How many different ways are there to greet someone?

Discuss on your table and come up with a list of ideas.

Now split your list - which ones depend on :• Where you live?• How old you are?• What religion you are?• Other

How many different ways are there to greet someone?

Share your list with the next table, are there anything's that are common

between you?Share your list:• Where you live?• How old you are?• What religion you are?• Other

How many different ways are there to greet someone?

We will know share our list as a class… What is the most common thing we ALL

have?The List:• Where you live?• How old you are?• What religion you are?• Other

How many different ways are there to greet someone?

There are THREE things that we as a class have just discovered… What are

they?Social

Historical

Cultural Context

Can you DEFINE this?

Can you DEFINE this?

Can you DEFINE this?

Social, Historical and Cultural Context

Todays Targets:• To understand and explain the

importance and impact of social, historical and cultural context in the

story. (A*)• To understand the message behind the

story the writer has set.

Why Is Social, Historical and Cultural Context IMPORTANT?

Why do YOU think Social, Historical and Cultural Context is IMPORTANT in everyday life?

Race

Religion

Background

Nationality AgeCommunity

Modern Era

Sexuality Family Life

What is social, historical and cultural context?

• What symbol is this?• What does it make you think of?

Nazi Germany? Holocaust? Dictator?

• Originally The swastika literally means "to be good“

• Used originally and even now in Hindu and Buddhist religions as a symbol of lucky and positivity.

• It was first used thousands of years ago.

• ONLY on 1920 did Nazi Germany take the symbol as a symbol of their party and with it did awful things.

What is social, historical and cultural context?

• What symbol is this?• What does it make you think of?

Swearing? Offensive?

• Making a V with your two fingers originally was used in 1415 after the Battle of Agincourt by British Bowmen to show that they still had their bow fingers.

• In 1960 it was taken on as a peace sign.

Social, Cultural and Historical Context Of Mice and Men…….

• It is important to understand the social, cultural and historical context of the story.

• Therefore, you will have to look at different texts to help you extinguation the social, cultural and historical contexts of the story.

• You will need to include this information in your assessment.

• It will be your group’s job to find out the information and then teach it back to the class.

You will have TWO lessons to prepare this.

Information TableFacts, dates and statistics? How does it impact on the characters

and the story?How will you teach it to the class?

Task?

The Author

The Great Depression

Treatment of Mental Illness

American Dream

Wall Street Cash

Farming

Gathering The Information

• There are SIX texts from which you need to gather information from.

• ONE person from each group will choose ONE text.

• That person will have to walk around the classroom and find that text, then GATHER the information that is needed and TEACH it to the group.

• Only ONE person is allowed to go at ONE time!

John Ernst Steinbeck born in Salinas, a farming town, California in1902 and spent most of his life in Monetery County, the setting for most of his novels. On Summer breaks from Salinas High School, Steinbeck worked on farms. During his summer work he noticed the difficult working conditions of his fellow workers, many of whom were migrant workers and the darker aspect of human nature, experiences he was later to explore in works such as “Of Mice and Men”. Although he was an author of twenty-seven books, Steinbeck was best known for his novel, “The Grapes of Wrath”, for which he won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize. This book was banned from schools and libraries as the authorities deemed it to be obscene and misrepresent the rich landowners and bankers whom Steinbeck heavily criticises for their mistreatment of migrant workers.

The Author

The Great Depression, which began in 1929 in US and rapidly spread to the industrialised countries of the world, did not affect everyone the same way. Many rich people felt no impact at all, and were oblivious to the suffering of others. Unemployment rose from 5 million in 1930 to 13 million by the end of 1932. 200,000 people lost their homes at the start of the Great Depression and became itinerants travelling across America looking for work. Rural America suffered the greatest. The Depression changed the family in dramatic ways. Many couples delayed marriage - the divorce rate dropped sharply (it was too expensive to pay the legal fees and support two households); and birth rates dropped below the replacement level for the first time in American history. Families suffered a dramatic loss of income during this period, dropping 35% in those four years to $15M. This put a great deal of stress on families. Some reacted by pulling together, making due with what they had, and turning to family and friends for help. Other families did not fare as well, and ended up falling apart. Traditional roles within the family changed during the 1930s. Men finding themselves out of work now had to rely on their wives and children in some cases to help make ends meet. Many did not take this loss of power as the primary decision maker and breadwinner very well. Many stopped looking for work, paralyzed by their bleak chances and lack of self-respect. Some became so frustrated that they just walked out on their families completely. A 1940 survey revealed that 1.5 million married women had been abandoned by their husbands.

Causes of the Depression Causes of the DepressionAs early as 1926, there were signs that the boom was under threat - this was seen in the collapse of land prices in Florida.Eventually, there were too many goods being made and not enough people to buy them.Farmers had produced too much food in the 1920s, so prices for their produce became steadily lower.There were too many small banks - these banks did not have enough funds to cope with the sudden rush to take out savings, which happened in the autumn of 1929.Too much speculation on the stock market - the middle class had a lot to lose and they had spent a lot on what amounted to pieces of paper.The Wall Street Crash of October 1929 was a massive psychological blow.America had lent huge sums of money to European countries. When the stock market collapsed, they suddenly recalled those loans. This had a devastating impact on the European economy.The collapse of European banks caused a general world financial crisis.

