1. Of Mice and Men
Revision

2. Quick Quiz Where does the title ‘Of Mice and Men’ come from?
Where had George and Lennie been before arriving at the ranch?
What had happened there?
Who is the Boss’ son?
‘Well aint she a Loulou!’ – who is this said about?
Who shoots Candy’s dog?
Who has the ‘hands of a temple dancer’?
Lennie ‘bleated like a sheep’ when what happened?
In Lennie and George’s dream, what is the alfalfa for?
Aunt Clara and a large rabbit telling him off are imagined by who?

3. Answers
To a Mouse by Robert Burns – the poem suggests we can make plans all we like but we don’t know what’s round the corner
Weed
Lennie had ‘stroked’ the dress of a girl in a red dress and she had screamed for help.
Curley
Curley’s Wife
Carlson
Slim
When Curley attacks Lennie
The rabbits
Lennie

4. 1-4: Get revising! 5-7: Not bad but then… 8-10: well done!!

5. 50 words?
Summarise the key points in Of Mice and Men in as close to 50 words as possible.
Try to include an overview of key events, mention the most important characters and themes.

6. Friends Lennie Small, who’s strong, and George Milton, who’s smart, arrive at a ranch in soledad, a place of dreams and loneliness. When Lennie kills first a mouse, then a puppy, then a woman, George has to shoot him, in a final act of friendship. Their dreams die with Lennie.

7. Activity 2
Imagine Of Mice and Men is going to be serialised on TV in five episodes. Working in a pair, divide the story into five episodes. What would be in each episode?
Choose one of the key episodes, and make a list of the most important characters involved in it, and how they are behaving.
Make a note of which themes or messages are represented in your chosen episode and how they are treated in it.
Choose a key quotation to represent this episode.
Now present your work in the form of a poster.

8. Examiner Tips:
In the exam you need to be able to quickly bring to mind key details from your set texts
You need to select and highlight key details to support the points you want to make
Examiners are always impressed by someone making a clear overview of the text

9. Writing about your opinions of characters
Working with a partner, choose three or four of the main characters. One must be Candy!
Then, quickly write down a list of points about each character – there’s no need to think too much at this stage, just make sure that you make as many as possible.
Next, choose one of the characters, and organise your list of points into sections:
First impressions
Important events
Relationships with others
Final impressions
Make sure that you have short but key examples of direct reference to support your points. This could be in the form of one or two word quotations or in the form of very specific reference with exact names of places or people.
You now have the basic foundation for a response, so try writing an introductory paragraph to the following question:
What do you think of… and the way she or he is presented in the novel?

10. Check your answer
Does the paragraph make a strong, clear point in the opening sentence?
Does it show an overview of the character’s role in the story?
Have points been linked back to the question?
Does the paragraph give a good idea of the direction the rest of the response is going to take?

11. Examiner Tips:
In the exam it makes a real difference if you make an impact with a strong opening to your response.
Aim to refer to the question in the first few sentences of your response.
If you can sum up your chosen character’s role in the novel, and link that to the question, you are giving an overview of the text, which is a high-level skill.

12. In the exam, you will improve your answer if you:
give a clear and focused introduction
structure your response clearly, dealing with one idea at a time; it should be possible to underline the key idea in each paragraph.
support each point with specific references to the text, linking back to the question each time
write a strong conclusion, in which you sum up your main ideas

13. Exam Practice (40 Minutes)
What do you think of Candy and the way he is presented in the novel?

14. How is… questions Choose a key character from Of Mice and Men,
Make notes on the following points:
key events that your chosen character is involved in
how your chosen character affects the events of the story
how your chosen character relates to other characters- affecting the way they behave, for example
how your chosen character highlights, or makes the reader aware of, the themes of the text
write a plan for a response to the following question:
How is … important to the novel as a whole?
Develop your plan into a full response. It should be two sides long at least.