The Outsiders and a little Russian Roulette
The last several months have been a whirl wind, to say the least, in my classroom! I can't believe it has taken me so long to get back to posting. Definitely expect to see a barrage of posts over the next week as I catch up on the really cool Smashbooks my kiddos completed for our
Outsiders unit as well as some great resources I've come across while on break.
Last quarter, we focused on character analysis which led into our unit on S.E. Hinton's,
The Outsiders. I absolutely love S.E. Hinton and the style in which she writes. She has a way of giving just enough detail without sending my kids into snoozeville while simultaneously capturing their attention and motivating them to actually read ahead.
The Outsiders is one novel that I never ever have to worry about my students getting bored with or forcing them to get their reading completed on time. While the novel is not necessarily lexiled for 8th grade, it really does give my students such an amazing opening to discuss some of the issues that are contained in the novel but also very much can still be seen today. Students were able to connect in ways I was blown away by including racial and religious profiling.
Throughout the unit, students created Smashbooks that incorporated themes in the novel, types and examples of conflict, important figurative language and imagery, memorable quotes, questions for author and characters, and character analysis. This was the first time using a Smashbook, but it was definitely a success. I'll definitely tweak it for next year, but it really helped my students stay organized and keep everything in one place. The idea for the Smashbook came from a great blog I follow called
Tales of Teaching in Heels. Her original post included the Smashbook with her Holocaust unit; however, it was totally transferable to my
Outsiders unit. See her
Teachers Pay Teachers Page for more details on the Smashbook. I was really attracted to the idea of how many standards could be addressed by using the Smashbook but in a much more meaningful way than just giving my kiddos handouts as we went through the unit. I also incorporated Evan Hunter's short story, "
The Last Spin" which my students absolutely ate up. With a focus on comparative texts, "The Last Spin" fits in perfectly with the themes in
The Outsiders. We read the story twice with different students taking on the personas of Danny and Tigo. They absolutely LOVE IT and fight over who is going to be each character. I chuckle to myself as some of my biggest non-readers chastise another student for not taking the reading seriously. THESE ARE THE TEACHING MOMENTS I LIVE FOR!
At the end of the unit, we watch the movie and usually do a short compare and contrast piece on the novel v. the movie. Since I had to dedicate more class time to the completion of the Smashbook, we didn't get to the comparative writing piece this time, however, I did have students compare and contrast characters in the novel v. the short story. Bottom line, they still loved the movie and have asked for it to be shown again, lol.
Smashbook Big Picture:
Students started with blank comp books. I had them glue, tape, or staple every two pages together, so that when they write in marker or decorated, the ink wouldn't bleed through.
This is what the inside cover and first page looked like. I provided each student with a calendar of all reading deadlines as well as copy of all CCGPS standards addressed and a table of contents.
Below is a copy of the standards that our Smashbook addressed with this unit.
Students completed chapter summaries and reading check questions for each chapter.
For the sake of time (I normally teach this unit during a different nine weeks without so many holidays breaking up the flow), students took notes on genre, historical background, and author information.
Below are some additional pages included.
Students read and analyzed Frost's poem, "Nothing Gold Can Stay,"
Students were required to describe certain characters by their physical description, personality traits, and social/environmental characteristics.
