Themes and Characters

Big Idea: What does it mean to be human?

After today I should be able to: 

Reading: none.

Agenda:

1. We will focus
2. Theme: Throughout the book Steinbeck explores human weakness, showing how one person or group dominates those who are weaker. Create a chart like the one below and fill it in:

Character	Strong Verb	Weak	Reason
Person X	belittles	person Y	to prove to Z that he . . .

2. Analyze: Steinbeck suggests that many of the characters have some problem—suffer from something that sets them apart from others. Create a table like the one below and use the same sentence structure as you make your analytical statements about four characters.

Person	Problem	Cause	Effect
Person X	feels Y	because of Z	which makes them do/feel A

3. Character: Curley’s wife is never given a name. Speculate about why Steinbeck refers to her as “Curley’s wife.” Also, generate a list of three words that describe her as a person, then choose one and explain why that word best characterizes her. Provide examples to support.
4. Represent: Think of one word that describes all the characters in the book—one word that somehow captures what they all have in common. Then write a paragraph in which you apply it to the characters and include examples that show what you mean. 
1. Here’s a sample: All the characters, including Curley’s wife, are x. Curley, for example, shows he is x by . . . And Carlson is no different. While different from Curley, Carlson . . . Several others, Candy and Crooks, . . . Finally, Lennie and George, despite their differences, are both . . . For example, . . . 
5. You will plan out the activities for our final novel.
1. Every Wed-Fri a group of students will lead us through an activity for a chapter of the novel.
2. Here is a master list of activities that you can use to inspire your lesson.
3. You must fill out a lesson plan for the day you are going to teach.

Homework:

1. OMM vocabulary 5-6