The Great Gatsby: Unit of Work

Fitzgerald’s novel about ‘careless people’ and avarice in the modern era is an established favourite for senior students. This 30-page unit of work has been tested successfully with a mixed-ability class and provides material for a full 10-week school term.

Pre-reading research tasks introduce students to the Roaring 20s, before the bulk of the unit focuses on close textual analysis. There is a mixture of tasks which get students writing analytically, personally, and creatively, helping them to build up a their own unique interpretation to the work, and eventually express this in a formal essay.

There is a brief, student-friendly explanation of what a close reading is and how to perform it, followed by a sample close reading of the opening passage.

Each chapter has a single-page task sheet comprising three higher-order tasks: a close reading of a nominated passage, an extended response to develop interpretative thinking, and a choice of creative writing tasks which springboard from the language and ideas in the chapter.

Ten senior-level essay questions offer a choice of arguments about character, theme, language, and context, and a sample essay discusses whether we can think of the novel as a tragedy.

FREE 4 Contextual research tasks
Explanation of close reading method
Sample close reading
9 chapters with close reading, writing at length, and creative writing tasks
FREE 10 essay questions suitable for senior students
Sample essay