Big Read Literature Groups--Great Gatsby/Their Eyes Were Watching God

AGENDA:  (Dec. 9-17  Two week project--In study groups, work on Big Read lessons throughout the weeks for presentations to the class)

In your literature groups, work on Lessons 1 and 2,  Be sure to look over background essays on the Big Read Reader's Guide.

Go over vocabulary for each book.  Vocabulary quiz Friday, Ch. 1-5 for individual book.

Discuss readings from last night. 
Their Eyes:  What does the opening paragraph mean?  3rd person narrator, lyrical, poetic language.
                     What about the language of the porch sitters gossiping?  Does Hurston capture their  essence?  How do they feel about Janey?

Gatsby:  What does Nick say about Gatsby?  How does he introduce you to the character of Gatsby?

Both books begin with a character looking back on what has already happened.  The character is older and wiser.  The rest of the novel is a flashback.



Group leader take attendance (sign in) and mark off with a check mark that everyone has participated.
Assign group leader for tomorrow's class.

The Great Gatsby/TheirEyes Were Watching God

AGENDA:

EQ: What societal conditions create a background and setting for each novel?

Vocabulary quiz on Steinbeck vocab

Go to padlet.com.
Working in groups, create a padlet of the 20s and 30s that provide background for each novel.

Look over study guides for each novel.. Go to The Big Read links.


The Great Gatsby:

http://www.huffenglish.com/gatsby/gatsbystudy.pdf 

The Big Read:
http://www.neabigread.org/teachers_guides/lesson_plans/greatgatsby/Fitzgerald_TG2014.pdf

Their Eyes Were Watching God:
http://vpope.weebly.com/uploads/8/2/4/5/8245993/teachers_pet_unit_-_141_pages.pdf

The Big Read:

http://www.neabigread.org/books/theireyes/

The American Dream Synthesis Essay Practice

AGENDA:

Read and discuss Synthesis Essay Packet on the American Dream

“American Dream” AP Synthesis Essay Writing

 

EQ: Is it still possible in our country for everyone to achieve the American Dream?

 

• While reading the sources, document the claim and warrants through annotation

• Formulate your own claim and at least 3 warrants based on the given arguments in the text

• Group together sources which have similar claims and warrants and find text quotes that stand out

• Use a minimum of 6 quotes from 3 different articles to either substantiate, refute, or qualify a portion of your argument. Reference sources after quotes (Source A)

• Bring in outside concrete references in your commentary. Are there additional examples from

current events, history, pop culture, literature?

HMWK: Spend 40 minutes to write practice essay for Friday's class

The American Dream

AGENDA:

Go to library for either The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald or Their Eyes Were Watching god


THE AMERICAN DREAM 

"Essentially the American Dream is an idea which suggests that all people can succeed through hard work, and that all people have the potential to live happy, successful lives. Many people have expanded upon or refined the definition of the American Dream, and this concept has also been subject to a fair amount of criticism. Many people believe that the structure of American society belies the idealistic goal of the American Dream, pointing to examples of inequality rooted in class, race, and ethnic origin which suggest that the American Dream is not attainable for all."

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-american-dream.htm

This expansion and redefining of the American Dream spans from Crevoceur's time (and way before!) to now.


What IS Crevecoeur's vision of the American Dream?
How would you defend, challenge, or qualify his vision? Use textual examples and personal experience examples to back up your your persuasion. You want to make me believe that your defense, challenge, or qualification is absolutely right!

Make sure you refer back to De Crevecour's letter to further support your thesis.

The Origins of the American Dream

Defining the Dream:


From dictionary.com


Link: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/american+dream
American Dream  noun
1. the ideals of freedom, equality, and opportunity traditionally held to be available to every American.
2. a life of personal happiness and material comfort as traditionally sought by individuals in the U.S.
— n
the American Dream the notion that the American social, economic, and political system makes success possible for every individual


American dreamcoined 1931 by J.T. Adams (1878-1949), U.S. writer and historian, in "Epic of America." EXPAND
[The American Dream is] "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position." [Adams] Others have used the term as they will.







From the Oxford English Dictionary's definition of "dream" (Make the OED your friend, especially if you become an English major in college. It has great explanations of etymology, how words have transformed, and slang uses of words).


Link: http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/57600?rskey=JB3CsK&result=1#eid6270443

• c. An ideal or aspiration; spec. a national aspiration or ambition; a way of life considered to be ideal by a particular nation or group of people. Freq. with defining adj. prefixed, as the American dream (see American adj. 1a).
  1931 N. & Q. CLX. 107/1 If, in the course of centuries, the Russian dream comes true the history of Australia‥may seem, to students belonging to a Communist society, just as primitive, curious and exciting as to us appear the struggles within the Heptarchy.
  1936 M. Mitchell Gone with Wind xi. 214 He was still a young girl's dream of the Perfect Knight.
  1937 L. Bromfield Rains Came Ded., For all my Indian friends‥but for whom I should never have‥understood the Indian Dream.
  1937 L. Bromfield Rains Came i. xxxiii. 144 A ruler who would cherish the dream and carry it a little way farther along the way to fulfilment.
  1937 R. Kipling Something of Myself vi. 149 Rhodes‥said to me apropos of nothing in particular: ‘What's your dream?’ I answered that he was part of it.

From the OED's definition of "American"


Link: http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/6342?rskey=2P7CJH&result=1&isAdvanced=true#eid5337887

• American dream n. (also American Dream) (with the) the ideal that every citizen of the United States should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.[a1911 D. G. Phillips Susan Lenox (1917) I. xxiii. 439 The fashion and home magazines‥have prepared thousands of Americans‥for the possible rise of fortune that is the universal American dream and hope.]
  1916 Chicago Daily Tribune 7 Feb. 6 If the American idea, the American hope, the American dream, and the structures which Americans have erected are not worth fighting for to maintain and protect, they were not worth fighting for to establish.
  1931 J. T. Adams Epic of Amer. 410 If the American dream is to come true and to abide with us, it will, at bottom, depend on the people themselves.
  2002 N.Y. Times 28 Apr. 12/2 Many claim‥rights to housing, education, health care and welfare checks, yet they are denied the up-by-the-bootstraps right to work that‥has always underpinned the immigrant's hope for access to the American dream.