Title
Skill
EBA Activity
Claims and/or
Warrants
The Great Gatsby and the American Dream
Making a Basic Argument
Claim-Warrant Game
You may use the following claims:
 The novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald criticizes the ideal of “the
American Dream” as being based on the past and not on current reality.
 The novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald criticizes the ideal of “the
American Dream,” showing that pursuing the dream ends in death.
Procedure
Standard Claim-Warrant Game
Timing/Pacing 1. This activity comes near the beginning of the unit. Students have already
completed reading The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, including the
following homework: guided questions for each chapter, finding one
significant quote per chapter and analyzing why it is significant, and some end
of the book questions. Students take quizzes after each 2 or 3 chapters, and
The American Dream is discussed in relation to the novel, along with other
discussion topics. Students also do a “word-splash” about The American
Dream and read and discuss various poems that relate to the American Dream.
Students explore in writing what the American Dream means to them
personally and discuss as a class. After this lesson, students will write an
interpretive essay on Gatsby and the American Dream.
2. This activity is approximately 20-35 minutes.
3. This activity comes after the Do Now (5-7 min) and a short class share out and
discussion about the Do Now (about 15 minutes) I like to use calling sticks or
randomly call on a few students to share, and then let other students who really
want to share out share as well. In the Do Now, students are asked to respond
to the following in their notebooks:
 Vocabulary to Know: meretricious-- Apparently attractive but
having in reality no value or integrity: "meretricious souvenirs for
the tourist trade". (Dictionary.com)
o What does this quotation mean to you? Write at least 3-5
sentences. “The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg,
Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of
himself. He was a son of God—a phrase which, if it means
anything, means just that—and he must be about His
Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and
meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay
Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to
invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end.” –
The Great Gatsby Chapter 6

Notes

How is the above quotation( and the novel The Great Gatsby in
general) a criticism of the ideal of the American Dream? (2-3
sentences)
The rationale for this activity is to help students collaboratively build claims and
warrants that may later become thesis statements for an interpretive essay they
Boston Debate League © 2012

Follow-Up
Activities
Text
write.
Additionally, students may pass the slips of paper up to 3 times to build 3
warrants that support the original claim.
To include a written activity, follow up with a mini paragraph writing activity that
will lead to students writing an interpretive essay on The Great Gatsby and the
American Dream, analyzing and evaluating how the novel criticizes or supports this
ideal.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Boston Debate League © 2012
Name:_____________________________________ Class:___________________ Date:______________
Claim –Warrant Game
1. Background Information:
2. Please sit in a circle. Write down a claim in the left-hand column and then pass this sheet to your
left, where the person next to you will supply a warrant explaining why that claim might be true.
Topic for claims:
The novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald ________________________ the ideal of “the
American Dream”
Claim
Warrant
Boston Debate League © 2012