Contents: - The Great Gatsby and Catcher in The Rye book groups assignment and calendars - The Great

Gatsby: Tuesday February 4th - Group work time - Group discussion time - The Great Gatsby: Wednesday February 5th - Group work time - Group discussion time - The Great Gatsby: Thursday February 6th

The Great Gatsby & Catcher in The Rye

Book Groups
Each of you have chosen which book you would like to read- either The Great Gatsby or The Catcher in The Rye. From now on every day you will sit with the group I assigned you to with the half of the class that is reading your same book. Every day I will write on the board if you will begin class sitting in the front (in a circle with me) or in the back (beginning your silent or group work). If you are at the back tables I will give you a lesson plan leading you through a process of what to do at that time. Half-way through class we will switch! Everyday you will receive 10 points:
5- Participation: - Small-group participation- your group staying on task and discussing the novel - Half-class participation- When we all conjoin the groups and together discuss the novel I need to hear your voice at least once! 5- Homework from the night before

In your groups you will each have one of these roles:

Director: The directors job is to follow along the plan given to them and help the group understand each step. The director also leads the group through questions and decides what is happening and when.

Writer: The writer will write down anything on the plan that needs to be written down. Tracker: It is the tracker's job to make sure the group is "on track." Make sure they are discussing the novel and not outside things. If I need to warn your group to stay on task more than once, then I will take points off your participation grade for the day. It is also your job to make sure that your group keeps track of time and finishes their work in time before switching or class ending.

Reading:
With these groups you have the benefit of one another's company as well as different knowledge, opinions and insight. However, in this group situation you absolutely have to devote yourself to the 15-25 minutes of reading/ writing assignment every night. If you know you won't have the time read ahead! If you do not complete your homework how can you participate in class discussions? It is very difficult! Therefore, if you do not finish your homework the day before you will sit at the tables off to the side and work on your reading. When you finish you may join us and I will give you the five homework points but no participation points for the day. Also, if sometimes reading is slower for you feel free to listen online to your book as an audiobook online.

Final Assignment:
The final day of your reading you will write an in-class essay answering this prompt (as seen on your calendar): - The Great Gatsby: Using the characters, motif's, symbols, events in the novel, as well as your knowledge of the 20s era and Fitzgerald's biography to explain Fitzgerald's attitude toward the American Dream. - The Catcher in The Rye: Holden often points out phoniness and wickedness in the novel. However, given Holden's mental state do you feel that Holden has any special insight to share? Emily Dickinson says, "Madness is the divinest sense." Could this quote also apply to Holden? If so, what are we to learn from Holden?

J. D. Salinger's Novel 2

The Catcher in the Rye

* 1.) Read chapters 1-3. 2.) Make a list of all the people/ actions he calls phony. 3.) After done write a couple sentence reflection on what you read.

Monday
27 HW: Ch 3-5 For each of the characters you meet write a reflection that includes: 1.) Holden's opinion of them 2.) Someone that reminds you of them and why (use fake names) 3.) A quote that defines them

Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

28 HW: Ch 6-8 Director: write 10 questions from the novel that interest you and pick 5 to share. Writer: From your reading find 10 connections between the novel and your life. Pick 5 to share. Tracker: Track the vocabulary words in this nights reading. Write the quote and define.

Friday
Director: write 5 questions from the novel that interest you and pick 2 to share. Writer: From your reading find 3 quotes and expand on one of them. Tracker: Draw a picture of something you were picturing during the reading. Share with your group.

Weekend!
1&2

29 HW: Ch 9-11 Snapshots (sentence "snapshot" of your thoughts) every 3 pages. Could include: - A prediction - A question - An interesting thought - A connection to your world/ a movie/ a book/ a tv show 5 HW: Ch 22-24 Pull out two important scenes in these chapters and explain why they are important. Find one intriguing quote and write about it.

30 31 HW: Ch 12-13 HW: Ch 14-16

- Paragraph journaling reflection on what you read. - Motif paragraph due/ 3 main points. - Vocabulary test tomorrow.

