Of Mice and Men - Context: The American Dream and The Great Depression

This engaging and interesting lesson aims to improve students’ knowledge of the social, historical, and cultural context of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. It also aims to build their skills in creating clear and specific links between the text and it’s context, focusing on a specific extract from the novel.

The lesson uses a range of tasks, that require students to use their visual and interactive skills. It follows this learning journey:
- Understanding what dreams are and how they differ for each of us;
- Defining the American Dream, The Wall Street Crash and The Great Depression;
- Creating a timeline which visually depicts the other influential events of the time;
- Reading and reflecting on an extract from the text;
- Analysing the links between texts and contexts, from a success criteria;
- Evaluating each others’ analytical attempts.

All images in this resource are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the lesson presentation.

You can choose to buy this resource alone, or as part of the ‘Of Mice and Men - All Lessons and Scheme’ bundle, which contains seven full lessons, resources, teachers notes, and PowerPoint presentations, plus a Pointless Of Mice and Men game, for just £5!