Activities

• Introduction to Fitzgerald and Roaring Twenties through biographical essay, documentary footage, and directed lecture contextualizing the historical period when this narrative was written, and its setting.
• Anticipation Guide elicits their thoughts on the big ideas/enduring understanding presented in The Great Gatsby. Students chart their ideas/opinions of the themes within the narrative prior to reading the text, and after their reading of the text. This provides the context of essential ideas they will need to consider when framing their reading of the text. Download Anticipation Guide here: CI 5481 - Gatsby Unit Anticipation Guide.doc
• Found Poetry exercise – students note interesting, meaningful, or poetic quotes/passages in the text; the following day in class, students work in groups of 3-4 people to create found poetry that builds upon the themes or drama within the text; in the process they create a new text that explores and illuminates these ideas. Students share in class, and provide explanation of meaning and relation to text. While appealing to the students’ own capacities to create, here, students grapple with enduring understandings, and reinforcing the importance of these ideas within their own reading.
• Twenty Questions assignment after reading of Chapter 1; prior to discussion, students pair up to assess each others’ reading of the text with these 20 questions; afterwards, students choose one question that might be used to further class discussion. Students learn to focus on important details within the narrative, influencing their whole understanding of the narrative.
• With Trouble Slips, students note “trouble spots in the text – places where their comprehension begins to falter. When students arrive in class the next day they are placed in groups and asked to share their trouble spots with their peers. Together, they try to work through the confusion.” (Gallagher, 115). Possible deviation from this activity: students keep character bookmarks within their groups – each student being responsible for tracking specific characters’ traits or actions. Students become experts of particular ideas, and relate these ideas to those within the group; this puts students in expert roles, and reveals that they can go to each other for enhanced understanding.
• Class Signifiers – within groups of 4-5 people, students note passages within the text that reveal the class/socio-economic status, and the socio-economic aspirations, of characters within the narrative. Within a whole group context, students share their results with one another. Here, students appreciate how class differences create conflict within individual lives as well as society as a whole. Students explore how these differences are apparent within their own lives, hopefully noting how the ideas within the text transfer to an understanding of their own experiences.
• Character Timelines – “following a specific character, students chart a triple-layer timeline: (1) what the character does; (2) why the character behaved that way; (3) what the character feels about the chain of events” (Gallagher, 94). Students should track at least five actions within a given timeline sequence to establish continuity, refer to text for evidence, and ultimately clarifying what happens within the narrative. Systematic visual representation of events reinforces memory of events within the text; ultimately, this facilitates a stronger discussion within class. Download Character Timelines here: Gatsby Unit - Character Timeline with Actions.doc
• Gatsby in ComicLife: Visual interpretation of text – using the graphic novel, or a storyboard format, students interpret a scene within the text through visual means. Also, the teacher may have students write 1-2 paragraph reflection on this visual interpretation, and how their visual motifs, and style, represent the ideas they had about the text. For students inspired to create through visual means, this assignment seeks to engage those students who struggle with written compositions. Through graphical means, students explore issues of class, wealth, and relationships.
• Looking through the Feminist Lens – students write two descriptive statements (one from a traditional masculine perspective, and the second from a feminist perspective) contrasting ideals of gender (e.g., women’s roles in society) with characters’ responses to their environment (e.g., Daisy’s or Jordan Baker’s relationships with men or their how they express their character). Through this activity, students appreciate the unequal social expectations among men and women. Also, they explore how characters’ genders affect our reading of the text. (adapted from Appleman, 171 – Gatsby Unit - Looking through the Feminist lens.doc) OR, have students participate in on-line role-play (see details on Student Resources page).
• Class discussion of the text using anchor/essential questions (listed above). Through discussion of controversial subjects within the novel, students grapple with understanding the text as thoroughly as possible, developing appreciation for multiple interpretations of the text. Discussion promotes language fluency.

Possible Projects

• Digital Maps -- Using Inspiration software to create weekly update of a digital map of The Great Gatsby. Each week you will be expected to make at least five meaningful additions (and appropriate edits) to a digital map that organizes your ideas concerning how the narrative of The Great Gatsby is organized according to setting(s), themes, characters, emotions, class distinctions, or any other classification or commonality shared by various characters or entities. Your work should be posted at the Digital Maps page, and it will be checked once a week on Thursdays. Find my example of a digital map of The Great Gatsby here.

