Teacher Resources

Please browse the lesson plans prepared by NEH Steinbeck scholars in the 2007, 2009, and 2011 Institutes

Followup: Impact of Institute on Teaching

How to Organize a Steinbeck Book or Film Discussion Group (PDF, 404KB)

The Long Valley

• Comparison/Contrast of Part II of The Red Pony by John Steinbeck and the poem “Hurt Hawks” by Robinson Jeffers, Red Pony Chart, Rubric, 2011
• Looking West: Steinbeck's Red Pony Stories
• Multiple Perspectives on “The Harness”
• Power, Acceptance, and Motivation in “The Snake” and “The Vigilante”
• Sacred Places
• Literary Tour Guide Project

Of Mice and Men

• Of Mice and Men – The Life of…, 2011
• A Look at Setting in Of Mice and Men: A Post-Reading Activity, observation handout, 2011
• Of Mice and Men and Place (pre-reading)
• Friendship in Of Mice and Men (pre and post-reading)
• Crooks, the Stable Buck: A Dialogic Approach to Character Study
• Getting to Know Curley’s Wife (Chapter 5 and after)
• Performance Theory: George on Trial (post-reading)
• A Closer Look at Setting in Of Mice and Men Through Poetry (post-reading)
• Chamber Theatre in the Bunkhouse (post-reading)
• Unit Plan for Of Mice and Men, Driven by Essential Questions (PDF)
• A Focus on Setting and Characterization

The Grapes of Wrath

• Pre-Reading Activity for The Grapes of Wrath, 2011
• Understanding and Inspiring Social Change using The Grapes of Wrath, 2011
• The Art of the Character, Unit Summary, Lessons: 1, 2, 2b, 3, 4, 2011
• Pre-Reading Activity for The Grapes of Wrath, 2011
• Steinbeck and the Environment, PPT, 2011
• Steinbeck Research Paper – English III, 2011
• An Anthropological View of Liminal Figures in Grapes of Wrath, PDF, 2011
• The Grapes of Wrath: Text Messaging & Final Project Possibilities, 2011
• Character Development in The Grapes of Wrath (during reading)
• Literature as Social Change (during and post-reading)
• AP Assignments (post-reading)
• Creating Visual Metaphors of Place (post-reading)
• Photo Gallery Project (post-reading)
• Grapes as a Multigenre, Multivocal Text
• The Journalism Cycle: Personalizing "The Harvest Gypsies" (extension)
• Dust Bowl Migration: An Arts-Integrated Lesson
• Teaching Nonteleology: The Grapes of Wrath and The Sea of Cortez, PDF, 2011

Log from the Sea of Cortez

• Squid, Willow Grouse and The Log from the Sea of Cortez: A Non-teleological look at Species Migration, 2011
• Sea of Cortez post-reading activity: Critical approaches to viewing nature documentaries, 2011
• Found Poetry (post-reading)

Cannery Row

• Bringing Cannery Row to Your Hometown, 2011
• Deep Sea Metaphor Project (post-reading)
• Experiencing Place Through Photographs: Ricketts’ Cannery Row
• Doc's Life: Ed Ricketts and You
• Cannery Row Classification
• Steinbeck: Cannery Row: Art/Science Connected, PDF, 2011

East of Eden

• Literary Data Collection, Chart, 2011
• East of Eden Family History Project

The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights

• King Arthur and the Heroic Pattern

Cross-Text Lessons

• The Changing Role of Women in Early 20th Century America, 2011
• Three Voices Of The Vietnam Period: John Steinbeck, Senator William Fulbright, and Martin Luther King
• Reading Texts as Tide Pools
• Parallel Texts: “E Pluribus Unum” and Elements of Literature
• Tracing the Wasteland (Acts of King Arthur & The Grapes of Wrath)

Writing About Place

• Tide Pools Are Everywhere: Lessons in Learning to See on Land and in Literature, 2011
• Writing “Place”: Using Steinbeck to Mentor Young Writers, 2011
• Steinbeck’s Sense of Place And Appreciating Student Landmarks, 2011