(January 26, 2007) — All was quiet in Carol Pettegrew’s fifth period American Literature class Jan. 15 as everyone’s eyes and ears focused in on six students, clad uniformly in black and white, as they announced plans for a party. Inspired by the lavish parties thrown by the title character in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby , the mock-activity was introduced by Pettegrew as a creative approach towards connecting with the classic novel. Called the “Gatsby Finale,” the assignment was made up of two components: students had to plan a party as one of the characters from the story and make a magazine that might have come out during the 1920s. Although this is the first year Pettegrew has assigned this project, she is already seeing productive results. “I am blown away by the several different ideas they have come up with because they really show how well they have understood the time period and the book itself,” she said. The party planning aspect of the project included preparing invitations for the guests, a menu of the food to be served for that night, a list of planned activities, plans for entertainment, making a 3D visual map of the party and later presenting the party to the class. All these different components had to match up with the character each student was assigned, because the project involves character analysis and symbolism; their goal was to plan the party according to what their character would like. “Our group had to plan a party for Daisy, so we had planned a very elegant black and white birthday party to show off her wealth,” junior Lala Ebrahimi said. The magazine project required students to research different events of the 1920s and create articles about topics such as prohibition and women’s suffrage. Poems that reflected that time period also had to be written and placed at the end of the magazine. Even advertisements from the decade, which they were allowed to download, were required to be placed throughout the magazine. Each student in a group was responsible to write one article and one poem. In the end, each magazine had to have a cover, title page, table of contents, articles, advertisements, poems and pictures compiled into a 20-page minimum magazine. As opposed to the evaluating her student’s knowledge of the book via the typical in-class essay or multiple-choice test, Pettegrew decided to take a different approach to allow her students to apply their creativity to what they learned. “The idea is to experience it instead of just being tested on it,” she said.