Fitzgerald was interesting, now can you be?
Having discussed F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Winter Dreams,” I’d like you to respond to the story in your blogs in an interesting manner. Write at least 250 words. 
That’s not much of an explanation, I realize, but that aides my goal for this assignment. I want you to be able to discuss a book, story, or movie in a way that is interesting. I’m trying to teach you to be interesting people. How’s that for curriculum?
Part II of this assignment will be for you to get someone outside our class to read and comment on the article on your blog. It can be a parent or a friend, but the idea is to make your article so interesting that you will engage your readers and draw them into conversation.
How do you do that? I recommend respecting the Rising Levels of Reading that we discussed at the beginning of our unit. Your reader won’t have read the story, so you’ll need to describe it with the right amount of detail to give them a feel for it (not too much, that would bore them, but enough that they understand what you’re trying to say). Then, having described the basics of what goes on in the story, explain what you infer from the story - what you “read between the lines” of Fitzgerald’s text. Once you explain that, you’re ready to rise to the top and write comments that your readers will find particularly interesting: comments about life and your experiences of it.
In class, that top level is where I brought in my conversation about Richard Shindell’s song, “A Summer Wind, a Cotton Dress.”
You read the story, now say something interesting about it.
________________________________________________
Original image: ‘Let’s Golf!‘ by: Guiri R. Reyes
Filed under: Assignments, Quizzical Writers and
[...] reading Winter Dreams I learned that in order to understand things you sometimes have to read in between the lines. [...]
[...] for Flannery O’Connor’s “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” is the same as the one for Fitzgerald’s “Winter Dreams”: respond to the story in your blogs, and be [...]
[...] thought that it was Winter Dreams a pretty sad book. Dexter the main character was obsessed with this girl Judy Jones. She’s [...]