Primary+Sources+Lesson


 * Title of Lesson:** Fiction in Historical Context: The Great Gatsby and Primary Sources


 * Teacher’s Name:** Jessica Royster


 * Date Lesson is to Be Taught:** 22 April 2010


 * Grade Level:** 10th Grade


 * Subject:** English / Library Skills


 * Time Frame:** 15-20 Minutes

Standard 1: Inquire, think critically and gain knowledge Strand 1.1: Skills Indicator 1.1.4: Find, evaluate and select appropriate sources to answer questions. -Identify and prioritize possible sources of information based on specific information needs and strengths of different information formats. -Use specialized reference materials to find specific and in-depth information. -Use both primary and secondary sources. -Evaluate sources based on criteria such as copyright date, authority of author or publisher, depth of coverage and relevance to research questions.
 * Standards for the 21st Century Learner in Action:**

9.6: Relate a literary work to primary source documents of its literary period or historical setting. For example, students read //The Scarlet Letter// by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In order to deepen their understanding of the early colonial period and of Puritan beliefs, they read poems by Anne Bradstreet, transcripts of witch trials in Salem, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” by Jonathan Edwards (a sermon written during the Great Awakening) and excerpts from several colonial-era diaries (Judge Sewall, William Byrd III, Mary Rowlandson). Then students relate what they have learned to events, characters and themes in //The Scarlet Letter.//
 * Subject Related Massachusetts Curriculum Framework Strands:**

1. Students will be able to list the characteristics of a primary source. 2. Students will be able to find primary sources using online databases. 3. Students will be able to analyze, evaluate and discuss primary sources.
 * Goals:** Introduce students to primary sources.
 * Objectives:**

Primary Source Contemporary realistic fiction
 * Vocabulary or Key Words:**

Computers Internet Access SIRS Decades 20th Century American Sources Database Historical Newspapers Database American Memory Project Website White Board Agenda KWL Sheets Written Document Analysis Sheets
 * Materials or Resources Needed:**

This lesson is important because it will give students historical context to the fiction they are reading in English class, allowing them to better understand and appreciate the literature.
 * How the Lesson is to Be Developed:**
 * A. ****Framing the Lesson**
 * 1. **Before the lesson begins, post the basic itinerary on the board.
 * 2. **Meet students at the door to the library. Greet them and seat them quietly at the computers.
 * 3. ****Motivation (Why is this lesson important?):**
 * B. ****Step by step outline of how the lesson will be developed.**

1. Students have been studying //The Great Gatsby// and your teacher wants you to gather information on the time period in which //The Great Gatsby// is set in. 2. Can anyone tell me what time period the novel is set in? 3. Right, the novel is set in the 1920s, specifically the summer of 1922. 4. F. Scott Fitzgerald first published the novel in 1925. It was written right around the same time as it was set. 5. When a book is written in the same time period it is set, we call that ‘contemporary realistic fiction’. 6. You can often tell contemporary realistic fiction because of its use of colloquial language and the slang of the time period. 7. Often, the stories don’t have a happy fairy tale ending, which is the case in //The Great Gatsby.// There is closure, but not a ‘happily ever after’ ending. 8. Because //Gatsby// is contemporary realistic fiction, we can assume Fitzgerald based a lot of the novel on 1920s life and the things that were happening in that specific time period. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">9. To start off, let’s make a KWL chart and fill in what we already know about the 1920’s. What are some things you already know about the 1920s? This can be based on //The Great Gatsby// or any other outside knowledge you already have. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">10. Fill out the ‘What I Know’ part of the KWL chart. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">11. Ask students what they want to know about the 1920s and fill out the ‘What I Want to Know’ part of the KWL chart. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">12. Ask students, can anyone tell me what a primary source is? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">13. A primary source is a document that was “created at or near the time of the events studied, by a known person for a known purpose”. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">14. Ask students for examples of primary sources. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">15. Some examples are: newspapers, advertisements, photographs, maps, posters, movies, sound recordings, editorials, obituaries. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">16. Ask students, why are primary sources important? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">17. They are windows to the past. A chance to understand the world through the eyes of someone who actually lived it. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">18. Primary sources will help us put //The Great Gatsby// into historical context. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">19. We are going to use primary sources to fill out the last part of the KWL chart ‘What I Learned’. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">20. Introduce SIRS Decades 20th Century American Sources. It is a database that deals with primary sources. You must login with the school login before you can use it. All of the usernames and passwords are available on a sheet at the checkout desk. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">21. Show the SIRS Decades main search screen. You can search by keyword through the entire database, and you can also limit your search by decade and by primary source type. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">22. SIRS Decades is a fairly straight forward, basic database meant for high schoolers. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">23. Click on ‘1920s’ on the toolbar at the top of the site. Show students the introduction to the 1920s and the different categories they have. The paragraphs themselves aren’t primary sources, but after the paragraph there is a list of links to primary sources. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">24. I don’t want you to just use the links they’ve provided, but they are a good resource to get you used to looking at primary sources and thinking about key words you could use to search for different primary sources. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">25. Other resources you can use to search for primary sources are: the American Memory Project, from the Library of Congress and also the Historical Newspapers database, from ProQuest. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">26. Show students the American Memory Project and Historical Newspapers database. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">27. For at least two of the primary sources you look at, I would like you to fill out the ‘Written Document Analysis Sheet’ which was developed by the National Archives. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">28. Let’s fill out one together. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">29. Using the Historical Newspapers database, search ‘prohibition’ and search the New York Times between 6/1/1922 and 8/31/1922 because //The Great Gatsby// is set around New York in the summer of 1922. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">30. Click on the ‘Drink with a Shave Newest Wet Stunt’ article and use that as an example to fill out the Written Document Analysis Sheet, out loud, with students. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">31. Tell students that now that we have completed one analysis sheet, they should be able to complete their own as they look through the primary sources. Be sure to fill out the ‘What I Learned’ part of the KWL sheet as you go along as well.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">C. ****Student Work to Be Completed:** KWL Sheet, Written Document Analysis Sheet


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">D. ****Student Assessment by the Library Teacher:** Look over the analysis sheet, if completed correctly students should have demonstrated some mastery over primary sources.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">E. ****Home Activities:** None