YEAR 12 LESSON NINE [14th Nov 11]: Homework.

A tough session. Students were asked to consider the conclusion of Chapter 5 and consider the key moments of Chapter 6.

The session began with some jazz. The boogie woogie beauty of Cow Cow Davenport and the sublime majesty of Duke Ellington was offered to the bewildered teenagers. Students were invited to dance. The aim of this jazz moment was to make students aware of the significance of music in Chapter 5. Fitzgerald uses The Love Nest and Ain't We Got Fun to offer an ironic counterpoint. Ain't We Got Fun includes the line ' The rich get richer and the poor get- children' and the whole song offers a vision of America that suggests the tough lives experienced by the poor in America during the 1920s. Students were asked to consider why Fitzgerald uses this song at this moment in the text. Reference was also made to the significance of Daisy's extreme reaction to Gatsby's shirts and the tone of the conclusion.

The second session began with the modelling of an exemplar paragraph in response to the question: AT THE END OF CHAPTER 5, HOW DOES FITZGERALD REPRESENT THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GATSBY AND DAISY?

Students were also asked to consider the significance of the four key elements of Chapter 6. These elements being:

• The biography of Gatsby offered by Nick
• The significance of Tom, Sloane and 'a pretty woman' riding horses and appearing at Gatsby's house
• Gatsby's Party
• Gatsby's discussion with Nick at the end of the chapter.

Students were asked to consider why Daisy fails to enjoy the party. Specific attention was placed upon the quote: ' But the rest offended her - and arguably, because it wasn't a gesture but an emotion.' Discussion examined the difference between gesture and emotion and how this relates to the character and social class of Daisy.

HOMEWORK: READ CHAPTER 7. Next week's lesson will be a journey through this dramatic and significant section of the novel. Students might want to focus their reading towards a consideration of how Fitzgerald creates the dramatic tension and dramatic expectation within this chapter.