Name:__________________________________________________

OF MICE AND MEN

by John
Steinbeck

READING COMPREHENSION
STUDY BOOKLET
Year 10

Of Mice and Men ACCESSING PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Statement

Agree or
Disagree?

Why?

When people are victims

of crime, they should be
able to take the law into
their own hands.
The death penalty will lead
to a lower murder rate

Being rich is more

important than having
close friend

Sometimes someone has

to break the law to make
sure justice is served.

Life today is more difficult

than in the 1930s.

Racism is not an issue in

society today.

Justice should be
determined in a court of
law.

Of Mice and Men PREDICTING

Consider the following book covers;

Use the covers above to make predictions about the

following four aspects of the text. Use examples from the covers to justify your
predictions.
SETTING:

PLOT:

CHARACTERS:

THEMES:

Of Mice and Men CLARIFYING

Many students assume that competent readers understand everything they read.
However, what competent readers do that others dont is recognise when they have
stopped understanding and use strategies to combat this before moving on.
To understand texts better, you need to be able to do three things:
o Be aware when youve stopped understanding the meaning
o Identify what it is that you dont understand (word, sentence, paragraph)
o Use strategies to restore meaning
Some strategies you can use to help you clarify the meaning of texts include:

Reread the sentence, finding words you understand

Using those words you understand to help you determine what some of the
others might mean.
Look for words within words to determine meaning
Consider whether that word looks or sounds similar to another you know
Substitute the word for one you know and see if it makes sense
Use a dictionary
Use the context of the paragraph to figure out what the word might mean.
Use your prior knowledge of the text to figure out what would make the most
sense in that section of the text.

Using the strategies above to help you, complete the following activity.
Activity 1: Define the term in its simplest form
Vocabulary Word
Debris

Bindle

Sentence
but on the valley side the
water is lined with trees
willows fresh and green with
every spring, carrying in their
lower leaf junctures the
debris of the winters
flooding
George unslung his bindle
and dropped it gently on the
bank.

Define in your own words

I got three cans of beans in

my bindle.
Morosely

George stared morosely at

the waterHe said angrily,

We could just as well of rode

clear to the ranch if that
bastard bus driver knew what
he was talking about.
Lumbered
Lenny lumbered into the
bush and disappeared in the
brush.
Pantomime
But Lennie made an elaborate
pantomime of innocence.
What mouse, George? I aint
got no mouse.
Anguished
His anger left him suddenly.
He looked across the fire at
Lennies anguished face, and
then he looked ashamedly at
the flames.

Activity 2: Complete the following graphic organiser to clarify your understanding. In

each section, provide words/sentences from the text that have helped you clarify each
aspect of the text.

SETTING

PLOT

OF MICE
AND MEN
THEMES

CHARACTERS

Of Mice and Men MAKING CONNECTIONS

There are three types of connections that can be made with a text;
TEXT TO SELF Relates something in the text to your own personal experiences.
TEXT TO TEXT Relates something in the text to something you have viewed/read
in another text.
TEXT TO WORLD Relates something in the text to something in the wider world
(might be the news, documentary, other peoples experiences)
It is important that connections made with the text are deep connections, rather than
surface connections. Connections should be genuinely meaningful and this will
assist in accessing prior knowledge and creating personal links with what is being
read.
Activity 1 - TEXT TO SELF:
Choose any three characters that appear in Chapter 3 and compete the following table.

Character

What emotions does this

character experience in
Chapter 3 and why?

This is similar to how I felt

in my own life when

Activity 2: TEXT TO TEXT

a) Complete the following Venn diagram comparing The Outsiders to Of Mice and Men
THIS IS STILL RELEVENT IN OUR WORLD
THEME PRESENT IN THE TEXT
BECAUSE
Dreams/Hope:
For several characters the dream of owning their
own land represents security, independence,
human dignity and freedom. However, the world
keeps throwing up obstacles to prevent them
from achieving this dream.
Loneliness:
All of the characters are seeking companionship
however this is often hard to find. As Crooks says
"A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. The text
shows that human connection is an integral part
of life.

b) If you were to remake a film of Of Mice and Men, who would you cast for each character and
why?

Activity 3: TEXT TO WORLD

The

George: When I think of the swell time I could have without you, I go nuts. I never
get no peace.

text

Lennie: You want I should go away and leave you alone?

George: Where the hell could you go?
Lennie: Well I could. I could go off in the hills there. Some place Id find a cave.
George: Yeah? Howd you eat? You aint got sense enough to find nothing to eat.
Lennie: Id find things. I dont need no nice food with ketchup. Id lay out in the sun
and nobodyd hurt me. An if I foun a mouse, I could keep it. Nobodyd take it away
from me.
George: I been mean aint I?
Lennie: If you dont want me I can go off in the hills an find a cave. I can go away
any time.
George: No look! I was jus foolin. Cause I want to you stay with me.
explores many themes that are still relevant to our world today. Use the following table to explore
some of these connections. You may wish to consider things you have seen in the news, on social
media, experiences of your friends or family etc.

