New
New
Year 11
AQA

'The Great Gatsby': analysing a writer's craft

I can annotate a text and explain how the writer crafts a response from a reader.

New
New
Year 11
AQA

'The Great Gatsby': analysing a writer's craft

I can annotate a text and explain how the writer crafts a response from a reader.

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Writers will make deliberate choices in their writing to achieve specific effects - this is known as writer's craft.
  2. Writers will employ different word choices and language devices to create engaging characters and settings.
  3. Personal responses to texts will take into account the writer's craft.

Common misconception

All opinions in response to written texts are equal.

The best personal responses to texts will evaluate the writer's craft in eliciting that opinion.

Keywords

  • Opulence - extreme wealth and luxuriousness, often associated with lavish displays of extravagance

  • Writer's craft - the techniques and tools a writer uses to create and develop their writing

  • Supercilious - behaving or looking as though one thinks they are superior to others

  • Elicit - to call forth or draw out

This lesson focuses on the wealth and extravagance that elites had during the 1920s in the USA. You may want to bring this to life further with resources (videos/pictures) that give students a clearer contextual understanding of this era.
Teacher tip

Equipment

Pupils will need to access the extract from 'The Great Gatsby' which can be found in the additional materials.

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

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6 Questions

Q1.
'The Great Gatsby' was set in the ...
Correct answer: 1920s.
1930s.
1940s.
1950s.
Q2.
Who wrote 'The Great Gatsby'?
Correct answer: F. Scott Fitzgerald
T. S. Eliot
E. M. Forster
J. R. R. Tolkien
Q3.
The novel 'The Great Gatsby' explores the key theme of the 'American ...
Correct answer: Dream'.
Promise'.
Contract'.
Identity'.
Q4.
In 'The Great Gatsby', Nick Carraway is the novel's ...
Correct answer: narrator.
protagonist.
antagonist.
writer.
Q5.
The novel 'The Great Gatsby' is set in a fictionalised part of ...
London.
Correct answer: New York.
Chicago.
Los Angeles.
Q6.
Fitzgerald describes 'West Egg' as that 'riotous island' in 'The Great Gatsby'. What device is he using here?
Correct answer: personification
a simile
a metaphor
alliteration

6 Questions

Q1.
Which of the below are reasonable synonyms for the word 'supercilious'?
Correct answer: arrogant
Correct answer: haughty
powerful
extravagant
Q2.
In 'The Great Gatsby', which character rents a modest house in West Egg?
Tom Buchanan
Daisy Buchanan
Correct answer: Nick Carraway
Jay Gatsby
Q3.
In 'The Great Gatsby', Fitzgerald describes the water separating the two islands as a "great wet barnyard". What language device has he used here?
Correct Answer: metaphor, a metaphor
Q4.
What is the effect of describing East Egg as "glittered along the water" in 'The Great Gatsby'?
indicates poverty
suggests hidden danger
Correct answer: implies superficial glamour
shows environmental pollution
Q5.
What effect does the use of dynamic verbs like "ran", "jumping", and "drifting" create in 'The Great Gatsby'?
stillness
wealth and class
superiority
Correct answer: movement and activity
Q6.
In 'The Great Gatsby', how does Fitzgerald contrast West Egg and East Egg?
by describing them both as equally opulent
Correct answer: by depicting West Egg as less prestigious than East Egg
by showing both as poor neighbourhoods
by describing West Egg as more fashionable than East Egg

Additional material

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