Teaching Of Mice and Men: Friendship and the American Dream, Grades 8-10 George and Lennie's dream — a small farm, rabbits to tend, a place that's theirs — is never really about the land itself. It's about safety and belonging in a world that offers migrant workers neither. Steinbeck builds Of Mice and Men around…
Teaching J.G. Ballard's The Garden of Time: Symbolism for Grades 8-10 "The Garden of Time" packs a full existential argument into a handful of pages: Count Axel and his wife live in a beautiful garden of crystalline flowers that, once picked, can turn back time by an hour — buying them a little more distance…
Teaching George Orwell's 1984: Totalitarianism and Truth for Grades 8-10 Every year, students arrive at 1984 already half-knowing it — "Big Brother," "doublethink," and "thoughtcrime" have leaked into everyday language so thoroughly that some students assume they've already absorbed the book by osmosis. Part of the job of teaching this novel is showing them how…
