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The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton Novel Guide • Teacher Edition • Grades 7 & 8 Published and Distributed by Amplify.

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The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

Novel Guide • Teacher Edition • Grades 7 & 8

Published and Distributed by Amplify.

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Copyright © 2019 by Amplify Education, Inc. 55 Washington Street., Suite 800, Brooklyn, NY 11201 www.amplify.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form, or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written consent of Amplify Education, Inc., except for reprinting and/or classroom uses in conjunction with current licenses for the corresponding Amplify products.

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Table of Contents

Teacher Edition

Welcome to Amplify ELA’s Novel Guides 1

Part 1: Introduction 2–3

Part 2: Text Excerpt and Close Reading Activities 4–5

Step 1: Close Reading Activity 6–7

Step 2: Connected Excerpts to Continue Close Reading 7

Step 3: Writing Prompt 7

Part 3: Additional Guiding Questions and Projects

Step 4: Guiding Questions to Read the Whole Book 8–9

Step 5: Extended Discussion Questions 9

Step 6: Writer’s Craft 10

Part 4: Summative Projects

Step 7: Writing Prompt 11

Step 8: Compare and Contrast 11–12

Step 9: Challenge 12–14

Step 10: Extra 15

Step 11: Extended Reading 15

Note: The student worksheets can be found on pages 17–30. Teachers can make copies of

these pages to distribute to students.

RL.7.6; RL.8.6

RL.7.6; RL.8.6

RL.7.6; RL.8.6

W.7.1.B; W.8.1.B

SL.7.1.A, SL.7.1.D, RL.7.1, RL.7.3, RL.7.4, RL.7.6; SL.8.1.A, SL.8.1.D, RL.8.1, RL.8.3, RL.8.4, RL.8.6

SL.7.1; SL.8.1

RL.7.4; W.8.4

W.7.1; W.8.1

RL.7.1, RL.7.4; RL.8.1, RL.8.4

RI.7.9; RI.8.9

SL.7.1.A; SL.8.1.A

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The Outsiders Novel Guide 1

The Outsiders • Teacher

Welcome to Amplify ELA’s Novel Guides

We created a series of Novel Guides to provide you with a flexible resource

for the books you most want to teach. Some of the titles are in the digital

library while others will need to be accessed through your school, public,

or classroom libraries. We selected one strong aspect of each novel and

are having students focus on this element as they explore and analyze a

key theme.

Rather than fully built-out lessons, these guides offer lean, targeted

instruction that follows Amplify ELA’s pedagogy as students explore great

literature. Each Novel Guide provides activities and questions with sample

answers for the Teacher Edition, including:

• A complete close reading session,

including the text excerpt

• Connected excerpts to extend

reading and skill practice

• Guiding questions and activities

to support reading the whole book

• An introduction to the book and

the author

• Activities that focus on a range

of literacy skills

• Project-based learning

• Discussion questions

• Writing Prompts

• Exploration of Writer’s Craft

• Role-playing opportunities

• Collaborative learning

• Social-emotional learning

discussion questions, Writing

Prompts, or activities

• Standards alignment

The diverse selection of books we chose comprises a range of genres

from mystery to non-fiction, and themes from social justice to identity

and courage. Students explore classics and contemporary award winners,

expand their literacy skills, and discover the rewards that come with close

reading compelling texts. The guides are designed to be used flexibly and

offer suggestions for implementation.

All the guides are housed in the Amplify Library as downloadable,

printable PDFs. They include student worksheets and instructions for the

teacher that will take students through a close reading of a passage all the

way to the end of the novel.

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2 The Outsiders Novel Guide

The Outsiders • Teacher

About the story

The Outsiders is wildly popular in middle school classrooms. And it’s easy to see why. Although the novel was written by S. E. Hinton more than 50 years ago, the themes and central focus remain relevant today. Students still relate to the idea of being an outsider, the appeal of finding common ground with others, and the complex question of conformity versus nonconformity.

The story revolves around 14-year-old Ponyboy and his two older brothers, Soda and Darry. After their parents die in a car crash, the brothers struggle to find their footing as a family and as part of society. They find a community by becoming part of a gang called the greasers.