3 HW: Ch 17-19 10 snapshots Could include: - A prediction - A question - An interesting thought - A connection to your world/ a movie/ a book/ a tv show

4 HW: Ch 20-21 Focused 1-2 paragraph reflection- Is Holden mentally stable? How does this affect how you listen to what he says?

6 Vocab test & HW: Ch 25-26 prepare for your essay tomorrow and vocabulary test.

7 Prompt: Holden often points out phoniness and wickedness in the novel. However, given Holden's mental state do you feel that Holden has any special insight to share? Emily Dickinson says, "Madness is the divinest sense." Could this quote also apply to Holden? If so, what are we to learn from Holden?

8&9

F. Scott Fitzgerald's Novel

The Great Gatsby

Monday
27 HW: Ch 1 10 Snapshots that could include: - a prediction - an interesting thought - a question - a connection to your world

Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

28 HW: Ch 2 Director:Choose three quotes from the novel that you would like to discuss tomorrow. Writer: Come up with 10 questions from your reading. Choose 3 to discuss in your group. Tracker: draw a picture of something you were picturing while you read.

Friday
31 HW: Ch 5 As you read track Gatsby's shifting emotions. Make a table: every time his mood changes note the page # what happened and why.

Weekend!
1&2

29 HW: Ch 4 HW: Ch 3 10 Snapshots - Comment or - Question about the Characters in this chapter

30 Do one of the following: 1.) Draw a picture of something you were picturing 2.) Find 5 imagery quotes. And answer these questions: What is the point of this imagery? Why does Nick say, "There are only the pursued, the pursuing the busy and the tired"?

3 HW: Ch 6 Before reading: Write one sentence describing: Nick, Gatsby, Daisy, Tom and Jordan. After Reading: write one sentence of how they changed during this chapter.

4 HW: Ch 7 10 Snapshots that could include: - a prediction - an interesting thought - a question - a connection to your world

5 HW: Ch 8 Write a focused 1- 2 paragraph reflection after reading by answering this prompt: Why does Nick think Gatsby "paid a high price for living too long with a single dream?"

6 HW: Ch 9 Prep for your in-class essay and vocabulary test tomorrow.

7 Assessment Prompt: Using the characters, motif's, symbols, events in the novel, as well as your knowledge of the 20s era and Fitzgerald's biography to explain Fitzgerald's attitude toward the American Dream. Vocab Test

8&9

* On Friday your homework was to read the essays given to you in class. Read and highlight things that reveal the setting of this novel.

The Great Gatsby: Tuesday February 4th Objective(s): Students will determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text; by analyzing the theme of the American Dream and how it builds across the novel. Content or CCSS Standards Addressed: Reading standard 1: Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text. ELD Standards Addressed: Organization and focus: Write persuasive compositions that structure ideas and arguments in a logical way with consistent use of standard grammatical forms. Connection to Focus of Learning Segment: This assignment works to help students understand overarching themes in the novelnamely the american dream. Assessments: Informal: I will hear their conversations Formal: I will collect their homework, quick writes and in class notes etc. at the end of the day that show how they understood the book thus far. Instructional Strategies and Learning Tasks Homework Due: Chapter 6. Before you read, write one sentence describing Nick, Gatsby, Daisy, Jordan and Tom. When you finish, write one sentence explaining whether or not they have changed through the course of the chapter and if they did, why?

- Moral degradation: - People loosing individuality - All of the people mentioned at the beginning of the chapter (62) all fleeting and melting away- unimportant 63 - Why? AMERICAN DREAM Gatsby- Theatrical performance - So peculiarly American- never quite still 64 - The American Dream- always moving, always wanting more - Nothing much to say 64, Wants to be looked upon highly- 65, 66, 67 - Constantly deifying and humanizing The Great Gatsby- Can't decide if the American Dream is awesome or base - Smile- 48 - Anything can happen- even Gatsby- 96

