Of Mice and Men: Non-fiction essay, "Migrant Workers in the 1930's"

Migrant workers in the 1930’s

Content standards:

1: Students read and understand a variety of materials

6: Students read and recognize literature as a record of human experience.

Knowledge and objectives:

1. Student must know and have an understanding of life for the “Oakies” and the migrant workers

Relevance:

Students will apply this knowledge t form a better understanding of not only the literature, but of the History of the time as well.

Background Knowledge

Students will have completed a webquest learning about and discussing John Steinbeck as well as some information about the geography and the economic situation of the 1930’s and the Dust Bowl.

Vocabulary Development:

Many of the terms the students know, for this reason, we are reviewing, “The Depression” and doing more of a mini history lesson

Grouping:

Article will be split and Jig-Sawed in pairs.

Materials:

o Article, “The Migrant Experience” by Robin A. Fanslow American Folklife Center

o Computer and speakers for music component

Instruction:

o Students will begin by each reading a paragraph of the article in pairs

o They will look for important information, define any vocabulary that is new to them and jigsaw their paragraphs in front of the class.

o I will take a few of the later paragraphs and talk about social life of the Migrant workers, sharing with them some of the music that was written and performed in the migrant camps.

§ Song include: “Skip to My Lou” and “Betty Sue” as well as “Oklahoma is Still For Me”

o Everyone must take notes on each other’s paragraphs and do a reflective piece in their notebooks about how this article compares with Of Mice and Men.

Accommodation:

Bobby Howard does not enjoy working in groups, he will be given the opportunity to work alone on one paragraph that another group is working on. And jig-saw with them upon completion

Assessment:

Students will be required to include historical information in their PEA paragraphs for the next sections, making sure to make historical connections.

Scoring Criteria:

The PEA paragraph as a quiz is always worth 15 points, 5 for ensuring that the students have a valid point that answers the prompt, 5 for have and utilizing valid and relevant evidence, and 5 for properly and thoroughly analyzing each piece of evidence.

Follow-Up

Constant connection between the life of the migrant worker and the novel.

Observations of students use of the knowledge gained from lesson:

Each student who participated in the lesson were able to apply the knowledge of the migrant workers in the 1930's to the novel. They transfered the knowledge well and used the information in their end of the novel Fishbowl Discussion as well as their final PEA paragraph