Themes that align with this guide

This guide centers on the question of identity and the central character’s (Ponyboy) ambivalence about his identity as a “greaser.” He is both proud and ashamed of it, sometimes simultaneously. To non-greasers the term is an insult, but to the boys themselves, it is a badge of pride. Ponyboy does and does not fit in the category, and being inside and outside of it are essential to his character. A strong throughline in the novel is about the power of labels and names (“greaser,” “Soc,” “dropout,”

“hood,” “Ponyboy” “Sodapop”) to create tribes, define loyalties, and mark individual glory. Ponyboy has to decide if the benefits of his group identity, including a sense of family, are worth the price.

About the author

S. E. Hinton, an American writer born in 1948, wrote The Outsiders when she was in high school. The book has gone on to sell more than 14 million copies and continues to sell upwards of 500,000 every year. Hinton has published nine books, many of them award winners. She has won the ALA Best Book for Young Adults four times.

The Outsidersby S. E. Hinton

This guide was based on the Speak Platinum edition of The Outsiders, (2006).

Part 1 Introduction

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The Outsiders Novel Guide 3

The Outsiders • Teacher

When and how to use the Novel Guide

Amplify ELA’s Novel Guides can provide flexible teaching options. They can be used at any point in the year or paired with thematically related core units, before or after teaching the units. Or, if you would like to build out lessons, the guides can be used as the foundation for a more fully developed curriculum based on the titles.

The Outsiders Novel Guide aligns with the following core units:

7A: Red Scarf Girl & Narrative Sub-Unit 3, Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution Ji-li Jiang describes the intensely difficult questions around conformity and nonconformity.

8A: Perspectives & Narrative Sub-Unit 3, Lessons 5–11, Narrative Writing Amy Tan and Kaitlyn Greenidge write about the difficulties inherent in coming of age and belonging.

8C: Science & Science Fiction Sub-Unit 1, Gris Grimly’s Frankenstein Mary Shelley’s story explores identity and community and the idea of self.

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The Outsiders • Teacher

Excerpt: The Outsiders, pages 1–4

1 When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home. I was wishing I looked like Paul Newman — he looks tough and I don’t — but I guess my own looks aren’t so bad. I have light-brown, almost-red hair and greenish-gray eyes. I wish they were more gray, because I hate most guys that have green eyes, but I have to be content with what I have. My hair is longer than a lot of boys wear theirs, squared off in back and long at the front and sides, but I am a greaser and most of my neighborhood rarely bothers to get a haircut. Besides, I look better with long hair.

2 I had a long walk home and no company, but I usually lone it anyway, for no reason except that I like to watch movies undisturbed so I can get into them and live them with the actors. When I see a movie with someone it’s kind of uncomfortable, like having someone read your book over your shoulder. I’m different that way. I mean, my second-oldest brother, Soda, who is sixteen-going-on-seventeen, never cracks a book at all, and my oldest brother, Darrel, who we call Darry, works too long and hard to be interested in a story or drawing a picture, so I’m not like them. And nobody in our gang digs movies and books the way I do. For a while there, I thought I was the only person in the world that did. So I loned it.

3 Soda tries to understand, at least, which is more than Darry does. But then, Soda is different from anybody; he understands everything, almost. Like he’s never hollering at me all the time the way Darry is, or treating me as if I was six instead of fourteen. I love Soda more than I’ve ever loved anyone, even Mom and Dad. He’s always happy-go-lucky and grinning, while Darry’s hard and firm and rarely grins at all. But then, Darry’s gone through a lot in his twenty years, grown up too fast. Sodapop’ll never grow up at all. I don’t know which way’s the best. I’ll find out one of these days.

4 Anyway, I went on walking home, thinking about the movie, and then suddenly wishing I had some company. greasers can’t walk alone too

Part 2 Text Excerpt and Close Reading Activities

Focus standards for Part 2: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.6CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.6

Skill: Analyze how an author develops and contrasts the points of view of different characters or narrators in a text.

Ponyboy describes himself, introduces the term greaser, describes his brothers, and suggests he both is and is not like the rest of his gang.

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The Outsiders Novel Guide 5

The Outsiders • Teacher

much or they’ll get jumped, or someone will come by and scream “Greaser!” at them, which doesn’t make you feel too hot, if you know what I mean. We get jumped by the Socs. I’m not sure how you spell it, but it’s the abbreviation for the Socials, the jet set, the West-side rich kids. It’s like the term “greaser,” which is used to class all us boys on the East Side.

