The Great Gatsby Teaching Resources

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby has to be one of my all-time favorite novels. Every time I read it (and that’s at least 15 times now since high school!), I find myself immersed in 1920s-era New York (one of my favorite cities even today), and I always find something I haven’t noticed before.
I enjoy the way Fitzgerald capitalizes on his characters’ weaknesses without condemning them (well, at least most of them). Gatsby has a good heart, but he’s a criminal. Daisy is sweet and witty, but she’s weak. Nick himself says, at the end of chapter 3, that he is one of the few honest person he has known, but it seems to me that he’s lying to himself if he believes this. Or at least he has a pretty shallow view of honesty.
The smallest details captivate me: Meyer Wolfsheim’s cufflinks made of human molars, the whistles of the National Biscuit Company factory (which, of course, later became known as NBC), Nick’s staring at Gatsby’s mansion from his lawn “like Kant at his church steeple” while Gatsby and Daisy do their reacquainting.
I generally reserve Gatsby for my advanced students, and it’s on the eleventh-grade reading list at our school. As with many other novels, my students usually hate the story at first, but once they get to the party scenes, they’re hooked. By the end, they’re pretty much as in love with Daisy as most anyone else who’s read the book and don’t want it to end.
- Anticipation Guide - Word File
- Quiz #1 (pages 5-51) - Word File (not available for download)
- Quiz #2 (pages 52-98) - Word File (not available for download)
- Quiz #3 (pages 99-145) - Word File (not available for download)
- Quiz #4 (pages 146-189) - Word File (not available for download)
- Venn Diagram - Word File
Send me a message if you are a teacher who’d like copies of my quizzes. I want to share, but I have to keep quizzes and tests secure. :)
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