Designing Museum Exhibits for The Grapes of Wrath: A Multigenre Project

Materials and Technology

Printouts

Websites

Preparation

 

MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY

Copies of The Grapes of Wrath

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PRINTOUTS

• What Is a Genre?
  
  
• Outline of Intercalary Chapters in The Grapes of Wrath
  
  
• Genre List
  
  
• Multigenre Museum Exhibits for The Grapes of Wrath
  
  
• Museum Exhibit Planning
  
  
• Museum Exhibit Rubric
  
  
• Blending Multiple Genres in Theme Baskets
  
  
• A Teacher's Guide to the Penguin Edition of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath

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WEBSITES

• Great Depression and Dust Bowl Web Exploration
• The Promise of Freedom
• The Grapes of Wrath
• Citation Machine
• Why Cite Information Sources?
• The OWL at Purdue: Citing Electronic Sources
• Weedpatch Camp
• Kermit the Frog Puppet (curator's notes example)
• Present at the Creation: The Grapes of Wrath
• America from the Great Depression to World War II
• The Depression News: The 1930s, from the Michigan Historical Museum
• Surviving the Dust Bowl
• The Great Depression
• National Historic Route 66 Federation
• Voices from the Dust Bowl
• The Forgotten People

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PREPARATION

• The number of sessions that this lesson plan requires depends upon the amount of time necessary for students to read the novel. As a general average, assign the novel in chunks of 25–30 pages each. At this pace, the novel will take approximately 3 weeks to cover. With the additional time required for introduction, students’ research, and their presentations, this lesson will take 4–5 weeks.
  
  
• Collect multiple copies of The Grapes of Wrath. If desired, check your local library for a copy of the book on tape or CD to use during read-aloud sessions, especially to introduce the intercalary chapters.
  
  
• Students should have had exposure to a variety of genres before beginning this lesson. Whether through reading or writing, students should have had enough experience to identify and sort texts based on their genre.
  
  
• Choose a museum exhibit to use as an example for the class project. This lesson uses The Promise of Freedom, from the National Museum of American History’s online exhibit, Separate Is Not Equal: Brown v. Board of Education, but any exhibit can be used. You might use another collection from the Separate Is Not Equal exhibit or another museum exhibit altogether.
  
  
• Decide how students will complete the Museum Exhibit projects—individually, with a partner, or in small groups. Explain the option you have chosen when you introduce the project to the class.
  
  
• Make copies of student handouts: Multigenre Museum Exhibits for The Grapes of Wrath, Genre List, Museum Exhibit Planning sheet, and Museum Exhibit Rubric.
  
  
• Test the Great Depression and Dust Bowl Web Exploration on your computers to familiarize yourself with the tool and ensure that you have the Flash plug-in installed. You can download the plug-in from the technical support page.

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