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 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

• The Influence of Place - Of Mice and Men Unit Overview, 2018
• 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

• 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 Video, 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

Inderdisciplinary lessons:

• 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

• 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

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

Followup: Impact of Institute on Teaching