Lesson Plan: Day 2

Lesson Plan: Day 2

Day: October 3rd, 2006

Length of Lesson: 50 minutes

Essential Question of the Unit: What lessons about life, society, and people can be learned from The Great Gatsby and which will you apply to your life today?

Essential Question of the Day: What can you relate from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s life and the decadent decade of the 1920’s to The Great Gatsby?

Rationale: This lesson is designed to focus on the historical context of The Great Gatsby, and to provide background information about the author F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Standard(s) Addressed: Standard 1: Students read and understand a variety of materials. Students write and speak for a variety of purposes and audiences. Standard 4: Students apply thinking skills to their reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing. Standard 6: Students read and recognize literature as a record of human experience.

Lesson Objectives Addressed: The objective of this lesson is for students to expand their knowledge of the Jazz Age era and to be able to relate the historical context to their reading of The Great Gatsby. Likewise, students will learn about “A Brief Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald,” so that they will be able to make connections between the characters in the novel and the author as they read. These objectives will be achieved through:

• Listening to a popular song from the 1920’s “Ain’t We Got Fun:” Students will be able to share their reactions to this song and I will explain how this song embodies the mentality of the decade and emphasizes the entertainment, economic situation, and the importance of jazz in the 1920’s.
• Read Aloud: By listening and reading along with a read aloud about author F. Scott Fitzgerald’s life, students will learn about his tragic, troubled, and intriguing life.
• KWL Worksheet: Students will fill out a KWL worksheet. Before the read aloud students will record what they know about author F. Scott Fitzgerald if anything. After the read aloud students will then record what they learned and what they want to learn throughout the unit. This worksheet will also be used along with the class jigsaw activity about the 1920’s era in the same way.
• Classroom Jigsaw Activity: Students will be broken up into four groups. Each group will be assigned a different aspect about the roaring twenties. Each group will read their short but meaningful paragraph, discuss what is most important, and on a large presentation paper will record what they want to share with the class. Students will present what is most important to the class.

Materials: 400 Years of Swing CD with “Ain’t We Got Fun” by The Certificates, read aloud (a biography on F. Scott Fitzgerald we put together from Matthew J. Bruccoli’s, “A Brief Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald”), large presentation paper, markers, uno cards, handouts pre-made about aspects of the 1920’s that will be used for the jigsaw activity.

Opening/Anticipatory Set: (5 minutes) We will open class by playing the famous and popular song from the 1920’s “Ain’t We Got Fun.” We will explain how this song embodies many important aspects of the 1920’s. For example, how the decade was all about having fun. How people wanted to forget the war, ignore their future, and delight in the excess and decadence of the era. Also, there were social clashes and economic separations as the “rich were getting richer and the poor were getting poorer,” which this song emphasizes. We will also explain the outline of the day and the essential question of the day as well.

Activities/Procedures: (40 minutes) Students will be asked to fill out what they already know about author F. Scott Fitzgerald if anything. Students will then listen and follow along with the read aloud of the day and fill out what they learned and what they want to learn about the author as the unit progresses. Then the class will be asked to record what they already know about the roaring twenties to their KWL worksheet. Students will then be separated into groups by uno cards and participate in the jigsaw activity. Students will read their short but meaningful section and discuss as a small group what they learned and think is most important about their topic. Then students will record on the large presentation paper what they want to share with the class. Students will then present their topic to the class, while other students add to their KWL worksheet.

Closure: (5 minutes) We will wrap up the class by reemphasizing the essential question of the day, what was done in class and why, and allow for clean up time. KWL worksheets will be collected as students’ exit tickets from class.

Assessment: Students will be assessed by their in-class participation, jigsaw presentation, and their KWL worksheet, which will serve as their exit ticket and will be checked and reviewed by me.

Literacy: Speaking: Students will be given the opportunity to speak on a number of occasions. They will be invited to share their thoughts about the song “Ain’t We Got Fun” and in their small groups for the jigsaw activity. Listening: Students will listen to the read aloud and to other students’ short presentations at the end of the jigsaw activity. Reading: Students will be aloud to read along with the read aloud and then the short paragraph while in their small groups for the jigsaw activity. Writing: Students will write throughout the class while filling out their KWL worksheet.

Adaptations/Individualization: SPED: Will be given extra time to complete the KWL worksheet if needed. A more simplified version of each paragraph for the jigsaw activity will be available if needed. 504: Students will be given enlarged copies of any of the reading if needed. Students will be allowed extra time on the KWL worksheet if needed. TAG: Students might be asked to elaborate on the back of their worksheet about how the 1920’s culture and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s life seem to connect with The Great Gatsby. They might also respond to how these aspects could connect to other subjects. ESL: Students will be given extra time to complete the KWL worksheet if needed. A list of vocabulary words could be available with each paragraph in the jigsaw activity for students along with a more simplified version of each paragraph.

