The Great Gatsby: Chapter 1 Challenges
Chapter 1 isn’t always a student’s cup of tea “In my younger and more vulnerable years, my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.” (from The Great Gatsby, Chapter 1) We all recognize that famous first sentence of The Great Gatsby. It’s a quiet sentence, isn’t it?…
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Beautiful Sentences in The Great Gatsby
Great Gatsby, anyone? Celebrate the language of Fitzgerald by studying ten of the novel’s beautiful sentences.
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How to Reignite Your Passion for ELA (Part 2 of 5)
Wear your reading passion Note: This is the second of five daily posts on how to spark, reignite, and maintain your passion for ELA. Click here for yesterday’s post, Reignite Your Passion for ELA Part 1 of 5: Memorize and Recite Poetry. Other than my first year of teaching, the 2021-2022 school year was my…
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The Great Gatsby: History Cross-Curricular Lesson
Great Gatsby Chapter 7 Activity: Teapot Dome Scandal Bring history and ELA together for a cross-curricular Gatsby reunion! If you’re like me, it’s easy to fall into the rabbit hole known as JSTOR, the digital library that contains, according to its website, more than “12 million journal articles, books, images and primary sources.” It’s even…
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The Great Gatsby: A Critical Thinking Reader’s Guide
The Jazz Age Journal The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is such a multilayered and evergreen text! I’ve read it myriad times, and — I’m sure you can relate — I discover a new idea or noticing every time I revisit it. It’s no wonder that this book is such a popular read for…
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What’s Up with Wolfsheim?
3 articles to explore Gatsby’s OG Even though I’ve taught The Great Gatsby only twice, I have done quite a lot of writing about Fitzgerald’s many-layered masterpiece. If you pull down to The Great Gatsby on my Blog menu at the top of this page, you’ll find upwards of fourteen posts related to what is…
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Baz Luhrman’s Great Gatsby: Chapter 2 Problems
Use this post to decide for yourself what to skip and what to show your students from Ch. 2 of Baz Luhrman’s The Great Gatsby.
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Hexagonal Thinking and The Great Gatsby
My first attempt with hexagonal thinking Dear Teacher-Friends: If you’re here for Part 2 of my “Teaching the Sonnet” post, please bear with me. I am still in the process of obtaining permission from a few students to post their wonderful sonnets. As soon as I have those permissions rounded up, I will publish that…
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Gatsby Text Pairing: John Green’s “Our Capacity for Wonder”
If Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is your favorite novel to teach, here’s a new essay from John Green you need to either read or listen to.
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Elizabeth Holmes and Jay Gatsby
This article is almost too good to be true. I mean, how often do you find an article about a current news topic that ALSO contains multiple allusions to a novel you’re reading with your classes???
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The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
understanding of T. S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” then try this simple activity as a culminating project.
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Sketchnotes: The Great Gatsby & Rhapsody in Blue
My students experienced George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue in the last class period before Christmas break. It’s a great Jazz Age musical tie-in with The Great Gatsby.
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New Great Gatsby Lesson Ideas and Resources
This week, I’m sharing links to all nine of my Gatsby posts I published this summer. Plan to see more this fall since I don’t see my crush ending any time soon!
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Movie Captions and Text Create Unique Poems
When text passages from a novel mingle with captions or subtitles from its accompanying movie, interesting things happen. Here’s what I mean: I always watch movies with the subtitles on. It helps me catch every word of dialogue and also catch every nuance given through the sound effects.
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A New Text Pairing for The Great Gatsby
Leslie Odom, Jr., self-improvement, and the American Dream Need an informational text to pair with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby? A text that offers real-life tips your students can apply to their lives? Earlier this month, I discovered a non-fiction book that adds contemporary relevance to Jay Gatsby’s Jazz Age motivations while also serving…
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Create context for Gatsby with “Cosmopolis” documentary
Before you even mention to your students that they’ll be reading The Great Gatsby in your classes, know that they will have probably at least heard of it. But that’s about all. Use this @RicBurnsFilms video and viewing guide to build context.
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Race, Class, and Music in The Great Gatsby
Dive into the music of Gatsby. I found this awesome article, “Race, Class, and Music in The Great Gatsby” that I’m reblogging below in this post.
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Switch Up Sketchnotes to Engage Distracted Students
I love sketchnotes. They’re engaging, colorful, and creative, and allow me to make illustrative connections while I listen to a book. But here’s the thing: I’m not a very good listener. I need to carefully concentrate on the words I’m hearing or my mind wanders to whatever’s going on in the hall, outside the window,…
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Seven Articles to Pair with The Great Gatsby
During this quick (and my first!) attempt at teaching Gatsby, I’m feverishly collecting notes and jotting down ideas for my teaching of it next year. Here are three articles to check out for your next Gatsby unit.
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The Great Gatsby 2013 Film Chapter Breakdown (updated 1/31/22)
While planning lessons a few days ago, I wanted to know exactly how Baz Luhrman’s Gatsby aligns with the novel. To find out, I watched the movie with novel in hand. Here’s the chapter breakdown.
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Three Poems to Pair with The Great Gatsby
Have you ever wanted a few poems to pair with The Great Gatsby? Y’know, a few good, not-too-longish poems to work as bell-ringers, if needed, or add-on texts to supplement literary analysis essays?
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