ENGE530 Lesson Plan for The Great Gatsby, Ashley Storey

1. The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Ashley Storey
ENGE 530
Dr. Wright
Lesson Plan PowerPoint

2. ● About F. Scott Fitzgerald
● About The Great Gatsby
● Character summaries
● Setting
● Major plot points
● Major themes
● Symbols
● Key passages
● Questions for Students
● Class Activities
● References
Overview of Presentation

3. ● Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, MN in 1896
● namesake is Frances Scott Key, a distant relative
● went to catholic prep school and graduated in 1913
● attended Princeton briefly, but dropped out to join the Army
● assigned to Camp Sheridan outside of Montgomery, AL where he
met Zelda
● married Zelda a week after he published his first successful novel
● lived an extravagant lifestyle, full of parties and alcohol
● published many short stories before moving to France in 1924 and
writing Gatsby, considered his most important work.
● had a tumultuous marriage
● died of alcoholism in 1940 estranged but not divorced from Zelda
About F. Scott Fitzgerald

4. ● published in 1925
● became instant success
● narrated by Nick Carraway, a midwesterner who moves to West
Egg on Long Island Sound
● Follows Nick and Gatsby’s odd friendship and Gatsby’s pursuit of
Daisy, a married woman
The Great Gatsby

5. Our narrator. A
midwesterner and a
new transplant to
the East Coast.
Comes out to NYC
to try his hand at
the bond business.
Rents a modest
house in West Egg.
Neighbors with
Gatsby. About 30
years old.
Nick Carraway

6. Jay Gatsby
A Minnesota native,
now an extremely
wealthy man who
owns the mansion
next to Nick’s
house. In love with
Daisy since he met
her before the
Great War, and
devoted to Daisy to
a fault even though
she moved on
(mostly) long ago.

7. Daisy Fay Buchanan
Nick’s cousin from a
well-to-do family in
Louisville. Gatsby’s
only love, Tom
Buchanan’s current
wife, sometimes
portrayed as flighty,
but is extremely
perceptive.
Resident of East
Egg.

8. Tom Buchanan
Daisy’s husband and
Nick’s acquaintance
from college.
Known as an
athlete. Comes
from “old money”.

9. Jordan Baker
Semi-professional golfer, close friend
of the Buchanans, and becomes
Nick’s girlfriend soon after he moves
into West Egg.

10. George Wilson
Mechanic and garage
owner who resides in
the Valley of Ashes.
Always trying to get Tom
Buchanan to sell him his
car.

11. Myrtle Wilson
George’s wife, and unbeknown to
George, also Tom’s mistress.

12. ● During the 1920s “Jazz Era”
● Prohibition
● Extremely wealthy neighborhoods of
Long Island
● Gatsby’s elaborate parties
● The Buchanans elaborate estate
● Various haunts in New York City
Setting of The Great Gatsby

13. A Gatsby Party

14. ● Nick moves to West Egg
● Nick attends dinner at The Buchanans
and meets Jordan Baker
● Nick accompanies Tom to NYC and meets
Myrtle
● Nick is invited to a Gatsby party, runs
into Jordan, and meets Gatsby himself
The Great Gatsby Major Plot
Points

15. ● Nick arranges a meeting for Gatsby and
Daisy for the first time in several years
● At lunch at the Buchanans one
afternoon, Tom realizes Gatsby is in love
with his wife
● Tom suggests an abrupt trip to New York
for his guests
The Great Gatsby Major Plot
Points

16. ● The party ends up in a hotel where
Gatsby’s heart is broken
● Daisy drives Gatsby’s car home and
accidentally runs and kills over Myrtle
(who she has no idea is her husband’s
mistress). She keeps driving.
The Great Gatsby Major Plot
Points

17. ● George believes Gatsby is Myrtle’s secret
lover and killed her out of revenge so he
goes to Gatsby’s, murders him, then kills
himself
● Almost no one shows up at Gatsby’s
funeral
● Daisy never sends condolences, Jordan
dumps him, and Nick moves away
The Great Gatsby Major Plot
Points

18. The American
Dream: Gatsby
has achieved it all
except for Daisy.
The Great Gatsby: Themes

19. Class: Even
among the
rich, there is
a social
hierarchy.
There is New
rich and Old
rich.
The Great Gatsby: Themes

20. Past and Future:
Gatsby
romanticizes the
past and looks
forward to an
impossible future.
The Great Gatsby: Themes

21. Green light:
Represents his
hope for a future
with Daisy & a
completion of his
American dream.
The Great Gatsby: Symbols