- Miss Baker a great sportswoman- all show, she got the show of doing things correctly
but is dishonest- still reaps the benefits of it though. And now he wants to have an affair, how is that possibly not right.- 71 - Gives purpose to him so fanciful but genuine. It doesn't say that there wasn't a show but it explains it- 78, Nick seems relieved. - Makes it back into a show? Cannot just be with himself, his emotions, has to make it into a show. Has to make it grand- 90-91 Symbolism of the weather aligned with Gatsby's emotions Gatsby's real desires come out- Greed of more, obsessed with constantly wanting. 92-93 - Remade himself into something Grand- all he knows - I feel far from her now- 109 - Doubt over Daisy because of "the colossal vitality of his illusion" 95 Symbolism of the green light, of Daisy- the American Dream. Old money vs. new money- why Daisy, Tom and Sloane didn't like the party. Why Gatsby didn't see that they didn't want him to go with them. 104- West Egg just itself. - 107- "the too obtrusive fate that herded its inhabitants along a short-cut rom nothing to nothing."

I. II. III. IV. V. VI.

Moral degradation that money causes Gatsby- Theatrical performance Symbolism of Weather Gatsby's greed Motifs: American Dream, Green light Old Money vs. New Money

On the board I outline our discussion to give keys to what they should take notes on:

The Great Gatsby: Tuesday February 4th (worksheet, given to each group) Directer: Tracker: Writer: Step 1: Alone 7 min Have you every felt the need to put on a performance for someone, or some group of people? Describe this time. How do you feel afterward? Why do you feel the need to act? Step 2: Group 8 min Discus your homework- What were the main changes in the characters? Step 3: Group 15 min Create a Venn Diagram of Gatsby's internal and external character. For example, the internal might include him as a greedy bootlegger while the external might put Gatsby as a lovesick soldier who only wants the best for Daisy. Look at what other characters say about him (Jordan, Tom, the party visitors etc. verses what Nick actually knows about him). Be sure to focus on Gatsby's emotions as well as the facts surrounding his life. Internal character differences Similarities External character

differences Do you think that Gatsby is putting on a performance? If so, how do you know? Why is he performing? Who is he performing for? (Answer on the pack of the page.) Homework- Chapter 7. 10 Snapshots (Every other page write one sentence giving: A prediction, an interesting idea, a connection to your world, a question) Wednesday February 5th Objective(s): 8

Students will determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text; by analyzing the theme of the American Dream and how it builds across the novel. Content or CCSS Standards Addressed: Reading standard 1: Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text. ELD Standards Addressed: Organization and focus: Write persuasive compositions that structure ideas and arguments in a logical way with consistent use of standard grammatical forms. Connection to Focus of Learning Segment: This assignment works to help students understand overarching themes in the novelnamely the american dream. Assessments: Informal: I will hear their conversations Formal: I will collect their homework, quick writes and in class notes etc. at the end of the day that show how they understood the book thus far. Instructional Strategies and Learning Tasks Me TimeExplain Assessment. Prompt= Using the character development, motifs, plot of The Great Gatsby, as well as Fitzgerald's biography and your knowledge of the 20s era, explain Fitzgerald's attitude toward the American Dream. Share quick writes Watch NY times video and discuss:
- What do the people they described have in common? - Do you think that the American dream is specific to the United States in some way? If so, how and why? - Why does the American dream have such a prominent place in our nations self-identity?

- Do people often see the American dream realized? Why or why not? - - According to this article, what is the classic definition of the American dream? Do you
think that this dream (as it is classically defined) often comes true? Why or why not?

- - Why do you think more people believe in the American dream today than they did four
years ago, when our economic outlook was much brighter?

- - Describe the shift in the definition of the American dream over the past four years? What
do you think accounts for this change?

- Which definitions of the American dream resonate most with you? Why? - Victims of the American Dream- Daisy and Gatsby

The Great Gatsby: Wednesday February 5th Director: Tracker: Writer: Homework Due: Chapter 8: Write a focused reflection after reading by answering this prompt with a paragraph or two: Why does Nick think that Gatsby "paid a high price for living too long with a single dream?" Step 1: Alone 5 minutes Quick write- What is your definition of the American Dream? Describe some examples. Step 2: Group 20 minutes Read the article (Tracker reads) and answer the questions on the back about the american dream (Writer). Keep in mind that this article was written in 1933 about the American Dream during the 20s (and the time that The Great Gatsby was written).

