15 Minutes
WHO I REALLY AM
Values you hold, private insecurities, authentic likes/dislikes, things you keep hidden from casual acquaintances.
HOW PEOPLE MIGHT SEE ME
Your public persona, social media feed, aesthetic, classroom reputation, the version you display for safety or clout.
Complete chart & checklist on Page 1. You may write about yourself or create a fictional character! Stance: YES / NO / IT DEPENDS
Part 4
10 Minutes
1920s Boom
Mass advertising, automobiles, flapper fashion, economic excess, and newly acquired wealth created a culture of public spectacle.
The American Dream
Fitzgerald investigated whether money and upward social mobility actually produce lasting happiness or hollow disillusionment.
Appearance vs Reality
Fitzgerald focused on what people were willing to sacrifice or stage just to control how the world perceived their worth.
Key Takeaway: Fitzgerald wasn't celebrating careless rich people; he was exposing the price of chasing a golden illusion.
Part 5
15 Minutes
FSF
Design his 1920s Profile on Page 2
Handout Part 5
1. Profile Data
Creative username, job title, 1920s era, and authentic bio interests.
2. Philosophical Views
What does he think of new money? What does he post about the American Dream?
3. Bonus 1920s Post
Draft one status update using authentic Jazz Age slang, tone, and worldview.
Collaborate or work independently Next: The Great Gatsby Connection
Part 6
10 Minutes
Enter Jay Gatsby The Ultimate Reinvention
Gatsby created an entirely new persona—fabricating an Oxford past, adopting aristocratic European manners, and throwing gargantuan parties—solely to reshape how society perceives him.
Discussion Question 1:
Why would someone completely erase and reinvent their past?
Discussion Question 2:
What could Gatsby possibly be trying to prove to the world?
Class debrief on the whiteboard Final step: Exit Ticket
Part 7
5 Minutes
Synthesis Stem 1:
"People sometimes change how others see them because..."
Synthesis Stem 2:
"I think Gatsby reinvented himself because..."
Challenge Question:
"Do you think Gatsby's reinvention will make him happy? Why or why not?"
Complete on Page 2 and submit at the classroom door Great work today!
Part 2: The Bernice Bridge (10 Mins) Slides 4–5
Teacher Script: "In 'Bernice Bobs Her Hair,' Bernice adopts Marjorie's scripted charm and cuts her hair to fit into high-society parties. Ask: Was Bernice changing who she really was, or changing how people saw her?"
Key Nuance to Highlight: Reinvention often starts as a performance (a mask), but prolonged performance can irreversibly alter the person underneath.
Part 3: "Who Do People See?" Activity & Stance (15 Mins) Slide 6
Low-Stakes Safety: Remind students who are private that they can build an original character (e.g., an athlete hiding their love for theater, an immigrant child hiding cultural differences).
Debate Anchor: When discussing "Is reinventing yourself always bad?", solicit opposing views: It can be a tool of empowerment/growth (e.g., escaping trauma) OR a symptom of insecurity and deceit.
English 3 Instructional Resource • Unit 2: The Jazz Age Page 1 of 2
English 3 Facilitation Companion
Part 5 Exemplar: Fitzgerald's Social Profile Slides 7–8
Use these benchmark answers to guide students during individual circulation and assess profile depth:
Username: @ScottTheScribe / @JazzAgeChronicler
Job: Novelist, Essayist, Social Critic
Time Period: 1920s (Jazz Age / Modernism)
Interests: High society, Princeton, cocktails, Zelda
Post Topics: "Lavish Long Island parties, reckless drivers, glamorous clothes hiding empty souls."
View on Wealth: "Fascinated by it, but warns that old money is careless and destroys anyone who tries to buy in."
View on the American Dream: "A glittering illusion—people strive endlessly for a past or a status they can never truly grasp."
Exemplar Bonus Post (1920s Slang): "Another night among the gin fizz and phonographs. Everyone pretending they’re kings, but the morning light shows the pasteboard cracks. #JazzAge #TheGreatIllusion"
Part 6 & 7: Gatsby Bridge & Exit Ticket Look-Fors Slides 9–10
Whiteboard Anchor for Gatsby: Draw two columns on the board: James Gatz (The Reality) vs. Jay Gatsby (The Projection). Have students call out why someone leaves their humble origins behind to reinvent themselves (e.g., love, class shame, ambition).
Exit Ticket Formative Success Criteria:
Differentiation & Scaffolding
Common Misconceptions to Address
English 3 Teacher Guide • Modernism, Identity & Gatsby Page 2 of 2
Coined the term "The Jazz Age" to describe a decade bounded by war and collapse. Next: Tragedy & The Fall
The Crash
1929–1940
Just as the stock market crashed in 1929, ending the decade of excess, the fairytale life of Scott and Zelda collapsed under crushing reality.
Mental Illness
Zelda suffered severe mental breakdowns and spent the rest of her life in specialized psychiatric sanatoriums.
Debt & Alcoholism
Scott struggled with crippling alcoholism, chronic debt from medical bills, and writer's block, taking Hollywood script jobs to survive.
Tragic Demise
Fitzgerald died of a heart attack in 1940 at only 44 years old, believing The Great Gatsby was an absolute commercial failure.
Gatsby sold fewer than 25,000 copies in his lifetime. Today, it sells 500,000+ copies every year. Next: Why He Is a Modernist
Literary Movement
Thematic Core
Rejection of 19th-century romantic idealism. Modernists depicted the world not as noble or orderly, but as spiritually vacant, fragmented, and broken.
The Great War destroyed belief in inevitable progress.
The traditional dream of hard work and moral virtue was corrupted into ruthless materialism, greed, and the worship of social status.
Money cannot purchase belonging or love.
Characters construct dazzling outward personas to hide profound internal loneliness, moral decay, and existential dread.
The glamorous party covers the moral wasteland.
Modernism asks: What remains when our cultural illusions are stripped away? Next: Craft & Technique
Craft & Style
Literary Devices
Unlike Victorian omniscient narrators who told the reader what was right and wrong, Nick Carraway is subjective, biased, and conflicted:
"I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known."
The reader must interpret truth through fractured perspective.
Focus: Notice how style mirrors the fractured psychology of the characters. Next: Synthesis & Discussion
Synthesis
Class Discussion
Fitzgerald & Gatsby Two Men Chasing An Illusion
Fitzgerald famously observed: "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function."
Final Discussion Question:
How was F. Scott Fitzgerald's own life both a blueprint for Jay Gatsby's rise and a warning about his fall?
Turn to your partner and share your thoughts. End of Presentation
Slide 7
A. The Unreliable Narrator (Nick Carraway)
Why did Modernist writers reject all-knowing, moralizing narrators in favor of conflicted observers like Nick?
B. Modernist Symbolism (Choose One)
Explain the symbolic meaning of either the Valley of Ashes or the Green Light:
Part 5
Final Debrief • Slide 8
Big Question: In what ways was F. Scott Fitzgerald's real life both a blueprint for Jay Gatsby's rise and a prophetic warning about his downfall?
English 3 • Unit 2: The Modernist Novel & The Great Gatsby Page 2 of 2