5 We’re poorer than the Socs and the middle class. I reckon we’re wilder too. Not like the Socs, who jump greasers and wreck houses and throw beer blasts for kicks, and get editorials in the paper for being a public disgrace one day and an asset to society the next. Greasers are almost like hoods; we steal things and drive old souped-up cars and hold up gas stations and have a gang fight once in a while. I don’t mean I do things like that. Darry would kill me if I got into trouble with the police. Since Mom and Dad were killed in an auto wreck, the three of us get to stay together only as long as we behave. So Soda and I stay out of trouble as much as we can, and we’re careful not to get caught when we can’t. I only mean that most greasers do things like that, just like we wear our hair long and dress in blue jeans and T-shirts, or leave our shirttails out and wear leather jackets and tennis shoes or boots. I’m not saying that either Socs or greasers are better; that’s just the way things are.

6 I could have waited to go to the movies until Darry or Sodapop got off work. They would have gone with me, or driven me there, or walked along, although Soda just can’t sit still long enough to enjoy a movie and they bore Darry to death. Darry thinks his life is enough without inspecting other people’s. Or I could have gotten one of the gang to come along, one of the four boys Darry and Soda and I have grown up with and consider family. We’re almost as close as brothers; when you grow up in a tight-knit neighborhood like ours you get to know each other real well. If I had thought about it, I could have called Darry and he would have come by on his way home and picked me up, or Two-Bit Mathews — one of our gang — would have come to get me in his car if I had asked him, but sometimes I just don’t use my head. It drives my brother Darry nuts when I do stuff like that, ’cause I’m supposed to be smart; I make good grades and have a high IQ and everything, but I don’t use my head. Besides, I like walking.

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6 The Outsiders Novel Guide

The Outsiders • Teacher

Step 1: Close Reading Activity (with sample answers)

1. Highlight words and phrases that Ponyboy uses to describe what it means to be a “greaser” (Where do they live? What do they look like? What do they do? Who are their friends and enemies?)

Sample answer: “My hair is longer than a lot of boys wear theirs, squared off in back and long at the front and sides, but I am a greaser and most of my neighborhood rarely bothers to get a haircut”; “Greasers can’t walk alone too much or they’ll get jumped...”; “We’re poorer than the Socs and the middle class. I reckon we’re wilder, too”; “Greasers are almost like hoods; we steal things and drive old souped-up cars and hold up gas stations and have a gang fight once in a while”; “We get jumped by the Socs. I’m not sure how you spell it, but it’s the abbreviation for the Socials, the jet set, the West-side rich kids”; “all us boys on the East Side”; “we wear our hair long and dress in blue jeans and T-shirts, or leave our shirttails out and wear leather jackets and tennis shoes or boots”; “We’re almost as close as brothers...”

2. Work with a partner and use your highlights to create a list of four key things Ponyboy says define a “greaser.”

Sample answer: Long hair; dress in blue jeans and T-shirts, leave our shirttails out, wear leather jackets and tennis shoes or boots; steal things, hold up gas stations, drive old souped-up cars, fight; wild, as close as brothers, poorer than the Socs.

3. With your partner, reread and circle words and phrases that Ponyboy uses to describe himself.

Sample answer: “my hair is longer than a lot of boys wear theirs”; “usually lone it”; “digs movies and books”; “stay out of trouble”; “good grades and have a high IQ and everything, but I don’t use my head.”

4. Looking back at your greaser list, name two things that define a “greaser” that also define Ponyboy.

Sample answer: They both have long hair, wear the same kind of clothes, and think of the gang as a kind of family.

5. Choose a sentence from the excerpt that you think describes what Ponyboy thinks is the best part of being a greaser. Choose one that represents the worst part.

Sample answer: Best: “I could have called Darry and he would have come by on his way home and picked me up, or Two-Bit Mathews — one of our gang — would have come to get me in his car if I had asked him...” Worst: “Greasers are almost like hoods; we steal things and drive old souped-up cars and hold up gas stations and have a gang fight once in a while.”

