8/6/2019 Gatsby Day Eight

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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.5aAnalyze 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 Fitzgeralds 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

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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 nights 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 nights 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 willgive 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 towrite they will already have plenty of material to use.