Outsiders Close Reading Materials for 4 Chapters, S.E. Hinton The Outsiders CCSS

Help your students learn how to dig deep into analyzing text with these four close reading lessons to use with chapters 2, 4, 6, and 10 of S.E. Hinton’s novel, The Outsiders.

Each of the four lessons includes a student handout of a select bit of text with generous margins to allow for students to annotate the selection with their thoughts, ideas, and/or questions. After students are given 8-to-10 minutes to finish their annotations, pull the class back together to annotate a copy of the material together. I project a copy of the student handout onto the white board and write their observations on the board, adding any of my own at the end that they may have overlooked.

Early in our studies, I model this for my students, as I annotate a selection aloud so they can “hear” the internal monologue I have in my head when I’m working through a thick slice of text. By the end of the unit, students are pulling gems out of the text all on their own. This process leads to exciting class discussions and builds those important Common Core critical analysis skills in a natural, authentic way.

Each of these lessons will take between 30-35 minutes and includes a "key" of my annotations/thoughts, which you can project to share with students as a model or just use as your own lecturer prep, especially useful if you're new to teaching The Outsiders.

If you want more lesson materials to use with your study of The Outsiders, be sure to check out this introductory lecture slide deck and this package of chapter-by-chapter worksheets with depth-of-knowledge short answer questions.

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