Make Up Work: Students will be asked to read materials (read aloud and all material from the jigsaw activity) on their own and fill out the KWL worksheet, which they will hand in to be graded.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Taken from Matthew J. Bruccoli’s,

“A Brief Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald”

The dominant influences on F. Scott Fitzgerald were aspiration, literature, Princeton, Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, and alcohol.

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on September 24, 1896. His family settled in St. Paul after moving around briefly and lived comfortably on his mother, Mollie Fitzgerald’s inheritance. Fitzgerald attended the St. Paul Academy where his first writing to appear in print was a detective story in the school newspaper when he was thirteen.

During 1911-1913 he attended the Newman School, a Catholic prep school in New Jersey, where he met Father Sigourney Fay, who encouraged his ambitions for personal distinction and achievement. As a member of the Princeton Class of 1917, Fitzgerald neglected his studies for his literary apprenticeship. He wrote the scripts and lyrics for the Princeton Triangle Club musicals and was a contributor to the Princeton Tiger humor magazine and the Nassau Literary Magazine. On academic probation and unlikely to graduate, Fitzgerald joined the army in 1917 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the infantry. Convinced that he would die in the war, he rapidly wrote a novel, “The Romantic Egotist”; the letter of rejection from Charles Scribner’s Sons praised the novel’s originality and asked that it be resubmitted when revised.

In June 1918 Fitzgerald was assigned to Camp Sheridan, near Montgomery, Alabama. There he fell in love with a celebrated belle, eighteen-year-old Zelda Sayre. The romance intensified Fitzgerald’s hopes for the success of his novel, but after revision it was rejected by Scribners for a second time. In 1919 after the war ended he went to New York City to seek his fortune in order to marry.

The publication of This Side of Paradise on March 26, 1920, made the twenty-four-year-old Fitzgerald famous almost overnight, and a week later he married Zelda Sayre in New York. They embarked on an extravagant life as young celebrities. Fitzgerald endeavored to earn a solid literary reputation, but his playboy image impeded the proper assessment of his work. For example, “they passed out on strangers' divans at fancy parties, rode down Fifth Avenue atop a taxi on a hot Sunday night, waded in the Pulitzer Fountain outside the Plaza. Scott started to shed his clothes at the Scandals and got thrown out of the theater. Zelda danced on tables and livened up dinner gatherings wherethe hootch wasn't flowing fast enough. They bought a Marmon and Zelda hung it on a fire hydrant” (Sann). When Zelda Fitzgerald became pregnant they took their first trip to Europe in 1921 and then settled in St. Paul for the birth of their only child, Frances Scott (Scottie) Fitzgerald, who was born in October 1921.

During this time his drinking increased. He was an alcoholic, but he wrote sober. Zelda Fitzgerald regularly got “tight,” but she was not an alcoholic. There were frequent domestic rows, usually triggered by drinking bouts. Literary opinion makers were reluctant to accord Fitzgerald full marks as a serious craftsman. His reputation as a drinker inspired the myth that he was an irresponsible writer; yet he was a painstaking reviser whose fiction went through layers of drafts. Fitzgerald’s clear, lyrical, colorful, witty style evoked the emotions associated with time and place. When critics objected to Fitzgerald’s concern with love and success, his response was: “But, my God! it was my material, and it was all I had to deal with.” The chief theme of Fitzgerald’s work is aspiration the idealism he regarded as defining American character. Another major theme was mutability or loss. As a social historian Fitzgerald became identified with the Jazz Age: “It was an age of miracles, it was an age of art, it was an age of excess, and it was an age of satire,” he wrote in “Echoes of the Jazz Age.”

Seeking tranquility for his work the Fitzgeralds went to France in the spring of 1924. He wrote The Great Gatsby during the summer and fall in Valescure near St. Raphael, but the marriage was damaged by Zelda’s involvement with a French naval aviator.The Fitzgeralds spent the winter of 1924-1925 in Rome, where he revised The Great Gatsby; they were en route to Paris when the novel was published in April. The Great Gatsby marked a striking advance in Fitzgerald’s technique, utilizing a complex structure and a controlled narrative point of view. Fitzgerald’s achievement received critical praise, but sales of Gatsby were disappointing, though the stage and movie rights brought additional income.

In Paris Fitzgerald met Ernest Hemingway then unknown outside the expatriate literary circle with whom he formed a friendship based largely on his admiration for Hemingway’s personality and genius. The Fitzgeralds remained in France until the end of 1926, alternating between Paris and the Riviera. During these years Zelda Fitzgerald’s unconventional behavior became increasingly eccentric. In April 1930 she suffered her first breakdown. She was treated at Prangins clinic in Switzerland until September 1931, while Fitzgerald lived in Swiss hotels. Work on the novel was again suspended as he wrote short stories to pay for Zelda’s psychiatric treatment.

