When do the events happen in the novel?

• As a group, add the events to the right place on your wheel.

• Using post-it notes think about what you could add in terms of themes and context.

• For example:• The Boss interrogates George and Lennie with

suspicion• Themes: trust, friendship• Context: lack of rights for workers, migrant workers

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Where are there parallels (similar events) between chapters?

Why begin and end the novel in the same place?

How might the parallels prepare (foreshadow) the reader for future events?

How might structure of novel link to the context of the novel?

What does an exam question look like?

• It is an extract based question• It is actually two questions• The latest advice is to answer part (a) THEN

part (b)

Part (a) – Using detail

You may wish to explore some of these.• Characterisation• Setting• Dialogue• Animal Imagery• Foreshadowing• Language choices

What could you discuss about the details used here?The bunkhouse was a long, rectangular building. Inside, the walls were whitewashed and the floor unpainted. In three walls there were small, square windows, and in the fourth, a solid door with a wooden latch.

How can you use details?

• The bunkhouse was a long, rectangular building. Inside, the walls were whitewashed and the floor unpainted. In three walls there were small, square windows, and in the fourth, a solid door with a wooden latch.

This is a full marks answer. Colour code it by AO…

Study this exam paper – in pairs consider what could be under each AO

AO1 - Ideas

AO2 - Language, structure, form

AO4 - Context

What goes in the marking criteria?AO1 - Ideas• details of their conversation in the extract and elsewhere e.g. George‟s

impatience and anxiety, Lennie‟s obliviousness • details of their dream of a better life in the passage and elsewhere AO2 - Language, structure, form• in the passage and elsewhere, use of colloquial expressions and dialect in

conversation • the symbolism of „solitaire‟ in the passage • use of humour and pathos in the misunderstandings between George and

Lennie in the passage and elsewhere AO4 - Context• their support for each other in an individualistic world • the way Lennie‟s disability is viewed in 1930‟s America • attitudes towards women, shown by George in the passage and others

elsewhere

AO2 - Structure

• Return to your narrative wheel?

• Why have I chosen to use a wheel?

• Read the narrative wheel and consider the questions around the outside.

Learning Checkpoint:Can you connect the structure of the novel to the following image?

Part (b) – Links to the context

• Can you list ten things you know about the context (time, setting, historical information) of the novel?

The setting is the river. Lennie and George had just escaped from Weed, where Lennie was being hunted for accidentally ripping the dress off a woman. It's peaceful. Lennie and George talk about rabbits and the farm they're going to own. George tells Lennie that if there's any trouble, to meet him at the river.

The setting is the bunkhouse. Lennie and George arrive at the ranch and meet the boss, Curley, Curley's wife, and the other workers. George and Lennie suspect trouble. Slim gives Lennie a puppy.

The setting is the bunkhouse. Candy's old sheepdog is shot. Candy is brought in on George and Lennie's plan to buy a farm and tend rabbits. They start to believe they can actually pull it off. Curley comes in looking for trouble. He gets it. Curley starts a fight with Lennie and Lennie crushes Curley's hand.

The setting is Crook's room. All the workers except Lennie, Crooks, and Candy go out for a night on the town. Lennie enters Crook's room uninvited. Candy enters soon after and they talk about the farm they're going to buy. Crooks offers to work for free if he can come. Curley's wife shows up and threatens everybody. Crooks, defeated, changes his mind about the farm.

The setting is the barn. The chapter begins with Lennie next to his dead puppy that he killed. Curley's wife enters and invites Lennie to feel her hair. He pulls it. She panics and screams. Lennie gets scared and breaks her neck. The workers get a posse together to kill

Lennie.

The setting is the river, where the novel started. George breaks from the posse and meets Lennie. They talk about rabbits and farms. George shoots Lennie in the back of the head.

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Where are there parallels (similar events) between chapters?

Why begin and end the novel in the same place?

How might the parallels prepare (foreshadow) the reader for future events?

How might structure of novel link to the context of the novel?

We have a hunch that they may choose to focus on Slim

• Read this exam paper. • Plan an answer.

Slim and the men on the ranch – we think it’s their time

• A highly skilled mule driver and the acknowledged “prince” of the ranch, Slim is the only character who seems to be at peace with himself. The other characters often look to Slim for advice. For instance, only after Slim agrees that Candy should put his decrepit dog out of its misery does the old man agree to let Carlson shoot it. A quiet, insightful man, Slim alone understands the nature of the bond between George and Lennie, and comforts George at the book’s tragic ending.

Slim and the men on the ranch – we think it’s their time

Developing paragraphs – Writing

• As you know an essay should be structured into clear paragraphs. These paragraphs are introduced by topic sentences.

• I have written some topic sentences for you.

• Can you develop these?