Lesson Plan 4: Beginning The Great Gatsby

Name of Course: American Literature

Any Special Characteristics of Students?
One student has mild autism.
One student has ADHD.
One student has anxiety.
Brief Description of When This Lesson Will Be Taught: Lesson Four.
Instructional Standards, Objectives, and Questions:
State, National, and/or Professional Standards:
Reading Standard 4
Language Standard 5
Content Objectives:
Students will be able to clarify and understand words that they do not know.
Students will be able to summarize what they have read and start to explore the deeper meanings.
Students will gain a better understanding of first person narration.
Literacy Objectives:
Students will increase their vocabulary through unknown words in the novel.
Students will be able to understand chapter one on both a superficial and deeper level.
Topical Essential Question(s):
How does narration affect the story as a whole? Explain.
How do specific wording, structure, and literary devices affect the audience? Explain.

Components of the Lesson

Required Class Time: 90 minutes
HOOK Beginning reading/learning 10 minutes
Students will be asked what each kind of narration is (first person, third person limited, third person omniscient). Although this
has been discussed in previous classes, because it is such an important tool used in this text, a refresher for the students is
important. (Note: Students will not be told what the narration is for the novel, they will be asked this after they begin reading.)
LINE During reading/learning 55 minutes
Before beginning the reading for todays class, the teacher will explain to the students that the vocabulary in the novel can be
complex, so students are encouraged and asked to stop and highlight a word if they dont know it. A list will be compiled for
later in the class.
The teacher will read chapter one of The Great Gatsby out loud to the students. The teacher will model the vocabulary callout explained to the students by stopping at words (s)he is not sure if the students know; the hope is that students will follow
this lead.
After finishing the chapter, and writing down several words that the students do not know, the teacher will use the Frayer
Model to go over the vocabulary with students. This exercise will be done on the Smart board; students are expected to take
notes in their notebooks, but this activity will also be posted on the class website.
SINKER Concluding reading/learning 25 minutes
The teacher will ask students what the narration is in the novel.
The students will then do a quick write (being given 2 minutes to write, 1 minute to share each in a group of a three, and then 1
minute to share with the class for the whole group). The quick write question will be what do you think about the narrator so
far; do you believe he is reliable, unreliable, nice, mean, honest, dishonest, poor, rich, etc.?
As a class, the students and teacher will write a summary of the chapter (serving as a model for the summaries they will do after
each chapter individually).

Students will then be given a worksheet with 5-10 comprehension questions that will help students move from a superficial
understanding of the chapter to the deeper meaning. With the time remaining, students can work in small groups or pairs to
answer the questions; whatever they do not finish will be additional homework.
How Will You Know if Students Got It? Today? Later?
Students will pass in their quick write as well as their comprehension questions (the questions will collected once all chapters
are finished, however).
Based on students discussions during the vocabulary exercise, the narration discussion, the summary exercise, and the
comprehension answers, it will be clear if students gained an overall understanding of what was covered, or if the teacher needs
to clarify anything.
What Will Students Do for Homework? What Will Today Lead Into Next?
Students will finish the comprehension questions for homework. They will also read chapters two and three. For these chapters,
students will highlight any vocabulary they do not know (showing evidence of at least trying to understand the wordeven if it
is only an assumed definition from context); students write summaries for both chapters, and they will do comprehension
questions. This will lead the class into a conversation about how the theme has developed so far in the text and what literary
devices are being used; it will allow class time to be spent trying to understand the deeper meaning of the text, and it will lead
into the next chapters of the novel.