YEAR 12 LESSON FIVE/SIX [12th/19th Oct 15]: Homework

In these two sessions, students were asked to consider why Fitzgerald has Carraway describe the following locations in such a figurative manner. Students were asked to consider how meaning is being shaped through the representation of these three key locations:

1. THE BUCHANAN HOUSE
2. THE VALLEY OF ASHES
3. GATSBY'S PARTY AT THE BEGINNING OF CHAPTER THREE

Students were asked to consider the version of America that is being presented by Fitzgerald and why this version of America is being presented. Students were asked to consider the America presented through the poetry of Walt Whitman and Emma Lazarus with the vision of America that is presented at the beginning of this famous novel. Class discussion considered how the horror of the Valley of Ashes is constructed.

The final section of the second session involved a 15 minute written response to the question:

How does Fitzgerald represent the Valley of Ashes?

The aim of this task was for students to use the following paragraph structure:

• Opinion
• Textual Reference
• Explanation of how textual reference supports opinion
• Consider author's aim/question focus. 

Students need to be aware that the final half of the paragraph is the section that will allow students to access the higher grades. The argument linked to textual reference needs to be linked to author's aim and the central focus of the question. The consideration of author's aim was the weak area of the first set of essays and this task was a direct response to the content of the first written task. Hopefully this task reinforced the fact that a consideration of how and why an author shapes meaning is at the heart of this course.

YOU LOT HAVE BEEN MAGNIFICENT THIS TERM. KEEP IT UP.

HOMEWORK: READ THE TEXT. I expect all students to have read the novel and be particularly familiar with the first FIVE CHAPTERS as these chapters will be the immediate focus of our discussion when we return to the Festival of Wisdom. I will post specific reading focus in a couple of days. Keep checking the blog.

READ THE GREAT GATSBY....READ THE GREAT GATSBY.....READ...READ...READ.....