Teacher Lesson Plan - The Great Gatsby

The Library of Congress

Murder and Mayhem - The Great Gatsby: Facts behind the Fiction

Overview

In order to appreciate historical fiction, students need to understand the factual context and recognize how popular culture reflects the values, mores, and events of the time period. Since a newspaper records significant events and attitudes representative of a period, students create their own newspapers utilizing primary source materials from several American Memory collections.

Objectives	Students will be able to: locate, analyze, and evaluate primary source images and text from the American Memory collections; and synthesize fictional events and primary source materials as they create parallel stories for a newspaper project.
Time Required	3-7 class periods
Recommended Grade Level	11
Curriculum Fit	This unit is primarily designed for 11th grade American Literature. However, the lesson may be adapted to any American historical novel at any grade level.
Standards	McREL 4th Edition Standards & Benchmarks Historical Understanding Standard 1. Understands and knows how to analyze chronological relationships and patterns Standard 2. Understands the historical perspective Language Arts Standard 6. Uses Reading skills and strategies to understand and interpret a variety of literary texts Standard 9. Uses viewing skills and strategies to understand and interpret visual media
Resources Used	American Memory Collections: 1900-1929 The Learning Page: Getting Started Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929 Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 1967. An American History textbook (preferably one with a timeline) Guest speaker from local newspaper (optional) Class sets of local newspapers

Overview | Teacher's Guide

The Library of Congress \| American Memory	Contact us
Last updated 01/03/2003