For gender lesson

Chapter 6

For me, chapter 6 is the turning point of the book. Gatsby seems to become human in that chapter. We learn about his motives. "Can't repeat the past? Why, of course you can!" he says to Nick. It shows how a man who seemingly has everything can still feel empty. He is not content with his lavish parties or phony friends. He is striving for something that money can't buy.

Brian

Gatsby and the pedestal

Nicole and I talked about the idea that Gatsby puts Daisy on such a high pedestal that she can't possibly live up to his expectations. We thought that this might be a good way for students to relate to this text. Why do people do this? Why does Gatsby do this? What dies he have to gain by building her up to be more perfect than she could ever be? When it comes to Gatsby and high school, I think that relationships are a theme that has to be brought up. This angle is one that I think students would have some strong opinions on, and maybe even be able to share some of their own experiences.

Brian

Supplemental Texts for Gatsby

As of late, I have been thinking about supplemental materials that are connected to The Great Gatsby. Since our group has been discussing the theme of the American Dream at length, I wanted to search for poetry related to this idea. Here is one poem titled so fittingly:

"The American Dream"
Robert Creeley

Edges and disjuncts, shattered, bitter planes,
a wedge of disconsolate memories to echo fame,
fear of the past, a future still to blame--

Multiple heavens, hells, nothing is straight.
You earn your money, then you wait
for so-called life to see that you get paid.

Tilt! Again it's all gone wrong.
This is a heartless, hopeless song.
This is an empty, useless song.

As a reader, what are your reactions to this poem?
As a teacher, is this something you would use in your classroom in conjunction with Gatsby?

I also found an interesting tidbit that connects Gatsby to a famed author. The link below will take you to an article on the CBC News website (and you have to copy and paste it; for some reason, I'm not able to link it directly to our page). The article discusses author Sylvia Plath, and how a graduate student stumbled upon one of Plath's unpublished poems. This poem supposedly "riffs off" Fitzgerald's work in Gatsby. Is this a potentially interesting avenue to explore with students? I think it could be...
http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2006/10/31/plath-poem.html

-Liza

American Dream- 512 offers some great stories

Those of us who took 512 with Miller last semester had a dose of the American Dream. The books we used provided some great supplemental texts that could be used and they vary in voices. From immigrants to diverse gender and what the American Dream is or what they thought it was....I think many of those stories could be used.....I'll have to go through my books and get back to you with some specifics.

myspaces

http://www.myspace.com/dagreatgat


http://www.myspace.com/drwine20


Some student made myspaces....pretty cute : )

Gatsby & The 1920s Links

Click the following link and visit the 1920s era to get a greater grasp on our setting.

http://schools.tdsb.on.ca/donmillsci/library/lessons/great_gatsby.htm

Some of the links within the site are down or will redirect you to the new location of the information, but the others can give you an idea of the types of clothes Daisy would have worn and some info about prohibition, sports, and entertainment.

Try this link to listen to music from the 1920s:
http://www.authentichistory.com/1920s/music/index.html. The first song on the list is actually the one Gatsby makes Klipspringer play on the piano for Daisy.

These links were created by students for a Gatsby Project: http://www.fcps.edu/westspringfieldhs/academic/english/1project/99gg/99gg2/introdu.htm
http://www.fcps.edu/westspringfieldhs/academic/english/1project/99gg/99gg2/clothe2.htm

Enjoy!
~Nicole