laid plans o’ mice and men.’

32. Foreshadowing
Steinbeck uses foreshadowing as a literary tool to suggest that trouble is inevitable. Furthermore, this links back to the title of the text taken from a line in Robert Burns’ poem ‘the best laid plans o’ mice and men.’ This represents the idea that not everything always go to plan. Steinbeck mirrors this idea in the novel with is use of foreshadowing.
How does this need to be improved?

33. Plenary
Steinbeck uses the opening of the novel to...

34. Starter Use section one as stimulus for a trailer
‘The best laid plans o’ mice and men’
Two friends set out on an adventure, but will it go to plan...

35. Learning Objectives
Must: Develop confident interpretations of setting, themes and characters using quotations Should: Analyse aspects of language and structure in convincing detail Could: Sophisticated and impressive evaluation of writer’s ideas

36. Section two: the bunkhouse
As you listen think about the events and characters we are introduced to

37. The bunkhouse
The bunkhouse Candy Stable-buck Boss Slim Candy’s dog Curley Curley’s wife Carlson
How is it described?
What does this tell us about the characters/ lives of itinerant workers?

38. The bunkhouse
The bunkhouse Candy Stable-buck Boss Slim Candy’s dog Curley Curley’s wife Carlson
Candy is the first character we are introduced to on the ranch, however he is introduced as an ‘old man’ as a ‘swamper.’ He is defined by his age and his job before his personality.
We hear a lot about the other characters through Candy before we meet them. He therefore influences out initial impressions of them.

39. The bunkhouse
The bunkhouse Candy Stable-buck Boss Slim Candy’s dog Curley Curley’s wife Carlson
We find out about the stable-buck through Candy.
Like Candy, Crooks is defined by his job and his physical condition: ‘crooked back.’
He is also defined by his colour: ‘nigger.’ A term nowadays considered derogatory and offensive. Its common use in the novel reflects the attitudes of America at the time.
We find out that he lives separately from the other men and being in the same room is treated as a privilege, like a gift at Christmas. As a period where the Jim Crow laws were in force, this would have been typical for the time.

40. The bunkhouse
The bunkhouse Candy Stable-buck Boss Slim Candy’s dog Curley Curley’s wife Carlson
We are also introduced to each of these characters in the bunkhouse.
Characters come and go, much as the men come and go. It is the social hive of the ranch. Even Curley’s wife seeks solace there.
Despite being the ranch hands living quarters, it is not impenetrable by the Boss or Curley –the men who hold power over them.
Other than when working the land – the bunkhouse is where they spend most of their time.
Characters through costume/props.
Attitudes towards women.
Attitudes towards black men –racism.
Survival of the fittest –reflection on society.
Euthanasia.
Pups/Candy’s dog = metaphor /parallel.

41. Sum up section two

42. Speaking and Listening
Euthanasia
Survival of the fittest

43. Section three: Action & the bunkhouse
Slim – understands /G&L travel together/ ‘he’s jus like a kid.’
Carlson & Candy’s dog
Whit – Western magazine
Suzy’s place /Clara’s house
The dream & Candy
The fight

44. Perspective Who do we like and dislike? Slim /Carlson /Candy /Curley
Why?

45. Perspective
Slim – is respected –he understands/ ranch hierarchy Carlson – portrayed as a bully Candy – sympathy is created for him Curley – abuses his power /treats wife as a possession

46. Section four: The harness room
Crooks
Lennie
Curley’s Wife
Where is everyone else?
Why are these characters left behind?
Power
Setting/ props

47. Section four: The harness room
“This room was swept and fairly neat, for Crooks was a proud, aloof man. He kept his distance and demanded that other people keep theirs. His body was bent over to the left by his crooked spine...”

48. Crooks and Lennie
‘For a moment Crooks did not see him, but on raising his eyes he stiffened and scowl came on his face... Lennie smiled helplessly in an attempt to make friends. Crooks said sharply, “You got no right to come in my room. This here’s my room. Nobody got any right in here but me.”’ ... “ I ain’t wanted in the bunkhouse, and you ain’t wanted in my room.” “ Don’t come in a place youre not wanted.” ‘Lennie’s disarming smile defeated him.’

49. Crooks
“I see it over an’ over- a guy talkin’ to another guy and it don’t make no difference if he don’t hear or understand. The thing is they’re talkin’, or they’re settin’ still not talkin’. I don’t make no difference, no difference...it’s just bein’ with another guy. That’s all.”

50. Crooks
“every damn one of’em’s got a little piece of land in his head. An’ never a God damn one of ‘em ever gets it.” “You’ll be a swamper here till they take you out in a box.”

51. Candy
“Sure they all want it. Everybody wants a little bit of land, not much. Jus’ som’thin’ that was his. Som’thin’ he could live on and there couldn’t nobody throw him off of it. I never had none. I planted crops for damn near ever’body in this state, but they wasn’t none of my harvest.”

52. Curley’s Wife
“They left all the weak ones here.” “You’re all scared of each other.” “Think I don’t like to talk to somebody ever’ once in a while?” “I tell ya I could of went with shows.” “You keep your place then, Nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny.”

53. Learning Objectives
Must: Develop confident interpretations of setting, themes and characters using quotations
Should: Analyse aspects of language and structure in convincing detail
Could: Sophisticated and impressive evaluation of writer’s ideas

54. Section five: the barn Lennie The puppy Curley’s wife Reactions Candy
George
Curley
Slim
Carlson

55. Slim vs. Carlson
Slim’s reaction
Explanation
Carlson’s reaction

56. Slim vs. Carlson
Slim’s reaction
Explanation
Carlson’s reaction
Now use your table to write a comparison of Slim and Carlson’s characters

57. Tension ‘And because she had confided in him, she moved closer.”
‘He moved cautiously close to her, until he was right against her.’
‘Curley’s wife moved away from him a little.’
‘Here feel right here. She took Lennie’s hand and put it on her head.’
‘He stroked harder.’
‘She cried’
‘Lennie’s fingers closed on her hair and hung on.’

58. Section six: the brush The brush – circular narrative Lennie
Foreshadowing –Candy’s dog
George
Carlson vs. Slim

59. Carlson
“Now what the hell ya suppose is eatin’ them two guys.”

60. Speaking and Listening
Was George right to kill Lennie?

61. How are settings used? To aid mood/ tone/ feelings
To reflect / aid meaning
To support themes /context
To introduce characters
Which of these apply to which settings?

62. Settings The opening of the novel in the brush
The closing of the novel in the brush
The bunkhouse
Crooks’ room – harness room
The Barn
The ‘Dream’