Fitzgerald’s novel about ‘careless people’ and avarice in the modern era is an established favourite for senior students. These pre-reading research tasks introduce students to the Roaring 20s, and can be given as homework or group work. The four task sheets cover Long Island life; Prohibition; Cars; and Americans in WWI. They involve a link to useful online reading and knowledge-building questions which engage students briefly before they go on to close textual study of the novel. Teachers can differentiate the tasks for students of varying ability.