Stephen Cunningham
Here's a few sites that go into either The Great Gatsby or the Roaring 20's.
Before students read the novel, students should watch this video and then reflect on if they think money makes you happy. Have students give real-life examples in order to support their answer. Technically, this reflection could be done before or after they watch the video.
After you finish your reflection on can money buy happiness, read this article and contemplate whether you agree with the author or not. Explain your thoughts and feelings.
This activity is designed to be used before the novel in order to introduce it. The hunt can be done individually or in partners. It utilizes technology and causes students to do some scaffolded research.
This cool, interactive decision making based game takes you through life in the Roaring 20's. It makes you make decisions based on fashion, entertainment, talking to the opposite sex, etc. It's pretty interesting and it will open a student's eyes to the fact that people knew how to party back then. Play through the game on multiple situations to gain the full experience.
A lot of The Great Gatsby and the roaring 20's revolved around great big parties and secret clubs. Obviously, music played a huge role in in having a great time. Look at the Jazz music history of that era in this interactive website and think about it's impact on culture during this time period.
Most of us have experienced the roaring twenties visually, but not many of us can understand just how loud this time period was. There was new technology, construction, parties and just a large amount of noise pollution. Get your headphones, because this website will take you through the sounds of the roaring twenties. Think about all the positives and negatives behind this time period when you think about the sound environment.
For those students who are more visual or just like comics, this website will provide an alternative to a typical summary or analysis of the novel. Students, create a comic strip like the ones you saw based on a scene from The Great Gatsby you enjoyed.
This is an interactive site sponsored by Warner Brothers after the 2013 version of The Great Gatsby came out. It's extremely interactive and talks about some history of the times, but what I like the most is how celebrities get to chime in on their feelings about the characters. Write down your favorite celebrity observation and explain whether you thought it was accurate and explain why or why not.
This is a cool quiz that can check to see if a students has read and can remember lines from The Great Gatsby, but also brings in pop culture with the use of Jay-Z. This would be a fun warm-up to start a day off. You could even use it as an activator.
This is a unique game, because it turns parts of Gatsby into an 8-bit game. I think this could be a good tool to use especially if you had students write about 3-5 allusions found it each level. It's pretty tough on the later levels.
A hilarious video that summarizes and analyzes the characters, setting and plot of The Great Gatsby. Did you have a student(s) having trouble with this novel? This can help those understand it. It's interesting and entertaining enough for a high school student. Don't forget to watch part II of this video located below. Students should write down 3 things they found interesting and 1 thing they still feel confused on.
This video not only helps understand The Great Gatsby like the first video, but actually goes into more of a character analysis of Jay Gatsby and tries to understand if he really was "Great." After the video, write a quick analysis of this convinced you if Gatsby was great. If it was convincing, write down what specifically convinced you. If not, explain that as well..
