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Lesson 4

We will form home groups and participate in a jigsaw discussion to compare what we have learned about key scenes in Chapters 5–7.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I analyze key scenes in Chapters 5–7 and their use of literary elements and devices?

  • Can I recognize and interpret important relationships among key details and ideas (characters, setting, tone, point of view, structure, development, etc.) within texts?

  • Can I clearly communicate the observations and conclusions developed by my expert group about a key scene?

Texts

Core

  • Tradebook
    • The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Scribner, 1925

Materials

Tools

Reference Guides

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Discuss

We will briefly meet in our expert groups from the previous lesson to compare the claims we have individually developed about our scene.

In your expert groups, review what you have learned in the previous lesson that you will share with home groups in a jigsaw discussion. Read and compare the claims you developed individually as homework.

Activity 2: Discuss

We will form home groups and participate in a jigsaw discussion in which we will report what our expert groups learned about key scenes in chapters 5–7.

In your home group, lead a discussion of your scene in the order of the scenes in the novel. Begin by sharing the claim you have developed about the importance of your scene and reading the key passage your expert group has identified. Then use your notes from the Scene Analysis section of Question Set 3.4 to summarize your expert group’s analysis:

Scene Analysis Questions:

  1. Summarize the scene: Where and when does the scene occur, whom does it involve, and what happens?

  2. Examine the narrative point of view: How is the scene presented, and how do its narrator’s perceptions and descriptions influence your reading?

  3. Analyze character relationships: What do we learn about the characters and their perceptions, interactions, and conflicts?

  4. Evaluate effects: How do description, imagery, symbolism, or dialogue contribute to the mood, atmosphere, and meaning of the scene?

  5. Make comparisons and connections: How does the scene present a contrast, or counterpoint, to other scenes in the novel? How is it connected to other scenes in developing the story?

  6. Interpret meaning: What theme or themes of the novel does the scene develop? What do you think Fitzgerald is suggesting?

As a participant in the discussion, listen carefully to what members of other expert groups have discovered about their key scenes in Chapters 5-7. Write down important details on Setting Note-Taking Tools or Character Note-Taking Tools. Ask questions to clarify your understanding or to help presenters support their expert group’s conclusions.

Activity 3: Discussion

We will discuss the overall importance of the scenes we have studied closely in our expert groups and reading teams, analyze themes that have developed in the novel, and predict how we think the story may turn out.

As a class, discuss the concept of theme, considering how all of the elements and devices used by an author often add up to a commentary on the topics addressed by the book. Think about and make a list of themes that have been noticed so far in The Great Gatsby, especially in the scenes that you have analyzed in expert groups and reading teams.

Consider the technique of contrast or counterpoint, which at least one literary critic has identified as a strength of Fitzgerald’s writing in the novel.

  1. How do the scenes we have examined closely compare and contrast in terms of their moods and meanings?

  2. How are they connected to a narrative that is moving toward its climax and resolution?

Individually, take a minute to make a hypothesis (educated guess) about what you think may happen next in the story and what the story’s ending may be. Write your guess in your Learning Log, then share it with the class.

  1. How many different endings do you as a class foresee for The Great Gatsby? Which possibilities are best supported by evidence from your reading so far? Cite textual evidence to support your answer.

Activity 4: Read

For homework, we will read the final pages of chapter 7, thinking about how the events that transpire are an ironic and climactic moment in the narrative.

For homework, read pages 137-145, beginning with “We saw the three or four” and stopping at the end of the chapter, and respond to the following question using the Attending to Details Tool:

  1. How does Fitzgerald convey the chaos of the accident scene? (Pay attention to dialogue and narrative structure.)

Then respond to the following questions in your Learning Log:

  1. What does Tom’s interaction with Wilson suggest might happen? What evidence from the text supports your answer?

  2. What do you think of Nick’s reaction to all of the other characters? (On page 142, he had “had enough of all of them for one day.”)

  3. Could Nick have changed the outcome of the day’s events in any way? Explain your thinking.