Week 6 - Getting Going with Gatsby

Terrible alliteration, isn't it? The title, I mean. Just terrible. The hyperlink on the word 'alliteration' back a few sentences ago demonstrates much better use of the sound device. Anyway, that has very little to do with the point of this post.

Aheam, let's get back on track here. Gatsby. Gatsby Gatsby Gatsby. No wait, we aren't quite ready for that.

Monday - Today, we have a slightly unpleasant but necessary task: the FFA benchmark. We will take four of these this semester, and they are designed to tell us what skills we need to focus on more heavily before the Milestone EOC, which is 20% of your overall course grade. The county assesses them and pushes them into the gradebook - I do not control them or the grade reporting that follows them. DO WELL on this one! To reiterate: It will go into the gradebook.

Tuesday - I will be out of class for a county training on a new internet resource, so you will take the time to annalyze the Touchstone questions and andswers. it's important to think carefully about what is being asked of you, and this assignmetn will go a long way in that regard. We get better with language (including test language) to which we are frequently exposed. We do not get better at things we avoid doing.

Wednesday - It's taken us a little longer than I anticipated to finish up the All Men Created Equal unit about Transcendentalism and ol' Supertramp, so let's take one more day in the lab. During lab time, we'll finish the projects and the movie.

Thursday - To begin discussing Modernism and The Great Gatsby, we will watch a fabulous TedTalk entitled "The Danger of a Single Story", spoken by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi. As we progress through the unit, we will look at the United States and literature as many stories interwoven. We will discuss the Modernist era and the civil and social struggles peoople fought during, before, and since the Roaring Twenties. We will look for commonalities in Gatsby's stories, modern and classic film, Harlem Reanissance poetry and art, and so much more. We will overview all of it via this PowerPoint (and take THESE NOTES)and dig a little bit by analyzing this poem.

Friday - The first 2 chapters of Gatsby and chpaters 1 & 2 of this reading guide are due. I will not be here (I'm moving! Yikes!) , so you will read and answer questions about an assigned NewsELA article, read, and complete your rading guides. You will need to complete through chapter 5 by Monday. be thorough in your analysis.

* We will analyze the next Touchstone test and skip this one for now.

After the break: We will begin the week by reviewing Modernist concepts relevant to the novel and exploring a chosen concept individually: Modernism, the Jazz Age, Flapper culture, the Harlem Renaissance, or the Hemingway Hero. Find a 1920s poem that reflects the concepts relevant to whichever you decide to research. Write one fully developed paragraph analyzing the poem according to that concept (See model here). We will then move into our film analysis unit, studying symbolism and camera angle purpose before watching and relating individual films to the Modernist concepts we discuss.

OVER THE BREAK: Read chapters 3 through 5, and find yourselves a good Modernism-relevant poem to analyze when we get back.