A Reading of the Signs Which Indicates That We Have Emerged From the World of Dreams in Which We Had Been Wandering and Are Ready to Deal With the Facts That Confront Us.

America Faces 1933's Realities

"In the article in The Outlook in December, 1928, when I predicted that our whole economic system, falsely based, must crash within a few months. I added that such a "crash would not be a mere business affair" but "a colossal psychological disaster.' it came, and the nation was as though shellshocked. Its psychology became abnormal in another way. The dazed mentality of the people still held the ideas which had become firmly lodged in the immediately preceding period, such as our complete self-sufficiency, the discovery we thought we had made of perpetual prosperity, the solution of all problems by the mass production-high wage theory, and so on. We could not let these things out of our minds, which were not functioning normally. We did not reason but merely felt the vague anger and sense of something wrong which comes to a thwarted child. We were in a daze, and leaders in high quarters had no better mental therapy to offer than Pollyanna suggestions such as might be made to a patient in a hypnotic state. In these two periods of boom and depression, the American dream had been so changed as to have lost its saving power. The dream of a richer, better, fuller human life for all citizens instead of for a small class had been turned by our leaders and ourselves into a statistical table of standard of living, the items consisting notably and almost holly of tangible and expensive possessions.......... In contrast with the past, what may we now look for in 1933? IT seems to me that the outlook, psychologically, has many hopeful features and some dangers. If I am right in my suggestion of psychological cycle operating within the economic one, then it would appear that as a nation we are entering upon that portion of the cycle following the abnormalities of boom and crash when our minds and outlook on life are at their best. Taking ourselves collectively, we are likely to be less ridden by hallucinations, to face realities more steadily, uninfluenced by mere wishes, to live more by reason and less by emotion, and to reappraise life once more in saner values. There is the practical danger ahead; if the depression deepens, that owing to ignorance all sorts of quack remedies may e proposed for its cure. This has been characteristic of all periods of depression from biblical times down, and we cannot escape this particular symptom. Against this, however, looking ahead into 1933, I think we can set many encouraging ones; I think the psychological conditions will be better for recovery of prosperity and the American dream than for a long time past.

