My husband is teaching my favorite book...So, I love teaching The Great Gatsby. I love the glamour of the 1920s, the sad ending, the idea that people are so careless they stomp all over others (how much more real-life can you get?!), and how clueless Nick is. The whole idea that life can seem so perfectly aligned and then fall completely apart appeals to me. Don't get me wrong: I love happy endings, but there is something about sad endings (and sad songs!) that are just better (except LaLaLand, I still hate that ending, but mostly because it's fresh and...that's another post). Anyway, I like the sad endings in Gatsby. When I used to teach American Literature & Composition (the full title is so much better than English III) I taught Gatsby. I didn't try to prejudice the kiddos, but I did tell them I loved the book. I told them that just because I loved it didn't mean they had to love it, but they had to approach it with an open mind. This lead to many great discussions and a surprising number of students (girls especially) hate Daisy, which was fine because she's awful. I miss teaching Gatsby... My husband is lucky enough to teach American Literature II, which means he gets to teach the best parts of American Literature (not biased, I swear!) and he's teaching Gatsby right now. He keeps coming home with stories about kids' connections to the text & their interpretations of the characters (none of them hate Jordan enough, IMHO), and all the cool connections they are making. I'm very jealous. I miss teaching Gatsby! Maybe someday I will love TKAM the way I love Gatsby. Until then, I'll just remind myself that I can always return to the Valley of Ashes and enjoy the text myself. Find more information about the slice of life blogging challenge by Two Writing Teachers at this link.
Kari Straube is working on her second slice of life challenge in 2017. She spends her days with freshmen in rural Iowa & loves helping them grow. Her English teacher husband encourages her book hoarding habits & people do not like helping them move. She can be contacted at [email protected]
2 Comments
Joy Berg
3/9/2017 08:31:51 pm
I enjoyed teaching Gatsby because it's such a fun time period for them to learn about and explore. At least you can live vicariously through your husband!
Reply
Deb Day
3/10/2017 07:10:37 am
I've never taught Gatsby, but I always have a couple who choose to read it during our classic choice unit. Maybe I'll have to reread it again...
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
The views on this blog are mine alone and do not reflect those of my employer or anyone else. AuthorKari teaches English I to 9th graders (!) and other electives in rural Iowa. Her husband is also an English teacher, and their friends have sworn to never help them move again because "even libraries don't have that many books." Archives
March 2017
Categories |