Power, Justice, and Culpability: Of Mice and Men & The Central Park Five

Students read Of Mice and Men, examining elements of Steinbeck's craft—setting, characterization, and structure—and connecting his thematic exploration of racism and classism to the 2011 nonfiction text The Central Park Five by Sarah Burns.

icon/ela/white

ELA

Unit 3

9th Grade

Unit Summary


Please Note: In July 2026, this unit and its lesson plans received a round of enhancements. This unit is now 34 instructional days (previously 32 instructional days). The writing projects of the unit have been adjusted significantly and additional assessment options have been added. Teachers should pay close attention as they intellectually prepare to account for the updates.

"They argue that Reyes's culpability does nothing to contradict the guilty 
verdicts of the five young men, despite the overwhelming forensic evidence
 and the teenagers' confused and contradictory confessions." 
The Central Park Five

"'Lennie never done it in meanness,' George said.
 'All the time he done bad things, but he never done one of 'em mean.'" 
Of Mice and Men

In this unit, students read John Steinbeck's classic novella, Of Mice and Men, and the 2011 nonfiction text, The Central Park Five: The Untold Story Behind One of New York City's Most Infamous Crimes by Sarah Burns. Although these texts are set in very different time periods and address seemingly disparate topics, they are chosen to place them together because of the opportunity each provides to complicate students' understanding of power, justice, and culpability. These texts don't "speak to each other" so much as they provide students with drastically different lenses through which to explore larger ideas about human nature.

The unit begins with an analysis of Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck's 1937 novella about two migrant workers and their experiences on a ranch in Salinas, California. Over the course of the unit's first text, students closely read the text, paying careful attention to elements of craft. Students discuss Steinbeck's use of setting to establish mood, the development of foreshadowing as a means of creating tension, his use of dialogue to reveal aspects of characters, and the way that the text's structure contributes to meaning. After finishing Chapters 1 and 2, and to introduce students to the genre of argumentative writing, students write a one-paragraph literary analysis in which they argue for which character at the ranch poses the greatest threat to George and Lennie. As students continue to read, they grapple with questions about how power and perceived vulnerability affect the way that characters see themselves and treat others. Students wrap up their close analysis of this text with a Socratic Seminar that prepares them for a multi-paragraph argumentative literary analysis essay in which they take a position on one of three prompts, focusing on providing the strongest evidence to support their claims.

Students then spend three lessons considering the concept of culpability, particularly in the context of the criminal justice system, and how aspects of a person's identity can shape whether a person is perceived as guilty. They learn about a Supreme Court decision that forbids the execution of people with intellectual disabilities and a case where the character of Lennie was used as a benchmark of guilt in a real-life crime (and the horrified response of the Steinbeck family to this decision). Students then learn about situations where people have been wrongly convicted of crimes and the role that racism can play in these convictions and in perceptions of guilt more generally.  

This leads students to the second core text of the unit, The Central Park Five: The Untold Story Behind One of New York City's Most Infamous Crimes by Sarah Burns, where they continue their analysis of the way that power dynamics—and particularly racism and classism—intersect with perceptions of culpability. The book tells the true story of five young teenagers who were falsely accused of a brutal rape in 1989. Students read the first several chapters of the text, paying close attention to author Sarah Burns's structural choices as she develops her argument about this tragic miscarriage of justice. The text challenges readers to consider the role that the media played in both reflecting and shaping public opinion of this case, particularly the way that the media used specific words and phrases to dehumanize the boys. 

The unit concludes with the Performance Task in which students script and record a podcast episode with a small group of their classmates to demonstrate their understanding of the larger themes raised in the core texts.

Fishtank Plus for ELA

Unlock features to optimize your prep time, plan engaging lessons, and monitor student progress.

Texts and Materials


Some of the links in the sections below are Bookshop affiliate links. This means that if you click and make a purchase, we receive a small portion of the proceeds, which supports our non-profit mission.

Supporting Texts

Assessment


The following assessments accompany Unit 3. For more guidance, see the Summative Assessments Teacher Tool.

Authentic Assessments

The Socratic Seminar measures students' ability to think critically, engage meaningfully in discussion about key unit content, and support their ideas with evidence.

