Of Mice and Men - Chapter 1 - Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Sep 30, 2026

Lesson questions and close-reading tasks for Of Mice and Men, focusing on how Steinbeck describes setting in Chapter 1. The worksheet asks learners to identify descriptive language for water, surroundings, animals, and people, then answer PEAL questions about atmosphere and the author’s choice of opening. It also compares passages from the King James Bible and Of Mice and Men, analysing sentence length, clauses, and descriptive parallels to evaluate their combined effect on impact.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages64

Reading Time2 h 41 min

AccessFree to download

Of Mice and Men - Chapter 1

Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Learning objective: describing setting

Task: extract phrases for water, surroundings, animals, and people

PEAL questions about atmosphere and opening

Comparison of two passages (King James Bible vs Of Mice and Men)

Analyse similarities in descriptive words, sentence length, and clauses

Effect of parallels on overall impact

Of Mice and Men - Chapter 2

Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Of Mice and Men Chapter 1 Tuesday, March 17, 2020 L.O. To explore how setting is described. Look at the opening section of the book from the beginning down to ‘the limb is worn smooth by men who have sat on it’. Find three examples of each of the following: • Phrases used to describe the water • Phrases used to describe the surroundings • Phrases used to describe the animals • Phrases used to describe people. Answer the following questions using PEAL 1. What kind of atmosphere do these phrases create at the start of the book? 2. Why do you think Steinbeck decided to begin the story in this way? Think about what happens later in the book. Look at each passage below. Passage 1 is from the King James Bible and Passage 2 is from Of Mice and Men. Passage 1: And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden. Passage 2: On one side of the river the golden foothill slopes curve up to the strong and rocky Gabilan mountains, 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 winter’s flooding; and sycamores with mottled, white, recumbent limbs and branches that arch over the pool. Paying close attention to descriptive words, the length of sentences and the number of clauses and phrases, identify any similarities in the two texts. Passage 1: And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden. Passage 2: On one side of the river the golden foothill slopes curve up to the strong and rocky Gabilan mountains, 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 winter’s flooding; and sycamores with mottled, white, recumbent limbs and branches that arch over the pool. What effect do these parallels have on the impact of the ‘Of Mice and Men’ passage? Passage 1: And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden. Passage 2: On one side of the river the golden foothill slopes curve up to the strong and rocky Gabilan mountains, 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 winter’s flooding; and sycamores with mottled, white, recumbent limbs and branches that arch over the pool. Of Mice and Men Chapter 2 Tuesday, March 17, 2020 L.O. To explore how character is described. A number of characters are presented for the first time in this chapter. One such character is Curley’s wife. Both men glanced up, for the rectangle of sunshine in the doorway was cut off. A girl was standing there looking in. She had full, rouged lips and wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up. Her fingernails were red. Her hair hung in little rolled clusters, like sausages. She wore cotton house dress and red mules, on the insteps of which were little bouquets of red ostrich feathers.“I’m lookin’ for Curley,” she said. Her voice had a nasal, brittle quality. Examine this extract carefully and then answer the following qu

FAQs

What descriptive categories do students need to extract from the Chapter 1 opening?

Students must find three examples each for phrases describing the water, the surroundings, the animals, and the people.

What is asked in the PEAL questions for Chapter 1?

Students answer what kind of atmosphere the phrases create at the start, and why Steinbeck chose to begin in that way, considering what happens later in the book.

How should learners compare Passage 1 and Passage 2?

Learners must pay close attention to descriptive words, sentence length, and the number of clauses and phrases, then identify similarities and explain the effect those parallels have on the impact of the Of Mice and Men passage.

Sep 30, 2026

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