American+Dream+Unit+Rationale


 * Jamie Nemec **
 * 10th Grade English **
 * Unit: The American Dream **

It is important for students to understand the history of America, and literature is a prominent source to get the job done. A significant aspect of American history is the idea of the American Dream. People thought of America as the homeland of dreams coming true, however it was not always the picturesque chase that people dreamed of. By teaching the American Dream to students, I plan on helping the students feel the hope and admiration that Americans once felt. I also plan on exposing them to the corruption that sulked amongst the dreamers during the early 20th century. With this knowledge, students will then be able to incorporate new knowledge and experiences and form their own idea of a modern American Dream.

To help direct my unit I plan on focusing on the Big Question of “//How has the American Dream changed from the early 20th century to modern society?//” To branch off from this overall unit question, I will first have students explore the 20th century version of the American dream through literature. As a class, we will focus on work ethic, gender role, and each time period’s moral code depicted by the authors. As the unit progresses, our focus will shift to a more modern adaption of the “American Dream” created by the class. By comparing authors of both time periods, students will discover how literature is strongly associated with social beliefs of its time. By the end of the unit, students will be able to bridge their knowledge of the American Dream to their beliefs and experiences to come up with their own personal rendition. Throughout this unit, students will work individually, in groups, and as an entire class to understand the connection between literature devices and historical concepts and how they relate to their own lives.

Our unit will revolve mostly around the text __The Great Gatsby__. The students will be required to read for homework, while class time will be revolved around analyzing and deep understanding. Throughout this unit, I will be helping my students discover elements of writing that help make up the story, rather than just focusing on the plot. We will discuss the importance of imagery, such as the use of color, in the text to help support our subtopics of work ethic, gender roles, and moral code. By the end of the unit, students will understand how each literary device is an indication to the overall theme of the novel. In addition to The Great Gatsby, we will also do a couple in class readings of short stories that also relate to our lessons of the time period and the American Dream. A relative short story would be “Editha” by Howells. The story displays a tension between idealism and realism that would help promote gender roles and moral code of the time period. It also teaches students about consequences of one’s actions. Our unit will also cover a few poems that correlate with the American Dream in order to create diversity in the type of material we are looking out.

This unit will be relative to my students because of the life lessons it will be focusing on. We will compare and contrast the moral code between the time periods so that students are able to incorporate how the American Dream is relevant to their own lives. Students will have countless opportunities to bring their life experiences to the classroom, which will also help the students relate to one another. One specific project students will complete are “Personal Tabs.” Throughout the study of __The Great Gatsby__, students will place at least 10 post it notes in the novel where there is either relevance to their own lives or to another piece of material we studied in the unit. Students will write on the post it how the scene is relevant and we will have periodic class discussions for the students to compare and relate to one another. There will be projects I believe 10th grade is an appropriate age for students to begin using literature to form their own ideas and opinions on such prevalent topics.