The following are sample lesson plans I will use to implement the unit.
Lesson 1: excerpts from
Democracy in America
by Tocqueville.
At the end of the lesson student will be able to:
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-Interpret and analyze how America’s democratic system is viewed by a non-American.
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-Develop an interpretation regarding the assumptions that Tocqueville makes about American society.
I want to use Tocqueville’s
Democracy in America
to show how American democracy and sentiment in viewed as an ideal system by non- Americans. Students will read the text and point out the assumptions that Tocqueville makes about American democracy. I want students to interpret these assumptions that the text makes and how this influences a reader’s perception of the ideal democratic society. By using this piece, students will be able to analyze how the initial interpretations of American government were considered a good model to use when creating equality for all.
I will start the lesson by writing on the board the opening sentence to Tocqueville’s piece, “Among the new objects that attracted my attention during my stay in the United States, none struck my eye more vividly than the equality of conditions.”
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I will ask them to write down an initial reaction to this sentence. I also want the students to chose the most significant word in the sentence and tell why they chose that word. They will have about five minutes for this writing activity. I will ask students to share their reactions and their reasoning behind their significant word choice. I will ask the students to make predictions in their journals on who wrote this line and when. Once students are done I will share with them the author and time period when it was written. I will ask students whether they think that this belief in equality is still evident today?
I will then pass out previously selected sections of the text and begin the reading. Students are expected to point out the key characteristics Tocqueville identifies that create the American ideal sentiment for his readers. These include the importance of township, sovereignty of the people, and the importance of government on the local level. It is important that students interpret how Tocqueville’s observations would lead his readers to evaluate American democracy. Students should to be able to identify how Tocqueville believes that true American democracy can be seen clearly when viewed and practiced on the local level. As a homework assignment, I will ask students to evaluate the importance of local level politics in their own community. This will allow students to see how a text written in the 19
th
century can be relevant in their own lives.
After students have identified, interpreted and analyzed Tocqueville’s purpose for creating this text, students will be able to do the same with Steinbeck. I want students to later connect Tocqueville’s ideals to that of Steinbeck’s in
The Grapes of Wrath
. In doing so, students will see why the landowners fear organized workers rallying for their rights. Later in the unit I will ask, was Tocqueville’s assumption about the importance of local rights correct? How do we see this in
The Grapes of Wrath?
As they read, they will look at how Steinbeck affirms or adjusts the sentiments that Tocqueville has developed. Students will be able to clarify how the assumptions are realized through an American author commenting on American democracy versus a French writer commenting on American democracy.
Lesson 2:
from
The Grapes of Wrath
chapter 14
At the end of the lesson students will be able to:
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-Make a connection between Thomas Paine’s
Rights of Man
to chapter 14 of
The Grapes of Wrath
.
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-Identify the connections in Chapter 14 and how it reveals both authors’ perception of American democracy.
In chapter 14, the narrator describes the fear that the great owners felt as a result of their abuse and mistreatment of farm workers. The chapter discusses how Man’s need to satisfy a multitude of hungers could eventually lead to him joining forces with others like him. There is a clear distinction in this chapter of the “haves” and the “have nots”. This chapter also includes the names of different political figures and comments if owners could, “separate causes from results, if you could know the Paine, Marx, Jefferson, Lenin, were results, not causes, you might survive.”
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This chapter is an opportunity to revisit Thomas Paine’s
The Rights of Man
and analyze why Steinbeck includes him in this chapter.
Students will have already read Thomas Paine’s work as a pre-reading activity to the novel. In reading Paine’s
The Rights of Man
, students have identified and compared natural rights vs. civil rights. Students have considered why every man, including the common man, must have access to those rights. They have also analyzed Paine’s perception of European governments and optimism that American will create a government that will represent the people and protect their natural and civil rights.
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Steinbeck uses Paine in the chapter to help the reader bridge this connection. I want students to show how Paine and Steinbeck both look at the democratic perspective both from the “new American view” of democracy and its potentials as well as the actual people that are affected by the injustice that democracy can create, respectively. In connecting both pieces, students will be able to create a clear argument as to why Steinbeck uses Paine as a point of reference, and how he extends this view throughout
The Grapes of Wrath
.
First, I will provide the students with the following passage from
The Rights of Man
in order to make the connection between both authors:
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“If those to whom power is delegated do well, they will be respected; if not, they
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will be respected; if not, they will be despised; and with regard to those to whom
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no power is delegated, but who assume it, the rational world can know nothing of
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them.”
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In this passage I want students to consider Paine’s interpretation of delegated power in regards to the relationship between land owner and migrant farmer in
The Grapes of Wrath
. Students will analyze what happens to those delegated power when they realize they are despised. I will ask how does this type of relations determine how those in power treat those without power?
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“Man did not enter into society to become
worse
than he was before, not to have
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fewer rights than he had before, but to have those rights better secured”
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In this passage, I want students to focus on the function of the camps and the farmers’ attempts to organize themselves in committees and unions. Students should consider the pros to working in groups to avoid the abuses of those in power. I will ask students, what is the reaction by those in power?
