Core Standards Addressed:
Reading Literature 2. Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text. [Today students will complete two preassessments -- a formal preassessment to be recorded on Mastery Connect, and an informal survey/quiz -- for how much they already understand about theme -- often a difficult concept for 7th graders. We will follow the development of themes in The Outsiders, and learn techniques for summarizing.]
Students will follow the development of themes in The Outsiders, collecting evidence for the themes.
Summary: One-third or less the length of the original, contains all major points of the
original, objective -- meaning it tells the story without adding your own commentary or interpretation.
Students will follow the development of themes in The Outsiders, collecting evidence for the themes.
Summary: One-third or less the length of the original, contains all major points of the
original, objective -- meaning it tells the story without adding your own commentary or interpretation.
Reading Literature 3. Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot). [The informal survey/quiz will also check for understanding of setting, characters, conflict.]
Reading Literature 6. Analyze how an author develops and contrasts the points of view of different characters or narrators in a text. [We will begin looking at how point of view makes a difference in how a story is told. For example, in both Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and in The Outsiders, characters we may usually think of as the "bad guys" become the protagonists.]
Reading Literature 7. Compare and contrast a written story, drama, or poem to its audio, filmed, staged, or multimedia version, analyzing the effects of techniques unique to each medium (e.g., lighting, sound, color, or camera focus and angles in a film). [The video clips we watch today will provide a base -- anchor texts -- for discussion of the differences between a video and a written text. I selected Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid because at the beginning of the novel The Outsiders, the main character has just watched a Paul Newman movie, and he apparently enjoys the tough guys that Newman played. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was actually made within a couple of years after Hinton wrote The Outsiders, but to me this is the best clip from a Newman movie to show the kids. It's exciting, it's in color, the protagonists are portrayed as likable outsiders, it can be used to illustrate several major elements of literature, and it provides examples of how the film-makers select camera angles and other aspects of film to convey their story. Students will be reading The Outsiders,and will will watch the movie, so they will be able to compare the two formats.
Reading Literature 10. 10. By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 6–8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
The Outsiders has a lexile score of 750. This is below the stretch band for our new core, but is still an effective tool to get kids into reading and talking about quality literature. Sometimes we choose an easier text so we can worry less about comprehension and focus more on teaching other concepts.
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| The Curtis Family --7 months or more before the story begins |