The Performance Task is the culminating assessment of the unit in which students have the opportunity to demonstrate the skills and content they have learned through an authentic task.

Optional Assessments

The Warm Read Assessment measures students' ability to apply the core reading standards and their knowledge from the unit to comprehend new, topically or thematically aligned texts. It includes multiple choice and an optional on-demand essay.

The Vocabulary Assessment measures students' acquisition of text-based vocabulary words from the unit.

Unit Prep


Intellectual Prep

Unit Launch

Before you teach this unit, unpack the texts, themes, and core standards through our guided intellectual preparation process. Each Unit Launch includes a series of short videos, targeted readings, and opportunities for action planning to ensure you're prepared to support every student.

Essential Questions

  • How does a person's sense of their own power or powerlessness affect the way they behave toward others? How do intellectual ability, race, class, and gender impact an individual's power or lack thereof?
  • What is the impact of loneliness on how people behave and treat others? 
  • What factors shape our perception of a person's level of culpability when a crime has been committed?

Vocabulary

Text-based

barragebemusedbelligerentcognitive biascontemptuousculpablederogatorydisarmingerroneousimperiousmigratorymorosepugnaciousreprehensiblewoe

Literary Terms

allusioncharacterizationclimaxconnotationdynamic charactersepigraphexpositionfalling actionforeshadowingmoodperspectiveprefacepurposeresolutionrising actionstructurestatic characterssympathetic charactertone

Root/Affix

-ible-ory-ousbar-be-culpadis-errmuse

To see all the vocabulary for Unit 3, view our 9th Grade Vocabulary Glossary.

Notes to the Teacher

The N-word is used throughout Of Mice and Men. The N-word is a profoundly offensive racial slur that has been used to demean, dehumanize, and oppress Black individuals, particularly those of African descent. The word originated from the Latin term niger, meaning "black," which evolved into Spanish and Portuguese as negro. People used this term, particularly during the transatlantic slave trade, and the eras of slavery and segregation in the United States adapted and weaponized the term as a tool of systemic racism and hatred.

Before starting the text, it is imperative that teachers prepare students for its use in the text. Black or African American students, in particular, can be harmed by seeing the word in the text without any warning. Teachers should understand the history of the word and unpack and facilitate discussions with students about the history and usage of the word. In your classroom communities, establish that the word should never be said aloud in class. If reading the text aloud, teachers should replace its use with "N-word." When citing the text in classroom materials or in writing, replace it with "N-word" or "n—" as seen in our lesson plans. Below are some resources to further prepare you and your students for its use in the text.

The Central Park Five contains graphic descriptions of violence, including rape, that may be upsetting to students. When They See Us dramatizes onscreen the descriptions read in the text. Your students may have reactions to this content, and some may have a personal history that makes this a particularly difficult topic. Both texts, as well as the articles on culpability and race, also explore how racism and classism in the criminal justice system lead to a disproportionately high number of wrongful convictions for Black and Latino men. Be mindful of your Black and Latino male students, in particular, and how they might feel reading these texts.

Lesson Map


Common Core Standards


Core Standards

RI.9-10.1
RI.9-10.2
RI.9-10.3
RI.9-10.4
RI.9-10.5
RI.9-10.6
RI.9-10.7
RL.9-10.1
RL.9-10.2
RL.9-10.3
RL.9-10.4
RL.9-10.5
RL.9-10.9
W.9-10.1
W.9-10.1.a
W.9-10.1.b
W.9-10.1.c
W.9-10.1.d
W.9-10.1.e
W.9-10.4
W.9-10.5
W.9-10.6
L.9-10.2.a
L.9-10.5
SL.9-10.1
SL.9-10.1.a
SL.9-10.1.b
SL.9-10.1.c
SL.9-10.1.d
SL.9-10.4
SL.9-10.5

Supporting Standards

RI.9-10.10
RL.9-10.10
W.9-10.9
W.9-10.10
L.9-10.1
L.9-10.2
L.9-10.2.b
L.9-10.6
SL.9-10.6
We Handle Materials So You Can Focus on Students

We Handle Materials So You Can Focus on Students

We've got you covered with rigorous, relevant, and adaptable ELA lesson plans for free