Urban Travel Writers:

Using Steinbeck as a Model for Capturing the Energy of Place

Kelly Donoghue, 2016 Steinbeck Institute

Overview: This unit will focus on using various works by John Steinbeck as models for students’ writing as they explore and craft original blog entries about historic and cultural institutions of their city (Boston). The close reading of various Steinbeck works will be done in tandem with fieldwork and scaffolded writing lessons designed to help emerging writers of various ability levels engage, entertain, and inform their readers. All class work will take place during a 1 hour Travel Writing Club elective that meets 3 times per week. Fieldwork will occur twice a month during after school hours.Learning activities will focus on using Steinbeck’s “four layers of place”. According to Professor Susan Shillinglaw, these four layers are:

  1. The wonder of surface
  2. Human interactions
  3. Historical shadows
  4. Universality of life

Essential Question: How can we take our readers on a “road trip”?

Guiding Questions:

  1. How does Steinbeck capture the energy of a place?
  2. How can we use Steinbeck as a model for “layering” a sense of place?
  3. What techniques do good writers use to engage their readers?

Common Core Standards: Grades 9-12

Reading Literature:

  • Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful. (Include Shakespeare as well as other authors.)
  • Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.

Writing:

  • Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
  • Introduce a topic; organize complex ideas, concepts, and information to make important connections and distinctions; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., figures, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.
  • Develop the topic with well-chosen, relevant, and sufficient facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the audience’s knowledge of the topic.

Resources/Model texts:

  • John Steinbeck: Cannery Row, “About Ed Ricketts” (whole texts)
  • John Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men, The Red Pony, Travels With Charley (excerpts)
  • Susan Shillinglaw: A Journey Into Steinbeck’s California (excerpts)
  • Ken MacRorie : Telling Writing
  • James Britton, “Shaping at the Point of Utterance”
  • Expeditionary Learning protocols (eleducation.org/resources)

Writing Craft Strategies to explore: layering place, using sensory details, word choice, author’s purpose, transitional phrases, using historical context, imagery, representing various perspectives, varying sentence length, paragraphing, using dialogue, conveying emotion and awe.

Learning Activities:

Activity / Details / Time period
Build background knowledge / View and analyze images and artifacts from Steinbeck’s California using Gallery Walk and ChalkTalk protocols. Experiential exercise in schoolyard and/or neighborhood-gathering and using sensory details. / 2-3 class sessions
Close reading/text analysis “Cannery Row” and excerpts from “About Ed Ricketts”, Of Mice and Men, The Red Pony, and Travels With Charley. / Reading of Cannery Row will be ongoing (15 minutes per class period), with discussion following. Other excerpts will be introduced later in the semester. / Daily/ongoing throughout 1st quarter (September-November)
Analysis: A Journey Into Steinbeck’s California(4 layers/Holistic Sense of Place) / Review Susan Shillinglaw’s “A Holistic Sense of Place” from Steinbeck’s California and discuss various strategies for incorporating this approach into our fieldwork and blog writing. / 2 class sessions (September)
Field Work: Various sites in Boston / Visit sites throughout Boston, take field notes and photos/sketches. Use 4 layers as a guide for viewing and experiencing / Ongoing
Drafting/Editing / Use Googledocs for both draft writing and editing. Revisit excerpts from Cannery Row and other works. Specific instruction in employing various writing strategies (see list above). / 2-3 class sessions per blog entry
Peer and teacher feedback / Response group session and Fishbowl protocol. / 2-3 class sessions per blog entry
Publishing / Students will publish final blog entries on hendersonschooltravel.blogspot.com and present their work to younger students (grade 8) / 1-2 class sessions

Field Work/Historic Sites to visit:

  1. Freedom Trail
  2. Black Heritage Trail/African Meeting House
  3. Charlestown Navy Yard
  4. Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market
  5. New England Holocaust Memorial
  6. Arnold Arboretum
  7. Museum of Fine Arts
  8. Harvard Square/Harvard University
  9. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library
  10. Seaport District
  11. Chinatown
  12. The North End
  13. Boston Harbor Islands