• ComicLife Digital Stories -- Digital storyboarding/storytelling of specific scene(s) or chapter using images found on Flickr and presented in the medium of comic book or graphic novel using ComicLife. First select which scene you wish to explore in this narrative medium. Next, go to Flickr, search for appropriate images, and select the images you will use to tell your adaptation of the story. Vary the types and content of the images and tiles you use to make your presentation more dynamic. We will visit the computer lab two different days to begin and complete a significant amount of the work on this project. Post completed digital stories on the Gatsby Digital and Graphic Stories page.

• On-Line Role-Play -- In groups of 4, you will participate in an on-line role-play of characters you think stand out as intriguing or believable. Each group member will take the role of a different character (no overlap allowed). Using details that are revealed about that character by either him/herself or the narrator (Nick), develop an argument or position that critiques or praises some aspect of their modern culture (e.g., the City of Ashes, drinking habits) or popular culture (e.g., music, dancing, film, news from the world, sports). Looking through the eyes of the character you play, take a position that you feel that character might also take given what you know or might infer from the details in the novel. After this, respond once to each group members' positions in the voice of your chosen role (whether you agree with that character or not). Finally, respond to at least two of the responses from your fellow group members (again, in your self-appointed role). Post your original role-play position and all following responses to a single group wiki page using this wiki. Go to the Gatsby Role-Plays page to find a link to where your group will complete your role-plays.

• iMovie Project -- Lastly, you will create a 5-10 minute iMovie related either (1) directly to the narrative (or possible narratives) of the novel or (2) indirectly paralleling the plot, characterization, or themes in the novel. You CAN grapple with themes without human characters, but you will need to choose appropriate sounds, music, and images to set the right mood for the interpretation you intend to elicit. When you are finished, you need to post your film to YouTube and type and hyperlink your name with the appropriate webpage url on the iMovie Project page so that others can view and comment on your work. Each student must provide meaningful comments and constructive criticism on at least 3 students movies (to receive full credit). Lastly, you will need to write a brief introductory paragraph to relate what inspired you to choose your subject/topic/theme; determine how successful you think you were at creating an engaging film text (and why you think that way); discuss the tasks that you both struggled with and handled with ease, considering why that might be; and write briefly about why this narrative process, style, dialogue, etc. were important decisions that were meaningful to you.

• Instead of an essay test, students will write a critical essay identifying a thesis and supporting it with substantial evidence from the entire novel. Ideas for exploration will be discussed within classes, as well as reinforced by the notes handout students receive on the first day of the unit. Students will submit two copies of their first draft. One copy will be kept by teacher for later comparison, and the other copy will be returned to student with comments and suggestions. The final paper will be due two weeks from initial due date. Standard: II. Writing, A. Types of Writing, 1. Plan, organize and compose narrative, expository, descriptive, persuasive, critical and research writing to address a specific audience and purpose.

• Character Journals: analysis of character development. (While, this project will not likely be used during this unit, it is worth noting as a worthwhile ongoing project that could facilitate learning.) Each student is required to maintain a journal on the development of the character of their choice: Nick Carraway, Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, Tom Buchanan, or Jordan Baker. Students are required to make one journal entry per chapter in the novel, and address the following questions for each entry:

          1. What new information did you discover about the character? 

          2. What is the emotional state of the character in this chapter? 

          3. How do you feel about the character? Do you trust them? Explain. 

          4. Quote a section of the chapter that either sums up the character or the direction of the novel. Explain why you found this to be a significant passage in the text.

          5. What do you think will happen to the character in the next chapter?  

          6. What do you expect to learn about them next?

If used, the journals would be collected at the end of the unit. This might be extended to a one-page character summary focusing on how that character developed over the course of the novel. (Source material: http://arbizu.org/~valerie/Teachers/Gatsby/GatsbySyllabus.htm)

Assessment of unit

• As class participation indicates attention to main ideas, details, interest in material, and learning of subject matter, student participation will be formatively assessed daily. Also, weekly Inspiration updates and ComicLife stories will be formatively assessed.

• Summative assessment will similarly be used as a check against whether students are engaged in the reading, as well as the exploration of larger themes within the text (class, gender, etc.) in On-line role-play, iMovie production, Class Signifiers, Visual Interpretation, and Feminist Lens exercise. Summative assessment is also used to convey the strength of which student refers to textual support when making arguments (e.g., Character Timelines).

Go to The Great Gatsby Unit - Homepage

Go to The Great Gatsby Unit - Student Resources

Go to The Great Gatsby Unit - Enduring Understandings and Essential Questions page

Go to The Great Gatsby Unit - Lesson Plans & Teacher Resources