Possible answers are provided under each activity.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.6CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.6

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The Outsiders Novel Guide 7

The Outsiders • Teacher

6. Does Ponyboy’s writing make you think he is proud of being a greaser? What are one or two details you would point to in your answer?

Sample answer: Yes, he is proud of belonging to a group that looks out for one another, especially since his parents have died. No, he is too different from them, he is smart and likes books and movies, and they aren’t interested in either. They like to fight and steal.

Step 2: Connected Excerpts to Continue Close Reading

Continue your work with development of point of view.

Pages 26–31: Sodapop and Ponyboy first meet Cherry and Marcia.

Pages 34–36: Ponyboy and Cherry continue to interact.

Pages 70–72: Ponyboy gets his hair cut.

Pages 133–137: The greasers are on their way to fight.

Pages 178–180: Ponyboy reads the note from Johnny and decides to be a writer.

Step 3: Writing Prompt

Analytical:Ponyboy changes during the course of the novel. Does his point of view about being a greaser change? Use evidence from the text in your answer.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.1.BCCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.1.B

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.6CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.6

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The Outsiders • Teacher

Step 4: Guiding Questions to Read the Whole Book (with sample answers)

Use the discussion questions below to guide reading throughout the whole book. Students should come prepared to discuss their answers by referring to evidence from the text. Students should also be prepared to respond to comments made by classmates.

1. Chapters 1–2: What horrible event happened to Johnny and how did it change him?

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.6

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.6

Sample answer: He was brutally beaten by the Socs.

2. Chapters 3–4: After Ponyboy and Cherry talk, how does Ponyboy begin to see the Socs differently?

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.6

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.6

Sample answer: He begins to see that the two gangs are similar in some ways and different in others. They are different in how they show emotions: the Socs are too cool to have, or show, emotions, while the greasers “feel too violently.”

3. Chapters 5–6: Why does Johnny decide that he and Ponyboy should turn themselves in to the police?

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.1

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.1

Sample answer: After Cherry says she will testify for them, Johnny has hope that they will be okay.

4. Chapters 7–8: Ponyboy says “we could get along without anyone but Johnny.” What does he mean?

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.3

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.3

Sample answer: He has a connection with Johnny; they understand each other in a way that no one else does. They are outsiders both in their families

Part 3 Additional Guiding Questions and Projects

Possible answers are provided under each question.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.7.1.ACCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.7.1.DCCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.8.1.A CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.8.1.D

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The Outsiders Novel Guide 9

The Outsiders • Teacher

and in the gang.

5. Chapters 9–10: How does Ponyboy’s perception of Darry change and why?

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.6

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.6

Sample answer: Ponyboy used to think that Darry didn’t care for him, but now he sees that Darry loves him and would risk everything for him.

6. Chapters 11–12: What does Johnny mean when he tells Ponyboy to “stay gold”?

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.4

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.4

Sample answer: Johnny is referring to the poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay.” He is telling Ponyboy to look at the good, or innocence, in life.

Step 5: Extended Discussion Questions (with sample answers)

• Ponyboy and Johnny had difficult issues that were beyond their abilities to resolve. What were those problems?

Sample answer: Ponyboy lost his parents and his oldest brother Darry didn’t seem to understand him, so Ponyboy used the gang as a kind of family. But, he wasn’t really like them. They were “almost like hoods” and he was different, he was into books and movies—he was an outsider from his family and his gang. Johnny’s parents beat him or ignored him to the point where he avoided going home, he even slept outside sometimes. And, he was brutally beaten by the Socs. The gang was his chosen family, but they weren’t able to give him the kind of help he needed.

• Who could they have talked to about these issues?

Sample answer: Ponyboy and Johnny could have talked to their teachers or the school social worker.

• Who would you have talked to?

Sample answer: Friends, teacher, trusted family member, social worker

Questions for social and emotional learning

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.7.1 CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.8.1

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The Outsiders • Teacher

Step 6: Writer’s Craft (with sample answers)

Establishing voice

Hinton tells us who Ponyboy is by showing us the way he talks. She uses slang she knows we won’t know, and subtly helps us figure it out.

• Example 1: Page 1: Ponyboy says, “I usually lone it.” The sentences that follow show what he means: seeing movies solo, reading books, drawing. In essence, “going it alone.” The final sentence reinforces the meaning by repeating “So I loned it.”

