Spoiler alert: If you’re not familiar with the Steinbeck novella, Of Mice and Men, then do so now!

Reasons to study it in English class:

1. It’s short – only about 30,000 words which is around one hundred pages

2. It touches a universal theme that is so important to teens – Friendship. We started our unit by writing a definition of friendship and discussing the responsibilities of friendship. At this age friends are the most important group for many kids, more influential than family, so they really warmed to this theme.

3. The end is AMAZING! We were lucky enough to watch a theatre version, (Geneva Amateur Dramatics society) at the end half the class were in tears, and even more touching – so was the actor who played George.

4. The main reason I enjoyed studying this text so much with a class was the texts I received all weekend as students finished reading the book – which wasn’t obligatory as we were going to see the play “This book is amazing Miss”, “Thank you for presenting us this book”, “I’ll never forget this story”, “you made me cry last night Miss”.

The accents and American slang was a challenge for the students ( in fact the language meant the book was banned in several US states), however the students soon got into the language, and by the second half were whizzing along.

So, if you’re looking for a way to introduce English literature into your language class then I highly recommend Of Mice and Men.