Veteran high school English teacher David Dowling demonstrates how teachers can help students connect The Great Gatsby to the value systems of the twenty-first century, offering active reading and thinking strategies designed to enhance higher-level thinking and personal responses to fiction.

He outlines specific teaching strategies for each chapter of Gatsby, as well as a variety of pre- and postreading projects and writing assignments. His multimodal approach to teaching effective reading strategies includes oral, written, drawing, and dramatic activities to better engage students in thematic and affective elements of the novel.