• Example 2: Page 20: Ponyboy warns that “no one wants to be around when the fuzz shows up.” “Fuzz” refers to the police. This nickname refers to their military-style haircuts. The definition of fuzz is easy to understand in the context of the sentence but it also provides a way for Hinton to point to a boldness and a disrespect for police when she has Ponyboy use it. It shows an attitude that runs deep with greasers and gives the reader another clue to their identity.

Find three other ways in which Ponyboy or another character uses language in unique ways.

Sample answer: “Nice cut, too. Makes you look tough” (12); “...chains and heaters and pool sticks and rumbles” (29); “Remember how he was wisecrackin’ last night?” (74)

Write down three words or phrases that you and your friends use a lot that may be different from the way your parents or another group of kids speaks.

Sample answer: lit = amazing // hangry = hungry + angry // throw shade = to insult with words or an expression

Possible answers are provided under each activity.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.4CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.4

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The Outsiders Novel Guide 11

The Outsiders • Teacher

Summative Projects

Step 7: Writing Prompt

Violence, even murder, plays a central role in The Outsiders. Was Johnny wrong to have murdered Bob? If he had lived, should he have gone to prison? Use evidence from the text to support your answer.

Step 8: Compare and Contrast (with sample answers)

Compare Gwendolyn Brooks’s poem “We Real Cool” to The Outsiders.

Gwendolyn Brooks was born in 1917. She wrote more than twenty books of poetry and was the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in poetry, among many other prestigious awards.

Pair Gwendolyn Brooks’s poem “We Real Cool” with a discussion of gang-member representation as it relates to The Outsiders. This poem is famous for its musicality, often called jazz in a poem.

Discussion questions or Writing Prompts:

1. Who is the “we” in the poem? How would you describe them?CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.4

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.4

Sample answer: The “we” in the poem refers to the boys playing pool at the Golden Shovel. They are cool, skipping school, and are outsiders. They may be part of a gang like the greasers. “We” also implies a group, like the greasers.

2. Are the characters in the poem similar to or different from the characters in The Outsiders? Explain.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.1

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.1

Sample answer: The greasers and the characters in the poem are similar—they are all outsiders. They are both groups of kids who “left school” and break the rules. In both the poem and the book, the characters are part of a group,

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.1CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.1

Possible answers are provided under each question.

You can use this link to find the poem and to play the audio of Brooks reading her poem as students silently read along: www.poets.org/poem/we-real-cool

Part 4

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12 The Outsiders Novel Guide

The Outsiders • Teacher

banded together. And in both cases, the characters drink alcohol. The Socs are described as always drinking and the greasers as getting drunk at parties.

3. The poem ends with “We / Die soon.” Would this ending makesense for The Outsiders? Explain.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.4

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.4

Sample answer: Yes, death is a part of both the poem and the book. In The Outsiders, Johnny dies young as a result of an incident caused by gang violence. If Johnny hadn’t killed Bob to save Ponyboy, he wouldn’t have died from injuries after running into the burning church. The characters in the poem and the book risk dying young because of their actions as gang members.

4. Compare reading the poem silently and listening to Gwendolyn Brooksread the poem. How are they different? How are they similar?

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.7

CCSS.ELA.LITERACY.RL.8.7

Sample answer: When I read the poem silently, I only understood part of it. I saw that the characters were probably gang members and outsiders. But, I didn’t understand the jazz or musical part of “We Real Cool” until I listened to the poet read the poem. Brooks brought a personality to the poem. I felt like I was at the scene and cool for just being there.

Step 9: Challenge

The Outsiders + Street Roots News

The Outsiders was based on S. E. Hinton’s high school experience in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the 1960s. The news article you are about to read is focused on gang members in Portland, Oregon, and was written in 2016. After reading the article, write about what has changed and what has stayed the same since S. E. Hinton wrote The Outsiders. Explain using evidence from the text.

As you read the article, underline phrases or sentences that are similar to The Outsiders, and circle phrases that are different.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.7.9 CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.9

Source for article: news.streetroots.org/2016/05/05/youths-and-gang-life-their-stories-their-words 1

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Street Roots News

Youths and the gang life: Their stories, in their wordsYoung adults doing time for gang violence talk about their paths and what might prevent other kids from following in their footsteps

by Emily Green | 5 May 2016

Portland is about to enter a second consecutive summer filled with what’s predicted to be a record-breaking level of gang shootings, homicides and violence.

