Text Set: American Dream

Originally, I wanted to focus on the novel, The Great Gatsby, but I realized that it was too narrow a focus so I changed it to the American Dream. The students I had worked with when I had taught a part of this unit were having a difficult time with this text and didn't understand why they had to read all these books and novels about depressing situations. They didn't even realize that all of them had a common theme between them (Fahrenheit 451, Raisin in the Sun, and The Great Gatsby). I love these books and it was sad to see that they could look at these individually, see and critique what was occurring, but could not see the "purpose." I decided I wanted to see what I could do with it to make students make better connections with the text and themselves.

I thought it would be great if students could investigate into the different viewpoints people had of the American Dream. I found some great material. One I thought students would like is an article that John Smith wrote about New England after he had come to American to get people to go to America. I thought students would like to see the truth and lies told in it and see how it might have influenced what people thought about coming here to gain what they couldn't in Europe. I also thought about Norman Rockwell and his artwork. What did it say about what it was like to be in the United States?

After seeing such positive viewpoints, I wanted students to start seeing it from different cultural and gender viewpoints. The Circuit, The Kite Runner, A Northern Light, The Freedom Writers Diary, Esperanza Rising, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, JLA, and American Dream Marvel Comics are just a few of what I found. I thought by giving students a choice of reading material from this selection would help them find something they'll want to read and keep their interest. I also found some media resources. PBS has a documentary called Novel Reflections on the American Dream. I thought that some students would like to see what others thought about the same theme they were investigating.

The last book students would read would be The Great Gatsby. For this book, I found video biographies, comic strips (Calving & Hobbes) that applied to the book, a Wordle website, and even a graphic novel version of the book that focuses on the imagery. I think this material along with the different activities that we learned about in the class, students will understand more of what the American Dream is, both myth and reality, and enjoy investigating it more.