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eWorkshops Adolescent Literature Content Literacy


Making Adolescent Literature Matter eWorkshop:
The Outsiders

This lesson plan was adapted by Michelle Burns of Framingham, MA for the Literacy Matters' Adolescent Literature Professional Development eWorkshop.


Section 1: Select a Lesson to Adapt

Title: The Outsiders

Author: S.E. Hinton

Name and URL: "Dear Character" Pen Pal Activity

Goals: The goal of this activity will be to help students gain a better understanding of a character from the book and how that character feels about life. The anticipated outcome of this lesson will be for students to have gained a better understanding of a specific character's personality and character traits in general.

Reason for choosing this lesson: The Outsiders is a book that I read every year with my seventh graders. The teenage characters in the story face realistic problems. My experiences with this book have shown me that middle and high school students can identify with these characters because many of those same problems face today's teenagers as well.

Section 2: Plan Adaptation of Lesson

Materials: Copies of The Outsiders, scheduled computer lab time, an outline for "How to write a friendly letter," a graphic organizer that students can use to list their character's personality traits, a closet shoe organizer (one that hangs on the back of a door).

Management: For this lesson I would do a combination of whole class and individual activities. The whole class activity would involve discussing the expectations of the lesson, discussing the teen problems faced in The Outsiders and how those problems are different or similar today, a discussion and demonstration on how to write a friendly letter, a discussion on "What are character traits?", and a brainstorming activity where we would list the personality traits of a character common to the group (perhaps a character from a book read earlier in the year. The individual activity would involve students writing their pen pal letters to a character from The Outsiders.

Strategies: Some of the instructional strategies I would add to this lesson would be to provide an outline for "How to write a friendly letter," demonstrating how to write a friendly letter, providing a graphic organizer where students can make a list of their character's personality traits, using a character common to the group and listing that character's personality traits, and discussing the issues faced in The Outsiders and how they differ from or reflect the issues faced by teens today.

Assessment: I would choose to use a performance assessment rubric to evaluate my students' letters. The rubric would need to evaluate whether a student followed the format of a friendly letter, and whether they included in their letter the information that was required (i.e., whether they included a discussion of their character's personality traits). I would also include a self-assessment form so tht students would have the opportunity to evaluate themselves and what they thought of the activity.

Section 3: Implement the Lesson

After reading The Outsiders, students would participate in a pen pal activity called "Dear Character." The goal of the lesson is for students to have a better understanding of a specific character from the book, as well as character traits in general. Each student would be assigned a character that they would portray and a character who they would be writing to. Before getting into the letter-writing activity, we would discuss the teen issues facing the characters and whether those issues are still relevant today. In addition, a demonstration would be given on how to write a friendly letter.

Students would be given an outline to refer to as they work on their own letters. We would also discuss and brainstorm a list of personality traits of a character common to the group. Students would be given a graphic organizer to be used to list their character's personality traits. The list can be referred to as they write their letters. Students would be given time to work on their letters in the computer lab. The activity would be worked on over a two-week period of time. Students would be assigned a character to portray and to write to.

Example: Student #1 will portray the character "Pony". He or she will be writing to the character "Dallas." Student #1 (Pony) will write a letter to "Dallas" describing himself or herself, personality traits, likes, dislikes, problems, hopes, dreams, etc. Students #1 can then expect to get a response letter from the person who is portraying the character "Dallas."

After students finish writing their letters, they will place them in the shoe organizer. Each slot will be labeled with a different character's name. Each student can expect to receive at least two letters. The letters can be shared in a final group discussion about character traits. The letters can them become part of a theme bulletin board having to do with The Outsiders.

Section 4: Reflect on Results

I want to note that I am not currently working in the classroom and did not have the opportunity to actually experiment with this lesson. Based on my past experience with this book, the book activities I used, and the make-up of my class, I could anticipate the following:

List three ways you found the lesson to be successful.

    1. Students were engaged in the activity and enjoyed the role play.
    2. The majority of students were able to demonstrate a strong understanding of character traits in their letters.
    3. Students wrote thoughtful letters that reflected their character's personality effectively.

List three things that need improvement.

    1. Students might require more time in the computer lab to complete their letters.
    2. Students had difficulty getting started despite having visual aides (i.e., model of a friendly letter, character traits graphic organizer).
    3. Students may not have a clear understanding as to how to incorporate their character's personality traits into their letters.

What would you do differently next time?

    1. Allot more time to complete the activity.
    2. Provide further instruction on character traits.
    3. Perhaps have students write their letters to a character from a book read previously in the year.

 



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