Fitzgerald was not among the highest-paid writers of his time; his novels earned comparatively little, and most of his income came from 160 magazine stories. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald did spend money faster than he earned it; the author who wrote so eloquently about the effects of money on character was unable to manage his own finances.

F. Scott Fitzgerald died believing himself a failure. The obituaries were condescending, and he seemed destined for literary obscurity. The first phase of the Fitzgerald resurrection “revival” does not properly describe the process occurred between 1945 and 1950. By 1960 he had achieved a secure place among America’s enduring writers. The Great Gatsby, a work that seriously examines the theme of aspiration in an American setting, defines the classic American novel.

Sann, Paul. “1925 F. Scott Fitzgerald Paradise and Zelda.” The Lawless Decade. 1999. 15 November 2006. <

University of South Carolina. “A Brief Life of Fitzgerald.” F. Scott Fitzgerald Centenary. 7 January 2002. 28 October 2006 <

KWL Worksheet

KNOW WANT TO KNOW LEARNED

Paragraphs for Jigsaw Activity

Prohibition: “The 18th Amendment to the Constitution--passed by Congress in 1917, and ratified by 3/4 of states by 1919--prohibited the manufacture or sale of alcoholic beverages within the boundaries of the United States.

The Volstead Act of 1919, also known as the National Prohibition Enforcement Act, gave the 18th Amendment some teeth. It clearly defined an alcoholic beverage as one with an alcoholic content greater than 0.5 percent.

The 21st Amendment, which was ratified in 1933, repealed the 18th Amendment. In order to get around the traditional process of ratification by the state legislatures--many of which were expected to vote "dry"--Congress instead called for ratifying conventions in each state. At the completion of delegates' voting, the national count in favor of repeal of the 18th Amendment was 73%. “

(Stanley K. Schultz- taken from American History Civil War to the Present

Social Change and Conflict: “Historians often describe the 1920s as a decade of contrasts and conflicts. Freedoms in dress, behavior, and sexual attitudes clashed with a new Puritanism. The automobile was replacing the old horse and buggy. There were conflicts between the traditional small-town way of life and a new urbanism and cosmopolitanism. In the 1920s, some Americans saw life as a glorious orgy, with the popularization of Freud, songs such as "Hot Lips" and "I Need Lovin,'" and movies called "Up in Mabel's Room" and "Her Purchase Price." On the other hand, religious fundamentalism underwent a rebirth, as people tried to latch onto the traditional moral standards--either real or imagined--of bygone years. Overall, the decline of the Anglo-Saxon class as the most influential group in American society characterized this time period. Even as the power of the Anglo-Saxon establishment was on the wane, one of its final attempts at holding onto control was the passage of national Prohibition.”

(Stanley K. Schultz- taken from American History Civil War to the Present

Entertainment: Parties, music, movies, dancing was the order of the day in the 1920’s. Rich and poor attended decadent parties where liquor freely flowed despite its illegal nature. Music was one of the most popular forms of entertainment. The radio, which gained its popularity in the 1920’s not only played music but also provided a cheap and convenient way of conveying information and ideas. The first broadcasts consisted of primarily news and world affairs. Later in the decade, radios were used to broadcast everything from concerts and sermons to "Red Menace" ideas. The radio was certainly one of the most important inventions of the 1920s, because it not only brought the nation together, but it brought a whole new way for people to communicate and interact. Nevertheless, people were drawn to clubs to hear jazz, jazz, and jazz. Famous musicians included Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington, and George Gershwin. Much of it reflected the Harlem Renaissance, allowing African Americans a chance to prove their talent and win respect in a still very racist culture. Movies also gained popularity. Silent films were all the rage with famous actors like Charlie Chaplin.

(Taken from The 1920’s experience

Fashion/Style: “The flapper, whose antics were immortalized in the cartoons of John Held Jr., was the heroine of the Jazz Age. With short hair and a short skirt, with turned-down hose and powdered knees - the flapper must have seemed to her mother (the gentle Gibson girl of an earlier generation) like a rebel. No longer confined to home and tradition, the typical flapper was a young women who was often thought of as a little fast and maybe even a little brazen. Mostly, the flapper offended the older generation because she defied conventions of acceptable feminine behavior. The flapper was "modern." Traditionally, women's hair had always been worn long. The flapper wore it short, or bobbed. She used make-up (which she might well apply in public). And the flapper wore baggy dresses which often exposed her arms as well as her legs from the knees down. However, flappers did more than symbolize a revolution in fashion and mores - they embodied the modern spirit of the Jazz Age.”