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So long as we retained our old illusions and hallucinations we were incapable of reacting to reality; so long, for example, as we were firmly convinced that prosperity in the concept of dependence and toward devising the best methods of cooperation for the common aim. The chief point is that we have recovered enough to envisage the reality, or that at least a sufficient number of people have done so to make the psychological background for any international action better than at any time before last Summer........ The trouble was not that Americans took pleasure in cars, expensive devices, and a miscellany of gadgets, but that they had come to believe in the fallacy that a full and happy life could be built out of these things even if acquired at the expense of most of the other things which civilized men and women have learned are essential. It was part of the general fight from reality which characterized the American mind in the years preceding 1929, and which was carried over until the Spring of 1932. With the return to reality since then, there appears to be a genuine revaluation of the goods of life. People are beginning to doubt the salesman who tells them their social position depends on the price of their car or to wonder what a social position so dependent is worth in terms of effort, as compared with other good things. It is partly that after going without many things for three years or so people have found that they were not so essential after all, especially when friends and neighbors were without them also. It is partly that, having no money to spend, they have found again many simple forms of happiness which cost nothing. But it is even more, I think, a part of the general return to reality instead of hallucinations implanted by high pressure salesmen and mass opinion. The material standard of life's values has been debunked by the reality of an empty pocketbook, and there is a chance that the real American dream can now again replace the nightmare of all post-war and boom periods. Summing up, I would say that the change in the psychology of the American people from 1932 to 1933 is of happy augury to the world. We are still in many ways provincial, as some other important nations are. We are largely ignorant of world affairs, as we found when we undertook to be the international bankers for the world. We have got to learn and to feel our way. The main point, however, is that we seem to have turned the corner and to have slammed the door of Fool's Paradise behind us. We are now willing to face the facts and revalue the goods of our own private lives. We are willing to face reality in our national life and in our international position. That is the great and important difference between the promise of what our national psychology may be in 1933 from what it has been for some years past. It is impossible to say whether we as a people shall in the future pass through the various psychological phases noted in every generation. We do not know to what extent the business cycle depends on psychology and how much psychology depends on the cycle. There is undoubtedly action and reaction between them. After a generation has burned its fingers in a crash it becomes cautious and looks at things realistically. Then, gradually, a new generation comes to the front in business which has had no experience of panic and is wishful and optimistic, which loses touch with reality and follows dreams......... Although the economic cycle influences the psychological one, there is much in human life besides economics, in spite of a certain school of historians, and it might well be that there would still remain psychological cycles, like those in the climate, even though we made the business progression absolutely stable- a thing there is no sign of our doing as yet. If I am right in my suggestion as to there being psychological cycles coincident with, if not indeed partly the cause of, the economic ones, we should be at our best in the next few years for dealing with all the problems which confront us. If as I believe many signs indicate, we have come back to the world of realities, then there is a fair prospect for international recovery. If we have not, then there is little chance of early improvement for either the world or ourselves. There is also little chance for the American dream which alone has set our own nation off from other in the modern civilized world. That dream has always meant more than the mere accumulation of material goods. It has been warped almost to the breaking point by the materialism of the past dozen years. We can

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recover it only if we come back to the realities, not simply the realities of political and economic policy, but the realities of human life and values. Our future as an idealistic people depends on whether we cling to The Dream or the stock market, not idle or false dreams, but The Dream, which we have tried to make real, of a fuller and better and happier life for all.

1. How is the American Dream defined and/or described in this article? How does this definition reflect the historical context in which the article was written?

2. What quotes from the article best illustrate the article's "take" on the concept of the American Dream? Do you agree with the image of America that these quotes present? Why or why not?

3. Compare and contrast the article's presentation of the American Dream with contemporary conceptions of concept. What about the representation of the American Dream has stayed the same through time and what, if anything, has changed?

4. Where in The Great Gatsby do you see evidence of the American Dream?

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The Great Gatsby: Thursday February 6th Objective(s): Content or CCSS Standards Addressed: ELD Standards Addressed: Connection to Focus of Learning Segment: Assessments: Informal: I will hear their conversations Formal: I will collect their homework, quick writes and in class notes etc. at the end of the day that show how they understood the book thus far. Instructional Strategies and Learning Tasks Homework due: Read chapter 9 and write 10 snapshots. Could include: a prediction, an interesting thought, a question, a connection to your world. Prompt: Using the characters, motif's, symbols, events in the novel, as well as your knowledge of the 20s era and Fitzgerald's biography to explain Fitzgerald's attitude toward the American Dream. Students will get out all of their notes, "Fitzgerald's Brief Biography" (That we read last week) and motif sheet (that we have filled out together as we discussed the book in class).

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I will explain the brainstorm activity. Students will draw something like this "spider web" and fill out different evidence from the prompt. Students are allowed to discuss in their

groups to brainstorm different ideas. I will go over the characters in The Great Gatsby as an example. I will walk around and help students.

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After giving students 20 minutes to brainstorm I will begin a review lesson on outlining. As a class we will go over, as I have already taught the on every essay they have written, the

Intro: Hook Thesis Overview of points 1st Point Evidence (page #s) Connect to thesis Transition So on... as many points as they need Conclusion
format for organizing an effective essay. As a class we will write on the board:

Thesis

Students will have the rest of class to work on their brainstorming and out line. I will of points Overview conference with each student and ask them to explain the plan of their essay.

Homework: Finish brainstorming and writing your thorough outline. Come prepared to write your essay in class tomorrow.

So what? General connection to real world

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