Edison teacher provides immersive learning

MILAN TWP. — An Edison High School teacher took an innovative approach to teaching literature this spring. Sarah Roan created a unique unit plan for juniors reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel, "The Great Gatsby." The nearly century-old book tells the tale of a young World War I veteran who is enamored with his enigmatic millionaire neighbor, Jay Gatsby. Generally, when novels are assigned in English classes, the unit plan boils down to reading a few chapters and then having a test on that section. Then there is a final test when the book is completed. Roan, however, far exceeded that mandate. She created several facets for the lesson plan to immerse her students into the Roaring 20s. "The activities I used required (students) to use their background knowledge along with new material to make connections and truly engage with the text," Roan said. Gatsby 'Game of Life' One aspect of the unit plan was the creation of a game students played in class. The Gatsby Game of Life had numerous facets such as a mock stock market. Students could buy and sell stocks, which had fluctuating prices. Students earned a salary from a job they were assigned. Jobs included: teacher, railroad worker, nurse and writer. At the beginning of each class, students drew a "life event" card from a deck. Each card had either a positive or negative impact. An example of a life event card reads, "You helped fix the 1919 World Series and won a big bet. Collect $5,000." In addition to stocks, students could buy houses, vehicles and luxury items. Murder most foul Note: Skip to the "Postscript" subhead of this story to avoid "The Great Gatsby" spoilers. Another segment of Roan's unit plan involved learning about crime scene investigations. This allowed students to utilize information from the text to make inferences and predictions. Students learned about crime scene processing techniques from Erie County sheriff's Deputy Brian Kingsborough. That knowledge was applied to help students solve Jay Gatsby's murder. Roan created the crime scene: the area around Gatsby's pool, including a silhouette representing Gatsby's body floating in the pool. The students, working in pairs, searched for clues such as shoe prints, a photograph and a book of matches that were planted around the scene. Students were given logs so they could keep track of what the clue was, where it was located and attach any fingerprints they might find. The clues were designed to lead the students to the conclusion that Gatsby was murdered; that the murder weapon was a gun and that George B. Wilson was the gunman. In Fitzgerald's novel, Wilson wrongly believes that Gatsby was driving the car that struck and killed his wife, Myrtle. Postscript When students experience strong emotions, like having fun, while learning they are able to retain information better. That was the conclusion of education theorists Heidi Dulay and Marina Burt in their June 1972 paper, "You Can't Learn Without Goofing: An Analysis of Children's Second Language 'Errors.'" Roan believes that creating immersive experiences that are fun can cement in students' minds what they learn. "All of my students were engaged throughout the text because of a 'novel' approach to interacting with the text," Roan said. "They were able to take ownership in their learning, and the return on their investment was incredible to see." In a modern education world that seems fixated on standardized test scores, it is refreshing to know that some teachers are still thinking outside the box and creating new methods of teaching.