THE CHALLENGES

In our final stages of our The Great Gatsby unit, you are going to work through FOUR
unique challenges. These challenges will force you to think about the text and interact
with the text in a way you have not yet done in this class (or possibly any class for that
matter).

These challenges were inspired by something called Game Jams, where students are
challenged to create games in a short period of time based on a particular theme. Here
is Mathew Farber discussing how he uses game jams in the classroom.
http://educatorinnovator.org/webinars/game-design-across-the-curriculum-students-
as-designers-part-1/ (Show ten minutes from starting at 20 minutes into the video,
ending at 30 minutes into the video).

Our theme happens to be Fitzgeralds zeitgeist novel, The Great Gatsby. For the sake
of teamwork, I would like you to select three students to be your idea and
collaboration people. You will work together through each of the four stations.

THE STATIONS
Station One- Socratic Seminar becomes Fun-tastic Seminar. Keeping in mind the
expectations and goals of our Socratic Seminar (please refer to notes from September)
you are to create a your own unique game-like format to explore the text of The Great
Gatsby. You need to prepare 24 note cards with the following types of questions:

8 cards that allow for text to life connections

8 cards that allow for quote to theme analysis
8 cards that allow for a historical connection to the text

Materials Provided:
a large, empty workspace
6-8 hula-hoops
1 EXTRA LARGE Die
24 Note Cards
Access to your notes on the historical context of the novel
An egg timer (any time a student responds to a question. He/she is limited to two
minutes.)
A paper for you to write your game rules on. Make sure they are clear.
Station two- Roaring 20s Basketball
Using the following materials, create a game that will challenge students to work
together and/or against one another while getting practice with AP style multiple-choice
questions.

Make sure you create very specific rules for the game. Write them on the poster board.

Materials provided:
Four participants
A large, empty workspace
A toy basketball hoop
A small ball
Poster-board
markers
40 AP Literature Multiple Choice Questions created by Preswick House
A large bin of fake green and gold coins
A dictionary to have access to word that you may not know
Station three. Scratch Project- MEET the characters of THE GREAT GATSBY. Inspired
by Mrs. Strittmatters Meet My Daughters Scratch project seen here
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/86786599/. Your project is to use Scratch to present
the characters of our novel. I just worked with this program and will serve as your guide
as you begin your work.

Scratch has been called the programming language for everyone.

SCRATCH is a programming language that lets a person create interactive stories,

animations, games, music, and art. It emphasizes the creativity, mathematics, and
engineering of programming with simplifying some of the more tedious work.

Scratch was developed at MIT to help engage students in math and computational skills.
This Introduction to Scratch is designed for students in grades 3-College to learn the
technical procedures and the ethos of making, remixing, and sharing with Scratch
programming.

You will create your Gatsby character animation project following a tutorial.
1) Go to http://scratch.mit.edu and register a scratch account.
2) Go to Create at the top left of the screen, and go to the Web-based scratch
program.
3) Once you start the program, go to Tips, Getting Started, Step-by Step
Introduction.
4) Make something with the 10 steps.
5) Save it. Go to My Stuff and make it public.
6) Share the URL on my e-board.
 7) Constraints-
Modeling my meet my own adorable Meet my Daughters Scratch project (see
link above), you are going to select four characters from the Great Gatsby to
introduce to the class. You must be able to justify your decisions as to what your
characters look like, what environment you place your characters in and what
quote you choose to represent your character based on connections and details
of the text. This short reflection will be turned in once you have completed your
project.

Materials Provided:
Access to computers and the site Scratch.mit.edu.
Paper and pencil for reflection paper

Station 4 Twitter RACE Challenge

The game you are going to create is inspired by your generations obsession with Twitter!
1. Using paper plates, write each of the following events down on a paper plate two times. In other
words, you will make two plates for each event.
2. Using the plates, create two identical paths to reach the pot of gold on my desk.
3. Once the paths are ready your group is to split into two teams.
4. When I say go, you are to pick up each paper plate, read the event, and write an appropriate tweet
from the stated characters point of view. This tweet must be written neatly on the opposite side of the
plate and carried with you.
5. The tweet must be at least 50 characters and no more than the 140 character limit used by Twitter.
6. Your team must use at least five hash tags during the twitter journey. The first team to the pot of gold
will get a free homework pass to be used in May.
7. Before you begin, your group must work together to create rubric for me to use when I score each
tweet. The rubric must have a good, better, best rating. What criteria constitute a good tweet? How
many points should a good tweet get? What criteria constitute a better tweet? How many points
should it get? What criteria constitute a best tweet? How many points should it get?
8. Ready, set, go!

Materials Provided:
40 paper plates
scissors
pens
large bucket of gold and green coins
Glue

Two copies of EVENTS TO paste ON THE PAPER PLATES

The night Jay Gatz met Dan Cody (Dan Codys tweet)

Jays moments as a janitor at St. Olaf College (Jays tweet)

When Jay found out he would not get Codys inheritance (Jays Tweet)

When Jays Dad read the his schedule in the back of his book (Mr. Gatz Tweet)

Jay and Daisys first kiss (Jays Tweet)

When Jay was shipped off to WWI and said good-bye to Daisy (Daisys Tweet)

Dinner at the Buchanans House (Jordans tweet)

Lunch with Meyer Wolfshiem (Nicks tweet)

The party at the hotel in NYC (Myrtles tweet)

The day Daisy married Tom (Daisys tweet)

Daisy and Gatsby go over Nicks for tea (Nicks tweet)

Nick, Daisy, and Gatsby go over to Gatsbys house (Daisys tweet)

Tom and Daisy attend Gatsbys party (Toms tweet)

Gatsby, Nick, Jordan, Tom, and Daisy all go in to the city where Tom and Gatsby fight about who
Daisy loves (Jays Tweet)

On the way home Daisy is driving Gatsbys car and hits and kills Myrtle Wilson (Georges tweet)

On the way home Daisy is driving Gatsbys car and hits and kills Myrtle Wislon
(Gatsbys tweet)
George Wilson kills Gatsby and then himself in revenge for his wifes death (the servants tweet)

Gatsbys father arrives for his sons funeral (Mr. Gatzs tweet)

Gatsbys funeral (Nicks tweet)