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“Natural rights are those which appertain to man in right of his existence. Of this
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kind are all the intellectual rights, or rights of the mind, and also all those rights of
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acting as in individual for his own comfort and happiness, which are not injurious
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to the natural rights of others. Civil rights are those which appertain to man in right
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of his being a member of society. Every civil right has for its foundation some
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natural right pre-existing in the individual, but to the enjoyment of which his
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individual power is not, in all cases, sufficiently competent. Of this kind are all
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those which relate to security and protection.”
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After giving students this passages, I will ask them to consider Paine’s beliefs about man’s rights, which were written over a century before
The Grapes of Wrath
was written. I want students to be aware of the similarities in man’s need for the most essential rights. I will ask students: do these rights change over time? In both pieces men will create societies and organize in order to protect their natural rights. I want students to connect the need for civil rights to the tenant farmers’ intentions to organize and establish camps.
Lesson 3: from
The Grapes of Wrath.
Interpreting chapter 15
At the end of the lesson students will be able to:
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-Define purpose of chapter 15
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-Identify how this chapter conveys Steinbeck’s overall meaning of the text.
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-Compare and contrast the novel’s version of the chapter with the film’s version.
In chapter 15, the narrator shows an interaction that occurs at a diner. Here the narrator begins by establishing that diners like this could be found anywhere on Route 66. Then he describes the different kinds of people that work and frequent the diner; including the waitress, truckers, and people who seemingly are well off. An important interaction happens where a poor family comes in looking to buy bread. Mae, the waitress, reluctantly sells the family the bread at a cheap price. However, Mae eventually softens up and reduces the prices of candy, as well, so the father could buy his son a piece. Although this generosity goes unnoticed by the family, the truck drivers notice. They then pass on this generosity to Mae by leaving her a large tip.
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This chapter serves to prove humanity still exists among Americans, despite the lack of humanity seen throughout the majority of the text.
After the students have completed reading the
Grapes of Wrath
, I will revisit chapter 15. I will explain that this chapter works as a paradigm and ask why they believe Steinbeck includes this chapter in the book. I want the students to consider this implies hope that still exists in the American people. I will ask students to consider why the narrator describes this diner and these characters originally as ambiguous and then creates specific people.
Then I will show the film version of this scene. I will ask the students to define the differences between the film version and the novel. I will then ask students why they believe the director changes the unidentified family to the Joads? What are the advantages or disadvantages of changing them? Why does the director include such a small part of the novel in the film?
This will be a good segue for the Langston Hughes’ poem “Let America Be America Again.” Although the “have nots” appear to remain the “have nots” by the end of the text, this chapter offers the reader a glimmer of hope that all is not lost in humanity. The last scene of the novel ends with this same idea of humanity when Rose of Sharon agrees to breastfeed a man who is dying of starvation.
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Lesson 4
: Chapter 17
At the end of the lesson students will be able to:
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-Identify and analyze the social mores evident in camps.
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-Connect chapter 17 to Tocqueville
Democracy in America.
In chapter 17 the narrator describes how migrants settled at a camp for the night and became one family protecting and providing for each other. This included unwritten rules that were evident in the camp to protect the people from harm. Among these rules were a family’s right to refuse or accept help. Despite the fact that these rules were established, each morning the tents came down and families continued their journeys West.
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After students have completed reading the novel we will revisit chapter 17. In this lesson students will identify the different laws that were created on migrant camps. I want students to consider why laws were created and what does this say about their abilities to create laws that protect their own rights and interests. I will then have the students revisit the following passages from page 57 of Tocqueville’s “On the Township System in America”:
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“But if the township has existed since there have been men, the freedom of a
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township is a rare and fragile thing. A people can always establish great political
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assemblies; for it habitually finds within it a certain number of men in whom, up to
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a certain point, enlightenment replaces experience in affairs. The township is
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composed of coarser elements that often resist the action of the legislator.”
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“Township freedom therefore eludes, so to speak, the effort of man. Thus it rarely
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happens that it is created; it is in a way born of itself. It develops almost secretly in
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the bosom of a half-barbaric society. It is the continuous action of laws and mores,
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of circumstances and above all time that comes to consolidate it. Of all the nations
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of the continent of Europe, one can say that not a single one knows it.”
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After the students close read these passages, I will ask how these relate to Steinbeck’s message in chapter 17. I will remind students one of the successes Tocqueville saw in American society was the freedom of townships. I would ask why does Tocqueville call township “a rare and fragile thing”. What does it mean when “enlightenment replaces experience in affairs” I will ask students to consider what happens in chapter 24. Here, the land owners try to sabotage the camp because of the power that was beginning to grow among the migrant workers. If they allege that a riot occurred the camp would be broken up. The committee hears about the sheriffs’ plans and work together to come up with solutions to stop them.
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After students have connected Tocqueville and Steinbeck I will show the clip of the movie when the sheriffs plot to break up the dance. I want the students to see a visual of the migrant families working together to create a working community and what happens when those with power find out about their own growing power. I will ask them to compare both versions of the scenes and comment on the similarities and differences.