22. The Eyes: The
billboard’s eyes
loom over the
characters…
judging &
evaluating them.
The billboard has long been neglected...
The Great Gatsby: Symbols

23. Colors: Green- growth, hope,
new life.
Blondes and yellows- wealth
White- innocent and pure
(at least on the surface)
The Great Gatsby: Symbols

24. Nick (on page 1)
The Great Gatsby: Key Passages

25. Nick on Gatsby’s smile: “It was one of those rare smiles with
a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come
across four or five times in a life. It faced--or seemed to face-
-the whole external world for an instant, and then
concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your
favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be
understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in
yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression
of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey” (48).
The Great Gatsby: Key Passages

26. Nick on Daisy: “The exhilarating ripple of her voice was a wild tonic in
the rain. I had to follow the sound of it for a moment, up and down,
with my ear alone, before any words came through” (85).
“Yet over the high city our line of yellow windows must have
contributed their share of human secrecy to the casual watcher in the
darkening streets, and I was him too, looking up and wondering. I was
within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the
inexhaustible variety of life” (35).
The Great Gatsby: Key Passages

27. ● “You see, I usually find myself among strangers because I
drift here and there trying to forget the sad thing that
happened to me” (67).
● “I’m thirty,” I said. “I’m five years too told to lie to
myself and call it honor” (177).
● “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future
that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then,
but that’s no matter--to-morrow we will run faster,
stretch out our arms farther...And one fine morning---
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (180).
The Great Gatsby: Key Passages

28. ● What does Gatsby mean when he says Daisy’s voice sounds like money?
● What does it say about Nick that he doesn’t realize until the very end that he never approved of Gatsby before? What do
you suppose Nick did not approve of?
● Is Daisy likable? Why or why not? Make your case with evidence from the text.
● Is Nick a reliable storyteller?
● What do you wish you knew about Gatsby that the novel does not address?
● Why does Daisy choose Tom over Gatsby?
● Why do you suppose we see and hear so little of Tom and Daisy’s daughter?
● Overall, what do you feel like this novel communicates about the role of higher education?
● Was Gatsby in love with Daisy or merely in love with the idea of Daisy?
The Great Gatsby: ?s for Students

29. ● Before the novel I would have them complete this anticipation guide before and after reading the
novel: http://mrsfollis.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/gatsby-anticipation-guide.pdf
● You are writing a biography on Jay Gatsby. Compile a list of questions you would you ask Nick in an
interview about him.
● Create a Pinterest account for Daisy with at least 5 boards representing Pins Daisy would find
fascinating.
● Found poetry exercise: Students will note meaningful quotes and interesting language throughout the
novel and create something similar to this
http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson1034/sample.pdf
The Great Gatsby: Class Activities

30. Specific online resources I referenced when creating my lesson plan and researching for activities:
● http://www.rocklin.k12.ca.us/staff/aparker/WEB/Quick%20Writes%2009.htm
● http://oshaneaplit.wikispaces.com/file/view/Gatsby+Gallery+Walk.pdf
● http://gowerenglishclass.pbworks.com/w/page/6538851/Activities%2C%20Projects%2C%20and%20Assessments
%20for%20The%20Great%20Gatsby
● http://mrsfollis.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/gatsby-anticipation-guide.pdf
● http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson1034/sample.pdf
● http://www.theteachertoolkit.com/index.php/tool/gallery-walk
Lesson Plan References

31. Works Cited
Ghasemi, Parvin, & Mitra Tiur. "The Promise and Failure of the American Dream in Scott Fitzgerald’s Fiction.”
k@ta [Online], 11.2 (2009): 117-127. Web. 12 Nov. 2014
Swansburg, John. "The Self-Made Man: The Story of America’s Most Pliable, Pernicious, Irrepressible Myth."
Slate Magazine. 29 Sept. 2014. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2014/09/the_self_made_man_history_of_a_myth
_from_ben_franklin_to_andrew_carnegie.html>.
"F. Scott Fitzgerald." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.biography.com/people/f-scott-fitzgerald-9296261#synopsis>.
Lesson Plan Works Cirted