As this century’s version of the Roaring 20s is vastly approaching, here is a recap on what our last blog post addressed!

In our last blog post, we introduced the idea of teaching The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald to students at a middle and high school level. We chose the book because we thought it was a great representation of what the Roaring 20s looked like one hundred years ago. Although it does not address all the events that occurred during this time period, it does get a little more personal. Essentially, we chose this book because students are able to compare the lives of the people living in this era to the lives they currently live now. The way we will introduce the book is by assigning readings every week for homework. At the end of the week we will show a little clip to the students about what they had read for the past school week. Then by the end of the book, we will have a little “movie premiere” and play the whole movie during class. To ensure that students are reading and understanding the material, we will have assignments and questions to ask during class.

While we guarantee that students understand the text, we also are planning on connecting the book to Gardner’s components of intelligences. The components that we plan on hitting are interpersonal, intrapersonal and linguistics. All these components were not only used throughout the book, but they were the most evident – hoping that students are able to understand them right off the bat. When we explain these components, we will always have mini powerpoint slides backing up the information that we are relaying to the students. At the end of each powerpoint, we will play a little clip from the movie to wrap up – we are doing this to ensure that students get a deeper meaning on how the text should be interpreted. It is one thing to read, but another to see it actually play out in front of you. Before we play the little clip and explain what is going on throughout the text, we plan on bringing the students into groups and having them bring together ideas and thoughts about the text. It is good for students to share ideas because it helps them to think of things and understand the text in new ways that they did not first think about.

In conclusion, the teaching methods we are using help guarantee students better understanding of the text. Reading, questioning as well as watching the text in front of you can deepen students understanding and comprehension of the text. It is important for students to communicate with each other especially when difficult topics are brought up. At the end of the lesson, I look forward to seeing students expand their intellectual abilities and have a deeper understanding for what the Roaring 20s stand for.

Annotated Bibliography

“The Great Gatsby.” NEA, 6 June 2018, http://www.arts.gov/national-initiatives/nea-big-read/the-great-gatsby.
I like this website because not only does it summarize what the book is about, it summarizes the characters too as well. If a student is having trouble differentiating which character is which, they can visit this website to see little descriptions of each character.

“Roaring Twenties.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 21 Aug. 2018, http://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties.
I want to use this website because it gives background into what happened during the time period. It would be helpful for students to know what was going on in the world in the time in order to relate it to the text.

“American Culture in the 1920s.” Khan Academy, Khan Academy, http://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/rise-to-world-power/1920s-america/a/jazz-and-the-lost-generation.
This website is a really good resource as well because it summarizes the Roaring 20s in ways younger students can understand. It’s important for the students to know what happened during the Roaring 20s in order to really understand what is going on in the book.