Teacher Resources
Interview with Directors Shillinglaw and Gilly on NEH EdSITEMENT: Tracking John Steinback in " The Grapes of Wrath " How to Organize a Steinbeck Book or Film Discussion Group (PDF, 404KB) Ed Ricketts on Stanford's Seaside website Please browse the lesson plans below prepared by NEH Steinbeck scholars in the 2007 , 2009 , 2011 , 2013 , 2016 , 2018 & 2022 Institutes
The Long Valley
Outline of Unit on Short Stories and Basics of Literary Analysis Trapped, & The American Dream, 2013 Shake, Rattle and Roll: Setting, Space, and Movement in Hemingway and Steinbeck, 2013 Discussing "Flight" by John Steinbeck using the Shared Inquiry Discussion method in a middle or high school classroom , PPT , 2013 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" Unit Plan for Of Mice and Men, Driven by Essential Questions (PDF) Literary Tour Guide Project
The Red Pony
"‘The strange and the foreign is not interesting--only the deeply personal and familiar.’" , Strategies , Chart , 2013
Of Mice and Men
2022 - Finding Connections: Reader Emotions & Experiences The Influence of Place - Of Mice and Men Unit Overview, 2018 (PDF) An Ecological Approach to Of Mice and Men , & PPTX , 2016 Material History in Of Mice and Men, 2013 Of Mice and Men Film Project, 2013 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
Write Five : A Structure for Analyzing Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, 2018 Journeys with Lange and Steinbeck, 2018 John Steinbeck’s Portrayal of the Weedpatch Camp as a Teaching Tool, 2018 Reading The Grapes of Wrath in 2 hours (and nine minutes) , Appendix A , B , C 2018 The Myth of Edenic California, 2016 Teaching "The Harvest Gypsies" by John Steinbeck, 2016 "What’s Invasive": STEM and The Grapes of Wrath, 2016 The History and Science of American Land Stewardship- The voices of Wendell Berry, John Steinbeck, and Robinson Jeffers, 2016 Introductory Assignment Introductory answers Dustbowl Step-by -Step, 2016 Dustbowl PP.pptx Dustbowl lab.docx Summarization Rubric Nonfiction.docx Stop, Think React Annotation.docx Should I stay paragraph.docx Research Guide.docx 3-2-1.docx Harvest Gypsies, 2016 The Grapes of Wrath - Empowered Student Readers and Discussion Leaders, 2016 The Grapes of Wrath - Expert Discussion Leader Project, 2016 The Grapes of Wrath - Bookmark, 2016 The Grapes of Wrath: Celebrating 75 years of a great American novel, National Geographic 75 years after ‘The Grapes of Wrath,’ we need Ma Joad in the White House, Washington Post Creating Unique Projects as a Response to Literature, 2013 Investigating musicality and tone in The Grapes of Wrath, 2013 The Grapes of Wrath: Staged Adaptations, Dramatic Monologues, and Synthesis Argument Essay, 2013 The Grapes of Wrath as an American Story: Using The Grapes of Wrath as a Lens for Looking at American History and Issues in America Today, 2013 Advocacy Writing through Multiple Genres: The Evolution of The Grapes of Wrath, 2013 Using Intercalary Chapters as Moral Tales , Slides 1 , Slides 2 , Lyrics , 2013 The Poetry of Place, 2013 Song of Manself--Celebrating the American Experience, 2013 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
2022 - Cannery Row & The Log from the Sea of Cortez Integrating Steinbeck, Ricketts and The Log From the Sea of Cortez into the Marine Conservation Curriculum , Loteria , Holistic Worldview , 2018 Sea of Cortez: the Reef Community Simulation Game , Board Image , Simulation GIF , 2018 Spoken Adaptation of The Log of the Sea of Cortez, 2016 Steinbeck and Thoreau: extending Walden by way of Sea of Cortez, 2016 Evidence of Change (lesson), 2016 1940 Observations from The Log from the Sea of Cortez Observations from Memorias de un Pescador en el Gulfo de California Miranda 2011. Memorias de un pescador Sagarin et al 2008 Finding the Intertidal in the Urban Streets: A Neighborhood Expedition, 2013 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
2022 - Building Community on Cannery Row Teaching Cannery Row across Disciplines, 2018 An Extended Unit Containing Multiple Readings and Writings for Cannery Row, 2016 Tide Pools From and Beyond John Steinbeck's Cannery Row, 2016 Cannery Row by John Steinbeck Teaching Strategy, 2016 Cannery Row Notebook, 2013 Teaching the Narrative Essay using Chapter 15 of Cannery Row, 2013 From the (rock) stars to the (musical) tidepool of your backyard..., 2013 Retracing the Sea of Cortez with local Tide Pooling, 2013 Exploring Warps, 2013 Analyzing Communities With Cannery Row, 2013 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
The Pearl Unit , final assignments , vocabulary , 2017 The Pearl Lesson Plan, 2016 The Pearl Packet , 2016, Keshia Stiles, Rubic for Picture Book
East of Eden
2022 - “Timshel” in East of Eden , Teacher version , Student version , puzzle Anatomy of a Scene: East of Eden , 2016, Lesson Plan 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
Interdisciplinary lessons:
2022 - Logs from the Way Out: Non-Teleological Self-Care for Teaching during Difficult Times, Final Project 2022 - Social Protest Movement and Social Structures , DICE Analysis , Assignment , Lesson Reconstruction through the Obama administration, 2018 Sustainability, 2018 Teaching Observation Writing, 2018 From Flash Fiction to Instant Ecology Exercises, 2018 Sowing Seeds of Steinbeck for 5th graders; seamless integration into existing curriculum, 2018 Migrant Workers and Shifts in Power, 2016 Using Steinbeck as a model for social commentary, 2016 A Work in Progress, 2016 Steinbeck Group Therapy, 2013 "Divinely Superfluous Beauty:" Multi-Genre Thematic Comparisons in the short fiction & non-fiction of John Steinbeck, poetry of Robinson Jeffers, and photographs of Edward Weston, 2013 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
2022 - How can we use narrative writing and techniques to tell the story of plants we care about: Overview , Lesson , Nature , House-dog , Maple-nation , Phenology How Determining a Sense of Place Leads Us Inside Out & Back Again, 2018 Learning About the Land , Resources , 2018 Using Steinbeck as a Model for Capturing the Energy of Place, 2016 Place Poetry Project, 2016 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 Noticing, 2013
Travels with Charley
2022 - Meditative Moments in Travels with Charley and A Sand County Almanac
Creative Writing
Picturing Words: Descriptive Writing, 2018 Lafayette Senior Center Residents and High School Teens Explore Aging and Belonging, 2018 Writing Like Steinbeck, 2017 Three Creative Writing Exercises Using Steinbeck, 2016
COMMENTS
The word is from the Latin fictiō, “the act of making, fashioning, or molding.”. John Steinbeck, American novelist, best known for The Grapes of Wrath (1939), which summed up the bitterness of the Great Depression decade and aroused widespread sympathy for the plight of migratory farmworkers. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.