ELA  /  12th Grade  /  Unit 5: The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby

Students read The Great Gatsby, evaluating Fitzgerald's critique of the American 1920s, as well as considering issues of social class and the impact of history and memory on individuals.

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ELA

Unit 5

12th Grade

Unit Summary

Please Note: This unit currently only contains free Fishtank features. In January 2025, we will begin releasing a new set of 12th Grade units, with the full scope of Fishtank Plus resources and features.

As students read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel The Great Gatsby, they will conduct in-depth character analysis of Gatsby and evaluate how Fitzgerald uses the character of Gatsby, as well as other literary devices, to comment on the society and values of the American 1920s. Students will consider issues of social class and the impact of history and memory on the lives of the characters as well as on our own.

While we do not typically take a stand on whether reading is done in class or at home, this particular unit is most suited to students reading the majority of the novel at home, allowing class time for analyzing key excerpts as well as writing about and discussing the text.  If teachers would like to read in class, they should allow for the number of lessons to be roughly double the estimate below.

Texts and Materials

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Core Materials

Supporting Materials

Text Selection Rationale
Purchase Books

Assessment

These assessments accompany Unit 5 and should be given on the days suggested in the Lesson Map. Additionally, there are formative and creative assessments integrated into the unit to prepare students for the Performance Task.

Content Assessment

The Content Assessment tests students' ability to read a "cold" or unfamiliar passage and answer multiple choice and short answer questions. Additionally, a longer writing prompt pushes students to synthesize unit content knowledge or unit essential questions in writing. The Content Assessment should be used as the primary assessment because it shows mastery of unit content knowledge and standards.

Key Knowledge

Intellectual Prep

Intellectual Prep for English Lessons

  1. Read and annotate the novel.
  2. Read and annotate this unit plan and all paired passages.
  3. Gather outside sources on World War I, the Jazz Age, and the Roaring Twenties if students have not previously studied these eras.

Intellectual Prep for AP Projects

Essential Questions

  • Wealth and Social Class: How far can one go to break boundaries that separate the classes? How far should one go to break boundaries that separate the classes?  
  • Memory and the Past: Is “the past” a boundary we cannot overcome (as Nick rationally argues, “you can’t repeat the past”) or is the future a boundary we cannot overcome (as Nick notes, we are “ceaselessly born back into the past” as the “future recedes before us”)?

Writing Focus Areas

Students will produce short written responses to each target task question in this unit. The focus is for students to produce short pieces that show a commitment to the task, purpose, and audience. This requires that they succinctly articulate their claim and provide brief but compelling evidence from the text(s) to support their analysis.

Spiraling Literary Analysis Writing Focus Area

  • Focus on Task: Comprehensive and consistently appropriate to the task, purpose, and audience
  • Analysis: Demonstrates effective and comprehensive reasoning
  • Evidence: Sophisticated and varied evidence that deepens insight on the topic

Vocabulary

Literary Terms

first-person narration, characterization, metaphor, irony, symbol, allusion, foreshadowing, motif, theme

Roots and Affixes

ol- (olfactory), som- (somnambulatory)

Text-based

Chapters 1–3: feign (1), levity (1), privy (1), elation (2), supercilious (7), fractiousness (7), unobtrusively (12), irreverently (9), cynical (16), peremptorily (19), involuntarily (21), transcendent (23), impenetrable (23), sumptuous (25), countenance (29), inexhaustible (35), innuendo (40), contemptuous (42), staid (44), florid (48), jaunty (52), subterfuge (58)

Chapters 4–6: incredulous (66), olfactory (68), somnambulatory (69), inconceivable (92), vitality (95), contemptuous (98), conceit (99), antecedents (101), ingratiate (101), lethargic (106), euphemism (106), incalculable (108), incarnation (111)

Chapters 7–9: obscurely (113), cynically (116), inexhaustible (120), boisterously (121), contingency (121), incredulous (122 & 129), inviolate (125), precipitately (125), disquieting (125), invariably (136), incessantly (138), truculent (140), indiscernible (148), interminable (154), conceivably (158), amorphous (161), elocution (173), complacent (176), transitory (180)

Idioms and Cultural References

Chapters 1–4: Great War (3), John D. Rockefeller (27), Fifth Avenue (28), Town Tattle (29), Gilda Gray (41), Follies (41), Von Hindenburg (61), Oxford (65), 1919 World Series (73), debut (75), Armistice (75), Coney Island (83), Trimalchio (113), medium (122), Hopalong Cassidy (173)

Content Knowledge and Connections

  • World War I
  • The Jazz Age
  • The Roaring Twenties

Previous Fishtank ELA Connections

  • The theme of memory and the past features heavily in both The Great Gatsby and The God of Small Things. Students should be able to compare how the two authors develop this theme and what each author’s message is.

Lesson Map

AP Projects

2

(PROCESS)

Consumerism is the preoccupation of a society with the acquisition of goods. A capitalist economy such as that of the United States of America relies on the purchasing of goods and services by consumers for the economy to grow, but some believe consumerism has gone too far. Throughout the history of this country, consumer demand has had an impact, both positive and negative, on the economic and social order of the country.

Carefully read the following six sources. Then synthesize the material from at least three of the sources and incorporate them into a coherent, well-developed essay that defends, challenges, or qualifies the notion that American consumerism is a crisis. 

Your argument should be the focus of your essay. Use the sources to develop your argument and explain your reasoning. Avoid merely summarizing the sources. Indicate clearly which sources you are using, whether through direct quotation or summary.

Common Core Standards

Core Standards

L.11-12.1
L.11-12.2
L.11-12.3
L.11-12.4
L.11-12.5
RI.11-12.1
RI.11-12.2
RL.11-12.1
RL.11-12.2
RL.11-12.3
RL.11-12.4
RL.11-12.5
RL.11-12.6
SL.11-12.1
SL.11-12.2
SL.11-12.3
W.11-12.1
W.11-12.2

Next

Identify contradictions present in 1920s society and evaluate how these contradictions are revealed in the opening chapter of the novel. 

Lesson 1
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