This 2-3 day mini-module is designed to engage students in an important theme of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men before reading the entire novel. By having students think about types of friendship before beginning the novel, students acquire an analytical lens for evaluating the relationship between the two main characters as they read the novel. After reading an informational text about types of friendship, students read an excerpt from the novel to help them start thinking about the friendship between George and Lennie and then write about that relationship in an informal essay.
Since students read and take notes on both an informational and a literary text, different reading strategies are used for each text. This provides an opportunity for discussing the differences in how we read, analyze, and take notes on these two distinct forms of writing.
