Unit Makeover: The Great Gatsby [S5 E128]

Listen to the full episode below:

Do you remember the first time you read The Great Gatsby? As one of the most commonly taught American novels, it’s likely that by now, you’ve also taught a Great Gatsby unit to your class.

Because it is so widely taught, you may have gotten stuck in teaching it the same way over and over again. Well my friends, we’re here to shake that up! 

Over the years, we’ve found ways to make The Great Gatsby accessible, applicable, and engaging for virtually all the kiddos in our classroom. We’re excited to share these ideas with you today as we discuss what the process of a unit makeover could be like for a unit that uses The Great Gatsby as a vehicle for learning.

You’ll hear alllllll the essentials of a brilliant unit makeover - vision boarding, essential questions, and assessment. Plus, we’ll be jumping into the supplements of this unit inside a bonus episode of Brave New Teaching that will give you a sneak peek into what our new Happy Hour is all about!

An Important Note: this episode is all about creating a unit that uses The Great Gatsby vs. a Great Gatsby unit. We’re decentering the text here as we use Gatsby as the inspiration for a lot of the thematic content and angles that we are taking in terms of the content.

Enjoy, and be sure to check out other unit makeover episodes that we’ve done on the podcast below!

Topics Discussed in This Episode:

  • The four essential parts to an effective unit makeover.

  • How vision boards are an exercise in developing your essential question, and some benefits of using a digital vision board. 

  • Examples of different possible essential questions that could be used with The Great Gatsby.

  • Starting with the end in mind, and why the type of assessment will drive how you structure your unit.

More about Brave New Teaching:

Join hosts Amanda Cardenas (Mud & Ink Teaching) and Marie Morris (The Caffeinated Classroom) in discussions about being brave, trying new things, and all things teaching! As seasoned classroom teachers, Amanda and Marie bring their experience, insight, energy, and oh, so many opinions and ideas... It's time for all teachers to take their classroom and teaching practice into their own hands!

Tune in on your favorite podcast apps like Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher.

Amanda Cardenasunit, inquiry, strategies, inspiration, advice, planning