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

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

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

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

“Timshel” in East of Eden, 2022, 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:

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