Of Mice and Men INFERENCE

Inferring is being able to read between the lines, when the author implies something but doesnt
exactly state it. To infer, we need to use both the clues in the text (context, illustrations etc.) and our
own prior knowledge. We can then interpret what we think the author is trying to say the deeper
meaning in the text.
Activity 1: Look at the following dialogue between George and Lennie and use it to answer the
questions.
Justice:
The ranch is a place where there is not

necessarily fairness or equality but there is a form

of justice. Sometimes this justice is outside of the
law and it is questionable whether people really
get what they deserve.

Women and Femininity:

In the text, women are seen purely as sexual
objects. They seem to have little use for anything
beyond this and represent trouble for the male
characters.

What is the relationship like between these two men? Who seems to be in control? How do we know
this (use evidence).
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Which of these men depends on the other? How do we know this (provide evidence).
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What can we learn from the men by the way they talk?
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Activity 2:
a) Match the quote to the inference.
They had both walked in single file down
the path, and even in the open one
stayed behind the other.
This woman is trouble.
The man was slow and possibly
dangerous.

The men might get an STI if they go to

the cheap brothel.
And he walked heavily, dragging his feet
a little, the way a bear drags his paws.
He lay back on his bunk and crossed his
arms behind his head and stared at the
ceiling.

Theres guys around here walkin bowlegged cause they like to look at a
kewpie doll lamp

Shes a rattrap if I ever seen one.

He was upset and didnt want to talk

about it with anyone.

One person in this pair is in charge of the

other.

b) Using the information below, fill in the blanks by making inferences from the quotes.
Whynt you tell her to stay the hell home
where she belongs?

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Candy feels that he is quickly becoming

worthless to the ranch and society.
And he had books, too; a tattered
dictionary and a mauled copy of the
California civil code for 1905.

Activity 3: Complete the following character chart using inferences from the
text.
How does Curleys wife feel about her
position on the ranch?

How do the other characters feel about

Curley wife?

Inference:
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Inference:
____________________________________
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____________________________________

Evidence:
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Evidence:
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What are Curleys wifes hopes and

dreams for his future?

Why is Curleys wife always

seeking out the men in the
bunkhouse?

Inference:
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Inference:
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Evidence:
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Evidence:
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Of Mice and Men SUMMARISING

Activity 1: - Decide on the 8 key plot points from Of Mice and Men. Use the 8 boxes
below to illustrate each of these key plot points and write a one sentence caption
explaining each illustration.

Activity 2: Read the brief summary of the text and use a highlighter to identify the
essential and non-essential information in the table below. Use the essential information
to write your own summary paragraph which must be shorter than the sample
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paragraph.

Steinbeck's novella follows two men, George and Lennie, as they take on
a new job working on a ranch in central California "bucking barley" for
the ranch owner and his son.
Essential Information
Non Essential Information
George and Lennie begin the story at the Salinas River where they
discuss
their past
immediate
past
and the questions
more distant
past),
Using
your knowledge
of(the
the text,
choose 2 of
the following
to answer.
Each one
discussing
how
they
have
come
to
be
here
and
where
they
are
requires a 200 word response. Use evidence from text where possible to supportgoing.
your ideas.
The men have come from "up north" where Lennie has done something
that got the men chased out of town. They are on their way to a ranch
where they have been hired as laborers.

1. Why does George have to give up the idea of the dream farm
The two men arrive at the ranch the following day, begin work, and meet
once
kills Curley's
farm ever
real possibility?
the Lennie
other characters
of the wife?
novel. Was
Thesethe
characters
are aa mixture
of
ranch hands and ranch owners. Lennie encounters the boss's son, Curley,
and is threatened by him. The men also meet Curley's wife. George
predicts that she will bring trouble to them. Lennie feels the threat from
both Curley and Curley's wife as well, at one point saying:

2. How are the deaths of Candy's dog and Lennie related? Why do
donthave
like this
place,InGeorge.
This aint
goodtwo
place.
I wanna
get
theI two
to die?
what ways
areno
these
deaths
similar?
outta here.

The book progresses through a series of conversations relating to

isolation, dreams of financial and social upward movement, and general
3. fear/intimidation.
Does George have
the right
to kill
Lennie?
Legally?
What
about
The story
reaches
its climax
after
Lennie kills
Curley's
ethically?
doestoSteinbeck's
treatment of Lennie's murder affect
wife and How
runs back
the Salinas River.

the way the reader interprets the event? What does George's action
suggest about justicewithin the play and in the world as a whole?

4. What is Steinbeck saying about dreams? Is the book's message

inherently a negative one? Should we all just give up and stop
dreaming?

Of Mice and Men QUESTIONING

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