Will Bangs



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Will Bangs

Teaching English

The Outsiders Unit Plan

Enduring understanding: How does one manipulate the elements of fiction to create meaning in a story?

Assessments: Class participation 25%, completion of homework 25%, “soundtrack project” 10%, writing assignment 15%, final test 25%

Framework Standards:

Standard 12: Fiction (runs throughout unit plan)

Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the structure and elements of fiction and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.

o Analyze the connections among setting, characterization, conflict, plot, and/or theme.

o Analyze characters’ personality traits, motivations, and interactions with others and give supporting evidence from their words, actions, or thoughts.

o Analyze the ways characters change or interact with others over time and give supporting evidence from the text.

Standard 26: Media Analysis (special attention with “soundtrack project” and watching The Outsiders movie).

o Analyze the effect on the reader’s or viewer’s emotions of text and image in print journalism, and images, sound, and text in electronic journalism, distinguishing techniques used in each to achieve these effects.

Re-enforcement of 8th grade skills

o Reading strategies: annotation

o Close Reading: determining author’s purpose, determining main idea, paraphrase, summary

o Literary elements:

• Character ( antagonist/protagonist, motivation, imagery, mood

• Plot ( conflict, flashback, foreshadowing, suspense

Lesson #1

➢ Agenda, attendance, book talk – 10 minutes

o Outline unit plan

➢ Mini-lesson – 10 minutes

o Mortimer Adler’s “How to Read a Book” (see appendix) ( read aloud highlighted sections as a class

o Model annotation for the students ( read first few pages of book together…show my own annotations (see appendix) to model good reading habits.

➢ Silent sustained reading – 10 minutes

o Students must actively take notes!

➢ Sharing – 10 minutes

o Have whole class come together and create a list of the most interesting things they found in their reading. What did they underline? Why? Open discussion about what they found. Teacher may have to lead this and model instruction.

➢ Quick writes – 10 minutes

o Initial impression. Have students write down their initial impression to the book. What questions do they have? Are there any words they didn’t understand? Come together and share after about 5 minutes of writing.

➢ Homework – 5 minutes

o Read chapter 2

o Extra credit: Read S.E. Hinton’s “Oklahoma” from State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America. 50 Writers on 50 States

Lesson #2

➢ Agenda, attendance, book talk – 5 minutes

o Address any questions students may have

➢ Silent sustained reading – 20 minutes

➢ Mini-lesson – 15 minutes

o Address vocabulary: Chapters 1-2 (content, rarely, asset, slouched, quivering, complicated, sarcasm, incredulous, nonchalantly)

o Understanding the plot

• Identify Darry, Soda and Ponyboy. How are they related, what gang do they belong to, and what do we know about them? How are Greasers different from Socs? Who were other members of Pony's gang? What happened to Pony on his way home from the movies? Who did Dally, Johnny and Ponyboy meet at the Nightly Double? Contrast Dally's approach to Cherry and Marcia with Pony's, and contrast Cherry's response to Dally with her response to Pony. Why were Cherry and Marcia alone at the drive-in?

Homework: Finish chapters 3 and 4.

Lesson #3

➢ Agenda, attendance, book talk – 5 minutes

o Address any questions students may have

➢ Addressing plot/class discussion – 15 minutes

o Chapters 3 & 4 – This will be a fluid class discussion. Start off by asking students to summarize the chapters. Use these guiding questions below.

• After talking with Cherry, what reason does Pony finally give for the separation between Greasers and Socs? Who were Cherry and Marcia's boyfriends? What do we know about them, what gang do they belong to, what do they wear that distinguishes them? Why didn't the Socs and Greasers fight during their first encounter after the movie? Why was Pony late coming home from the Nightly Double? What caused Pony to "run away?” What happened to Johnny and Ponyboy at the park? To whom do Johnny and Pony turn for help after Johnny killed Bob? Why? Why did Johnny and Pony go to Jay's Mountain?

➢ Quick writes – 10 minutes

o A Person in Time[1]: Remember a person from your childhood that mattered to you and list what you remember about them. Go for the finest details of that person – sensory details – and see what surfaces. Students can sketch the person to begin since the details often emerge as students sketch.

