Of Mice and Men: Lesson 1 - context

An introductory lesson on John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, looking at context and asking pupils to consider the lives of migrant workers.
The lesson introduces the key terms: American Dream; migrant workers; Great Depression; Dust Bowl; mass migration.
Each term is explained as part of the story that led to the historical setting of the novel, with imagery for pupils to reflect on and consider what life must have been like for the people involved: you can make this as interactive as you like, and there’s mileage in printing the photos and asking pupils to look at them to consider what they can learn about the Great Depression from them.
Pupils are asked to consider what the dreams and hopes of a migrant worker would be, and there is a structured activity asking pupils to write a diary entry from their perspective, with scaffolded suggestions of paragraph topics.
The lesson ends with a quick look at Robbie Burns’ ‘To a Mouse’, to understand the source of the novel’s title.
I’ve designed this lesson for a lower-ability GCSE class, but it could definitely work at KS3 too, or be tweaked up to suit higher-attaining pupils.