Lesson 5

Lesson Goals

Texts

Core

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

Materials

Tools

• The Great Gatsby: Section 3 Diagnostic Checklist

• Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tool

• Mentor Sentence Journal

• Organizing Evidence Tool

• Vocabulary Journal

Reference Guides

• Argument Reference Guide
• Claims Reference Guide

Question Sets

• The Great Gatsby: Question Set 3.5

Editable Google Docs

• The Great Gatsby: Section 3 Diagnostic Checklist

• Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tool

• Mentor Sentence Journal

• Organizing Evidence Tool

• The Great Gatsby: Question Set 3.5

• Vocabulary Journal

Activity 1: Discuss

We will discuss the climactic scenes that end chapter 7 and their purpose and meaning in the narrative.

As a class, discuss the final scenes in Chapter 7 of The Great Gatsby, their impact on you as readers, and their implications for how the story will be resolvedusing the following questions from the Scene Analysis section of Question Set 3.5 to guide you:

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?

Finish your discussion by considering and debating the following question:

1. Do you think Myrtle’s death was really an accident? Why or why not? What evidence from the novel supports your opinion and the claim you have made?

Activity 2: Read – Discuss

We will review the task and expectations for the section 3 diagnostic and determine what we will focus on in our responses. We will then review the notes we have written and the claims we have developed as we read chapters 5–7, determining what will be helpful to us in writing a response to the Section Diagnostic.

Step 1

Read and annotate the first part of the Section 3 Diagnostic Checklist as listed below, which overviews what you will be asked to do:

Write a multiparagraph response that analyzes a key scene from the novel, focusing on its presentation, development, meaning, and significance. The response should be organized by a thesis about the significance of the scene and developed through a series of evidence-based claims that present and explain your analysis of the scene. You should include specific references to the text and demonstrate that you can integrate quotations that support your analysis. Keep the following question in mind:

1. How does Fitzgerald develop, contrast, and sequence scenes to complicate the plot of The Great Gatsby and build toward the novel’s climax and resolution?

Chapters 5-7 unfold through a series of dramatic scenes and vignettes that develop and complicate the characters’ stories, interactions, and conflicts and that further develop thematic threads in the novel. Select one of the listed scenes and analyze its significance in The Great Gatsby, considering the following 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?

Step 2

With a writing partner, discuss what the task expects you to do and how that connects to what you have been doing in the previous lessons. Ask any clarifying questions of your teacher.

Now review the five possible scenes to analyze that are listed in the prompt, some of which you have studied before and some of which you have not:

• Chapter 5: Daisy and Gatsby are reunited at Nick’s house (pp. 81-89); Gatsby shows Daisy his house and his shirts (pp. 89-92).

• Chapter 6: A flashback reveals Gatsby’s past as James Gatz (pp. 97-101); another flashback reveals the moment Daisy “blossomed for Gatsby like a flower” (pp. 109-111).

• Chapter 7: Tom and Gatsby confront each other at the Plaza Hotel; they all drive “on toward death through the cooling twilight” (pp. 125-135).

• Chapter 7: The events of the accident in front of Wilson’s garage are recounted; Tom and Nick discover what has happened; Tom reacts with tears and anger (pp. 136-141).

• Chapter 7: The aftermath at Tom and Daisy’s house unfolds; Nick leaves and finds Gatsby outside the house; Nick observes Tom and Daisy in the kitchen and leaves Gatsby “watching over nothing” (pp. 141-145).

Determine which scenes you know the most about and which you are best prepared to analyze. Choose the scene you will write about.

Activity 3: Write

We will review the scene analysis section of the section 3 diagnostic checklist and use it to organize our response to the Section Diagnostic task. We will then review the notes we have written and claims we have developed for the scene we have chosen to write about and draft a central claim or thesis that addresses the importance and meaning of that scene.

Review and annotate the Scene Analysis section of Section 3 Diagnostic Checklist,which you will use to organize and develop your response to the Section Diagnostic:

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?

For each question, use your notes to determine what you know or think about the scene, and form a claim you might make in response. Organize a list of evidence you might cite to explain and support your claims.

Your final claim—about the meaning and significance of the scene—will become the central claim and thesis for the response you will write. Write this claim statement as a clear and conclusive sentence so you are ready to begin writing a response that develops it.

Activity 4: Write

We will prepare for the section 3 diagnostic.

Prepare for your Section 3 Diagnostic by reviewing the Scene Analysis section of the Section 3 Diagnostic Checklist. Use the Organizing Evidence Tool to organize the claims and evidence you have identified in response to each of the questions. Think about how you might use the progression of the questions as an organizer for your writing. Be sure that your thesis statement (central claim) is as clear and conclusive as it can be, and that it is well-supported by evidence from the scene that you will analyze as well as by the claims you have developed in response to the analysis questions.

Review your Vocabulary Journal. Identify a significant word that you would like to use in your written response. Review your Mentor Sentence Journal. Select at least one technique that you plan to use when writing your response.

You are encouraged to bring these planning materials with you as you compose your formal response to the Section Diagnostic in the next lesson.