➢ Writing/reading workshop – 15 minutes

o Understanding the gallery of characters. Small group work: Each group is assigned a character that is introduced in the first chapter. 1. Each student will fill out character chart (see appendix). 2. Jigsaw (one student from each group goes to another group to teach what they’ve discovered about their characters).

➢ Homework: Read chapter 5 and 6

Lesson #4

➢ Attendance, book talk – 5 minutes

➢ Mini-lesson – 20 minutes

o Understanding the plot

▪ Ask students to paraphrase what happened in the chapter

▪ Why was Pony upset about getting a haircut? What was Johnny's favorite part of Gone With the Wind? Of whom did it remind him? When Dally finally arrives at the church, what news does he bring? What did Johnny announce after his fifth barbecue sandwich? Describe Johnny's relationship with his parents. What happened when Johnny, Pony and Dally returned to the church?

o Understanding vocabulary ( sophisticated, elite, apprehensive, bewildering, premonition, groggy, sullenly, eluded, gorged, conviction, inhalation – ask students if they can put the definition in their own words.

➢ Quick write – 10 minutes

o A place in Time[2]: Remember a place from your childhood that mattered to you and list what you remember about it. Go for the finest details of that person – sensory details – and see what surfaces. Students can sketch the person to begin since the details often emerge as students sketch.

o Connect to the importance of place and setting in the book. Emphasize the church v. the city and what that means to the characters.

➢ Sharing – 10 minutes

o Write my own entry

o Ask students to share ( but use my own writing if no one volunteers

➢ Silent sustained reading – 10 minutes:

o Writing advice from S.E. Hinton (see appendix)

➢ Homework:

o Read finish reading Hinton’s article

Lesson #5

➢ Attendance, book talk – 5 minutes

➢ Silent sustained reading – 20 minutes

➢ Quick write – 10 minutes

o The music in your heart. Brainstorm the ways music and memories dance together. Draw a large heart on a page in your notebook and fill it with song that live in your heart. We put the most important songs at the center of the heart – the songs that we’ll never forget. And put the ones you’d rather forget on the edges…After we’ve listed and laughed, choose one song and write your memory of that song…

➢ Mini-lesson – 10 minutes

o Getting the outsiders through music lesson plan from Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. (see appendix)

o Discuss role of music in the novel. Connect the different artists/bands and how they represented the character of the different groups ( The Beatles (Soc’s), Hank Williams (Tim Shepard’s gang), Elvis (Greasers).

➢ Introduce/model “soundtrack project” - 10 minutes

o Students select songs to accompany key scenes in the book, then write a short rationale for each song they've chosen. There is a huge amount of flexibility with a project like this, and this can promote higher-level thinking and synthesis without students feeling over-burdened with the workload.

o Here is a sample "entry": After Johnny dies and Ponyboy has to be hospitalized; the end of chapter 9-chapter 10; “Everybody Hurts” by R.E.M. Ponyboy keeps thinking about what Johnny told him to “stay gold,” and he is really sad and upset because Johnny died. He is also upset about everything that has been happening and it’s like he’s feeling it for the first time. I chose this song because it begins with exactly how Ponyboy is feeling and what he needs to hear: “When the day is long and the night, the night is yours alone/When you're sure you've had enough of this life, well hang on/Don't let yourself go, 'cause everybody cries and everybody hurts sometimes.” It also says “Take comfort in your friends…Don't throw your hand/If you feel like you're alone, no, no, no, you are not alone.” These are the words that Ponyboy needs to hear, but also the song is slow and has a very sad tone, which mirrors how Ponyboy is feeling.

➢ Homework

o Do “soundtrack project”

Lesson #6

➢ Share “soundtrack project” 20 minutes

➢ Quick write – 15 minutes

o Poetry – First ask students when Ponyboy recites this poem to Johnny. Establish the context but don’t’ impose a particular reading of the poem. I read “Nothing Gold Can Stay” aloud to the class and/or play excerpt from the movie - ( each student has a printed copy of the poem in front of them. Instruct students to take one line and write down what thoughts are sparked from that line. It could be memories, ideas, imaginations…really anything that comes to mind. The point is to engage students in the poem by asking them to reflect on what ideas it sparks in them and to use the poem as a springboard for writing.

