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 Time1: 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
1

Ask students to paraphrase what happened in the chapter

Why was Pony upset about getting a haircut? What was Johnny's
Adapted from Penny Kittle’s book, Write Beside Them: Risk, Voice and Clarity in High School Writing
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 Time2: 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:
2
Adapted from Penny Kittle’s book, Write Beside Them: Risk, Voice and Clarity in High School Writing
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 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_d8FKgrZ1E  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
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 others3.
 Homework: read chapters 7-9
o
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
3
Spark Notes on The Outsiders
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