Major Themes in The Great Gatbsy Lesson Plan (Day Eight)

By Ryan Griffin

Standards:

1.B.5a Relate reading to prior knowledge and experience and make connections to related
information.

1.C.5d Summarize and make generalizations from content and relate them to the purpose of
the material.

1.C.5b Analyze and defend an interpretation of text.

2.A.5d Evaluate the influence of historical context on form, style and point of view for a variety
of literary works.

2.B.5a Analyze and express an interpretation of a literary work.

2.B.5b Apply knowledge gained from literature as a means of understanding contemporary and
historical economic, social and political issues and perspectives.

Objectives:

1. To read and discuss the themes in The Great Gatsby as a reflection of historical and cultural
context.

2. To analyze Fitzgerald’s style against other forms and styles of writing.

3. To analyze the ideas in The Great Gatsby in a way that prompts us to engage with them in
our own lives and in society.

Context:

This is the eighth day of a ten day Unit on Gatsby. The students have been given a reading
schedule (attached) and have been given the assignment of choosing a significant/relevant
passage from their nightly reading and bringing it to class with a minimum four sentence
rationale for their choice. I have been making use of these responses to stimulate discussion
throughout and to prepare them for their unit essay. This eighth day will be a discussion of the
eighth chapter of the novel which they will have completed the night before.

Methods:

(15 minutes) I will open up class by handing out a Passage Analysis worksheet (attached). The
worksheet accompanies the Writing Prompt (attached) and a Notes worksheet (attached) that
the students have had since the beginning of the week. I will explain that I want them to read
each passage and write down how the passage relates to the over-arching themes that we have
been discussing daily for the past two weeks. While they do this, I will ask them to pass up the
reading check (attached) that I asked them to do over the previous night’s reading. I will quickly
check these and return them to the students for the discussion. I will also use this opportunity
to hand back previous checks and passages that I have graded.

(20) After collecting the writing responses, we will go over the previous night’s reading check.
We will use this worksheet and their responses as the basis for a chapter discussion. The
passages that I had them answer questions about are the passages that I want to hit and the
ones that are relevant for the students as they write their papers.

(15) After the class discussion, we will discuss the passage analyses that they did at the
beginning of the hour. I will explain that what I had them do is very close to what I am looking
for in the essays that they will be writing. In order to help them understand what I want, I have
written three models for each passage and will hand that out (attached) for them to read. I will
give them time to read what I have written, and then we will discuss what I did and how I want
them to use my model when they are constructing their papers for me. I will end class by
handing out the final reading check (attached) to be filled out for tomorrow.

Assessment:

There will be a high-level analytic and interpretive essay turned in at the end of this Unit. Every
day we will cover moments in the novel and over-arching themes that they will be using to
write their papers. Their nightly responses to the book and its themes will form the framework
for their essays, and I will keep them accountable along the way so that when they sit down to
write they will already have plenty of material to use.