The gunmen are getting younger and younger, and the violence increasingly senseless, according to those who work with current and formerly incarcerated gang members in the Portland-metro area....

...The perspective of those who pull the trigger is seldom explored.

Who are they? What happened to them before they found themselves with a weapon in hand, not caring about the consequences of taking another human being’s life?

Street Roots sat down with young adults serving lengthy sentences in Oregon Youth Authority correctional facilities, for crimes ranging from armed robbery to murder, and asked them these questions. All the youths are either gang members or deeply gang-involved....

Gang member interview:

Josefina, 20

Josefina is serving her sentence at Oak Creek Youth Correctional Facility in Albany, an all-girls facility. She joined a gang shortly before her arrest and had been gang-involved for some time leading up to it.

“I was born and raised in Northeast Portland. My family — we’re kind of tight, but we weren’t really close. It was the struggles we went through growing up — we came together.

“We’d be homeless for a couple weeks at a time. We usually got kicked out because my brother would throw parties at the house or terrorize the neighbors. We’d live in our van or live with friends, but it wasn’t for that long, but long enough to know how it feels to be homeless. Or my mom wouldn’t have enough money for the bills and our water would get shut off — or our electricity. Stuff like that, and living in Northeast Portland growing up, there was a lot of gang violence, especially in the area we lived in...

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14 The Outsiders Novel Guide

The Outsiders • Teacher

“I have three sisters and three brothers. One of them was adopted; she was my friend, and my mom took her in. The oldest two had a rare bone disease and needed special medical care, so my mom had to give them to this family that specialized in medical stuff.

“I didn’t have a dad. I’m the baby of the family, but I was the only one who had a different dad.

“My oldest brother that lived with us, he’s like really crazy, and he was getting into trouble.

“My brother being involved in gangs kind of made me be involved. But the stuff I went through with my brothers when I was little, I didn’t really look up to them.

“I didn’t really look up to anybody, because I didn’t have any strong figures in my family. I didn’t even look up to my mom; she was my hero, but I didn’t look up to her.

“My fourth-grade teacher; something about me, she wanted to help me, I got involved in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program, and she was like my mentor-type person. Ever since fourth grade, she was my big sister. Me and her still maintain contact.”

“I started getting into trouble around fifth grade. I started having troubles in school. Up until sixth grade I got A’s and B’s.

“Maybe the fact that I didn’t have a father figure, my dad died before I was born, and my brothers, they were the only male figures that were there, and having them abuse me, physically, mentally, emotionally, like I think that was my biggest thing when I was younger.

“When I was 12, my cousin — she was the leader of this gang — and I hung out with them, but I wasn’t really in one. But a couple months before I got locked up, I actually got jumped into my cousin’s rival gang, which was kind of like a dis on her because I didn’t really like her...”

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The Outsiders Novel Guide 15

The Outsiders • Teacher

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.7.1.ACCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.8.1.A

Arrange students in pairs.

Step 10: Extra

Interview a character

Today, you will role-play either a newspaper reporter or a character from The Outsiders.

Decide with your partner who will be the interviewer and who will role-play either Ponyboy, Sodapop, or Cherry. Work together to come up with a list of five or more questions that will reveal factual information about the character gathered from the text, in addition to imaginative answers that will provide an idea of what happened to the character after the book ended.

When creating the list of questions, remember to ask...

• open-ended questions that can’t be answered with a simple “yes” or “no.”

• follow-up questions to get your interviewee to provide details.

Record or take notes during your interview and work together to write a newpaper article based on the interview.

When writing the newspaper article, remember to include...

• a lead sentence that grabs the reader.

• an introduction that tells the reader where and when the story happened.

• a main paragraph that is the heart of the story.

• a conclusion that sums up the story.

Step 11: Extended Reading

• That Was Then, This Is Now by S. E. Hinton

• Lord of the Flies by William Golding

• The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

• The Stars Beneath Our Feet by David Barclay Moore

• Miracle’s Boys by Jacqueline Woodson

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