The Great Gatsby: High School Book Club

In this once weekly novel study, students will examine The Great Gatsby through the lens of vocabulary, literary devices, and thematic ideas such as the American dream, industrial revolution, feminism in the 1920s, and historical events.

Students will be expected to read the novel outside of class and come to class prepared to discuss and participate in quizzes, games, and projects. 

Novel study will focus largely on characterization, setting, and symbols as a vehicle for Fitzgerald's commentary on World War I, the Industrial Revolution, 1920's feminism, and 1920's materialism, intolerance, and even memory formation. Examined literary elements will also include foreshadowing, allusion, and point of view. 

The National Endowment of the Arts says this about the novel: "The Great Gatsby may be the most popular classic in modern American fiction. Since its publication in 1925, Fitzgerald's masterpiece has become a touchstone for generations of readers and writers, many of whom reread it every few years as a ritual of imaginative renewal. The story of Jay Gatsby's desperate quest to win back his first love reverberates with themes at once characteristically American and universally human, among them the importance of honesty, the temptations of wealth, and the struggle to escape the past. Though The Great Gatsby runs to fewer than two hundred pages, there is no bigger read in American literature." 

This class uses Kahoot & Quizlet.  Students need to be able to split their screens or use a secondary device to participate. The final project will be a vision board of the novel and all its thematic/ literary elements. 

Weekly Breakdown: 
Week One: F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Roaring Twenties & How to Annotate: HW: read chapter 1,2
Week Two: Discuss chapter 1 , 2.  HW: read chapter 3,4
Week Three: Discuss chapters 3,4. HW: read chapter 5
Week Four: Discuss chapter 5. HW: read chapter 6,7
Week Five: Quiz over chapters 1-5. Discuss chapters 6, 7. HW: read chapter 8
Week Six:  Discuss culminating project (due Week 8). Discuss chapter 8. Close read of last page
Week Seven: Quiz over chapters 6-8. Overview of the novel
Week Eight: Presentation of final project (Vision Board of the Book: Sketchnote style) HW: none-last class!