One of my favorite units to teach from the 11th grade English curriculum at my school is the American Dream. My school’s textbook is full of waxing poeticism on the roots of the dream and only brief allusions to its complications such as placing Langston Hughes’ “I Too” next to Walt Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing,” and then having students compare the pieces. However, I like to toss the textbook out the window. My students instead explore the unit through two guiding questions: What is the American Dream? and For whom is the dream available? 

As part of our journey to answering this question, my students and I read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I enjoy teaching this book for the glitz and glamor of the 1920s and also its deep flaws that allow students to dig into literary and historical analysis. We spend weeks learning about the culture of the United States in the 1920s, tracking character development – or lack thereof – digging into symbolism, and analyzing the story. 

When I design units, I always use backward design (Wiggins and McTighe, 1998) and Universal Design for Learning (CAST, 2024) to inform my choices. For The Great Gatsby, I emphasize student choice and voice, as well as ensure they have a strong knowledge base to draw from when they go to complete my summative assessment for the unit. Therefore, students encounter assignments informed by behaviorist theory (Watson, 1905) – can they recall information from a specific chapter to answer questions? – and social constructivist theory (e.g, Vygotsky, 1979) – can they work with others to analyze how Gatsby feels about Daisy? I vary assignments to work with the diverse ways my students learn and help guide them towards the learning objectives: the analysis I want them to be able to complete at the end of the unit. 

By the time we get to the end of the book, students are well aware the American Dream will never be – and could never have been – within Gatsby’s grasp, nor was it available to anyone else in the book, even the vapid Tom and Daisy. Throughout the book, students have responded to these ideas in writing and speech, so for their final assessment, I give students autonomy in the way they demonstrate their knowledge.

I therefore follow the RAFT strategy (Santa et al., 2004). RAFT is an acronym for Role, Audience, Format, and Topic. As shown in the following table, students pick a role, assume that writer’s voice, and then construct a piece of writing based on the corresponding information. 

Though initially unsure, with guidance through conferencing with me as their instructor and reviewing with peers, many students come to enjoy this assignment. It does not feel as much like an assessment as the ones they are used to, but critically, as Shephard (2000) suggested, it allows me to see if they truly understand the concepts from the book and are able to apply this knowledge in context. 

By assuming a writer’s identity, be it Daisy writing to Gatsby to explain why she can not run away with him, or a newspaper reporter trying to get the inside scoop on the lavish West Egg parties, students are working on critical skills of the English Language Arts discipline: author’s purpose, authorial voice, diction, syntax, and the writing process. In so, my “classroom routines and corresponding assessments” should reflect the goals of developing students within disciplines (Shepard, 2000, p. 8). 

While some students roll their eyes, and try to complete the assessment for the best grade with the least amount of effort (Schneider and Hutt, 2013), many of them enjoy the activity and end up creating some truly fantastic pieces. For example, this student assumed the role of a psychologist interviewing Nick Carraway after the events of the book – likely informed by the Baz Luhrman framing of the story – and typed session notes. 

Another student created a playlist for the characters, supporting her choices through specific references to the text. Notice how the student uses her unique voice to comment on how she feels about the characters and their journeys.

Yet another student wrote poems loosely from the characters’ points of view. The student clearly works with the symbolism of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg’s eyes without explicitly having to name the symbol.

I grade based on a rubric, which we go over together before students begin their final project. I also show examples so students can get an idea of what this assessment could look like as they enter the brainstorming stage.

This assessment is my favorite because of the creativity and connections to the material students make without even realizing their depth of knowledge on the subject.

References 

Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST). (n.d.). UDL guidelines. CAST. https://udlguidelines.cast.org

Fitzgerald, F.S. (1925). The great gatsby. Union Square & Company. 

Santa, C., Havens, L., & Valdes, B. (2004). Project CRISS: Creating independence through student-owned strategies. Kendall Hunt.

Schneider, J. and Hutt, E. (2013). Making the grade: a history of the A–F marking scheme. Journal of Curriculum Studies. DOI 10.1080/00220272.2013.790480

Shepard, L. A. (2000). The role of assessment in a learning culture. Educational Researcher, 29(7), 4-14.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1979). Consciousness as a problem in the psychology of behavior. Russian Social Science Review, 20(4), 47–79.

Watson, J. B. (1905). Contributions to the study of the behavior of lower organisms. Psychological Bulletin, 2(4), 144-145.

Wiggins, G. P., & McTighe, J. (1998). Understanding by design. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.