Effects Unemployment - 13 million people were out of work.Industrial production dropped by 45 per cent between 1929 and 1932.House-building fell by 80 per cent between 1929 and 1932.The entire American banking system reached the brink of collapse.From 1929 to 1932, 5,000 banks went out of business.Although many people went hungry, the number of recorded deaths from starvation during the Depression was 110, although many other illnesses and deaths were probably related to a lack of nutrition.

Treatment of Mental Illness During 1930s in America

Although, the treatment of the mentally ill had made significant pathways in the twentieth century, the practices used in the 1930s were still far from ideal. Sufferers of mental

illnesses were no longer considered as lunatics or were bled to death because they were considered to be possessed by the Devil, they were, however, seen as social outcasts. It was

not unusual for families to abandon their kin or keep them out of sight for fear of being shunned by the community.

Drugs, electro-convulsive therapy (electric shock), and surgery were the most popular methods to treat people with schizophrenia and others with persistent mental illnesses during this period. Some were infected with malaria; others are treated with repeated insulin-induced comas. Some had parts of their brain removed surgically, an operation

called a lobotomy, which was performed widely over the next two decades to treat schizophrenia, intractable depression, severe anxiety, and obsessions. It was not uncommon

for patients to be abused and their individual needs neglected by the people who were designated to care for them. These inhumane practices continued well into the 1950s until advances in drugs to treat mental illnesses were made. Attitudes too were slowly changing.

What Is The American Dream?

The term was first used by James Truslow Adams in his book The Epic of America which was written in 1931. He

states:

"The American Dream is "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to achieve the fullest stature of which they are capable of, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the circumstances of birth or position."

The Wall Street CrashIn 1928 the new Republican president Herbert Hoover confidently stated, 'We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land.' Within a year, all the confidence had ended and America was plunged into the Depression.Wall Street CrashWhen the Wall Street stock market crashed in October 1929, the world economy was plunged into the Great Depression. By the winter of 1932, America was in the depths of the greatest economic depression in its history.The number of unemployed people reached upwards of 13 million. Many people lived in primitive conditions close to famine. One New York family moved into a cave in Central Park. In St Louis, more than 1,000 people lived in shacks made from scrap metal and boxes. There were many similar Hoovervilles all over America. Between 1 and 2 million people travelled the country desperately looking for work. Signs saying 'No Men Wanted' were displayed all over the country. the time of the election in November 1932, Hoover's popularity had reached rock bottom. It was not even safe for him to go onto the streets to campaign. After his heavy defeat, Hoover told his friends, "we are at the end of our string... there is nothing more we can do". The American economy did not fully recover until the USA entered the Second World War in December 1941.

Farming Migrant farmersAdded to the man-made financial problems were natural ones. A series of droughts in southern mid-western states like Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas led to failed harvests and dried-up land. Farmers were forced to move off their land: they couldn't repay the bank-loans which had helped buy the farms and had to sell what they owned to pay their debts.Many economic migrants headed west to 'Golden' California, thinking there would be land going spare, but the Californians turned many back, fearing they would be over-run. The refuges had nowhere to go back to, so they set up home in huge camps in the California valleys - living in shacks of cardboard and old metal - and sought work as casual farmhands.Ranch handsAgainst this background, ranch hands like George and Lennie were lucky to have work. Ranch hands were grateful for at least a bunk-house to live in and to have food provided, even though the pay was low.Think about how the men agree to hush-up the fight between Curley and Lennie and claim that Curley got his hand caught in a machine: they know that Lennie and George would be fired if the boss came to hear of it, and then Lennie and George could be left with nothing.

Time’s Up! You must know stop teaching/finding information.

Return back to your seats.

Group ThinkingCreative thinking and ideas

Feelings and opinions of ideas and thoughts

Positive thinking of ideas and thoughts

Facts and figures

Critical thinking, what are the problems?

What is the “big picture” of the idea?

In your groups take ONE of the topic areas and together work through the six different ways to think about the information.

Green – How can we teach this information? What tasks can we create?Red – Feelings and opinions – How would the characters feel about the topic? How are you made to feel knowing this information? Yellow – BE positive – what are the positives of this information? And positive for who?White – What are the dates, statistics facts and figures? CONTEXT.Black – What are the problems for the characters in the story from the information?Blue – What are the BIG messages that the writer wants the reader to understand about the topic?

Once you have completed your group sheet – ASSIGN roles for each person – who is doing what?

Group Review

• Next lesson is the final one to be prepared.

• Discuss and fill in sheets identifying exactly

who is doing what.

• Make sure that everyone knows their job!