➢ Mini-lesson – 20 minutes

o Ponyboy first alludes to a work of literature in Chapter 1, when he compares himself to Pip from Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations. Ponyboy identifies with Pip because he, like Pip, is orphaned, impoverished, and struggling to make sense of the world. Additionally Ponyboy and Johnny put special emphasis on Robert Frost’s poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” which helps them understand that growing up and facing reality is a necessary part of life. Finally, Johnny likens Dally to a Southern gentleman in Gone with the Wind. Having this idealized vision of Dally makes Johnny able to understand him. Literature not only creates a bond between Ponyboy and the other characters, as when he discusses books with Cherry and reads to Johnny, but it also creates a cyclic premise for the narrative itself. We find out at the novel’s end that the narrative of The Outsiders is in fact an autobiographical work that Ponyboy is writing in order to pass his English class. This revelation confirms the importance of literature in the story as a means of connecting with others[3].

➢ Homework: read chapters 7-9

Lesson 7

➢ Understanding plot – 15 minutes

o What additional problem did the three brothers face after Pony's return? Why did Randy want to talk to Pony? When Johnny's mother came to visit him at the hospital, what was Johnny's reaction? What does this tell us about Johnny? Why wouldn't Cherry go visit Johnny? Compare and contrast the boys' reasons for fighting. (Darry, Steve, Soda and Two-Bit) What did Pony say was the difference between Tim's gang and his? How do we know Dally felt at least partially responsible for Johnny's fate? What advice did Dally give to Pony on the way to the hospital after the rumble? What were Johnny's last words to Ponyboy and what did he mean?

➢ Understanding vocabulary – 10 minutes

o Mimicking, recurring, aghast, exploits, abruptly, resemblance, debating, aimlessly, ruefully, leery.

➢ Silent sustained reading – 30 minutes

➢ Homework: Finish reading book

Lesson #8

➢ Understanding plot/class discussion – 20 minutes

o Chapter Ten 
( How does Pony's dreaming, or lying to himself, finally work in this chapter? Why was johnny's dying so difficult for Dally to handle? 
Why do you think Dally would have wanted to die? 
TOP

o Chapter Eleven 
( Explain why pony might rather anyone's hate than their pity (p.162)? 
What do you think is going on with Ponyboy when he says, "Johnny didn't have anyhing to do with Bob's getting killed" (p.166)

o Chapter Twelve ( 
 What circumstances does Ponyboy think his teacher is referring to? 
Why doesn't Ponyboy feel scared when the socs approach him and he threatens them with a broken bottle (p.170-171)? How is this a dramatic change from the ponyboy we have seen up until this point? 
What does Darry mean when he says, "you don't just stop living because you lose someone" (p.173)? Explain how Darry and Ponyboy play tug of war with Soda. What do we learn was so special about Johnny (p.178)? 
What does Ponyboy end up doing for his English assignment?

o Understanding vocabulary – 3 minutes

▪ indignantly p.159, acquitted p.168

➢ Quick write – 10 minutes

o One moment from elementary school. Consider a moment in elementary school when you learned a valuable lesson. Describe that moment and write with all the details you can remember: first person, past tense.

▪ Emphasize parallel with Ponyboy’s assignment from his English teacher.

➢ Share – 10 minutes

➢ Silent sustained reading – 10 minutes

o Interview with Hinton on her writing process (see appendix)

➢ Homework: pick your favorite free write, and continue to expand on topic. To be handed in tomorrow as a draft.

Lesson #9

➢ Watch movie

o Homework: Work on writing as per teacher comments. To be shared in small groups with peers.

Lesson #10

➢ Group work – 20 minutes

o In small groups, students read their writing aloud to one another. Classmates respond by asking thoughtful, respectful questions, suggest areas for further elaboration, etc.

➢ Finish movie

Lesson #11

➢ Prepare for test. Go over format of the test. Outline main themes, characters, vocabulary, etc.

Lesson #12

➢ Test

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[1] Adapted from Penny Kittle’s book, Write Beside Them: Risk, Voice and Clarity in High School Writing

[2] Adapted from Penny Kittle’s book, Write Beside Them: Risk, Voice and Clarity in High School Writing

[3] Spark Notes on The Outsiders

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