The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 Jazz Age novel about the impossibility of recapturing the past, was initially a failure. Today, the story of Gatsby’s doomed love for the unattainable Daisy is considered a defining novel of the 20th century. Check out sample lesson plans for The Great Gatsby below.
Students will assess how setting affects meaning using a graphic organizer to draw conclusions.
Students will explore the theme of marriage in the novel by charting the progression of two marriges to help them draw conclusions.
Students will examine multiple characters from Nick's point of view to determine whether Nick can be considered a reliable narrator.
Students will make inferences based on evidence from the text to determine whom Daisy truly loves: Gatsby, Tom, or neither of them.
Students will examine the events of the novel in the order in which Nick hears about them and then create a timeline putting the events in chronological order.