Lesson Plans for The Great Gatsby
These are just a few different ways that I have taught The Great Gatsby in the past.
Before reading the book, I like to get the students acquainted with the time period and author. A & E biography has a really great video on the life and works of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Then I like to put the students into four groups and give each group an aspect of life or culture from the twenties and have them spend a couple class periods in the media center researching those things. A few of those topics are politics, sports, entertainment, and life and culture (fashion, cars, homes, etc).
The actual reading of the book can be done in a couple ways. For more advanced classes, I assign the reading for homework or give free time in class to read on their own. Sometimes I give them the Study Questions to help them understand the text as they go. I split the reading up into 3 sections: Chapters 1-3, 4-6, 7-9. However, for some classes, we read the entire book together in class by listening to it read on an audio tape. This gives me the freedom to stop the tape and discuss certain things AS THEY COME UP. These classes also do the study questions, but they have the added opportunity to ask questions in class as they arise. The reading of the book usually only takes about a week and a half to two weeks.
After the book, I have developed a Webquest that could be used as a culminating project for The Great Gatsby.