Lesson 21: The Outsiders, Discussion, Part 1

Turn and Talk

Have students take out The Outsiders with their annotations.

• Lesson 20 Homework: Students were instructed to reflect on the Essential Question, “How do relationships and communities shape a person’s sense of belonging and identity? How would you respond to this question now after reading Chapters 1–6 of The Outsiders and reviewing other texts in this unit?” by writing initial thoughts in their Journal and reviewing their annotations.

Instruct students to turn and talk with a partner about the following questions to prepare them for today’s discussion.

Say these Directions: Discuss this question with your partner using textual evidence in your response:

• Ask: Which moments from The Outsiders or other texts you’ve reviewed in this unit best helped you understand how relationships and communities shape belonging?

  • The moment from The Outsiders when Ponyboy and Johnny cut their hair helped me understand how physical appearance can impact someone’s sense of belonging, even more than being physically separated from their community can impact them. Ponyboy feels that his hair is his identity “trademark” and that it provides a key connection to his community that he doesn’t want to lose. He thinks he needs to look a certain way to belong.

Transition into whole-class discussion by inviting students to share their responses with the group.

Connection to Today’s Learning

• Say: You may have noticed that there are different ways to answer this question since the text supports different interpretations. As you participate in an Academic Discussion today, you’ll discuss how the first half of The Outsiders develops themes of belonging. You’ll use your annotations to provide evidence that supports your opinions.

Conversational Norms

Say these Directions: Before we begin our academic discussion, we’re going to create the conversational norms we want to follow during group discussions. Let’s consider the responses to the following questions to create our norms.

Lead students in a co-review of the conversation norms they will be following during today’s group discussion. Write each chosen norm on the board for students to see during the discussion.

• Say: Our first norm should be about listening. What does strong listening look and sound like?

  • eyes on speaker, quiet body, taking notes, and waiting for a pause

• Say: Let’s put it in a clear norm: We listen without interrupting. That means taking turns, one voice at a time, and we wait until a speaker finishes before responding.

• Ask: Our second norm should be about using evidence. Remember that when you are discussing texts, you don’t just share opinions, you support them. What counts as evidence from The Outsiders?

  • a line of dialogue, a passage of narration, a word or phrase in a quote, a chapter number

• Say: Let’s write the norm: We ground our comments in textual evidence. When you speak, try to include a chapter number and describe the passage or excerpt so others can find it.

Display the words perspective, stereotype, and social identity. Review their definitions as a class.

• Say: In this unit, you've learned vocabulary related to belonging, community, and connection.

• Ask: Our third norm should be about word choice. How do the words perspective, stereotype, and social identity relate to belonging, community, and connection?

  • Your perspective affects how you view others and where you feel you belong; a stereotype can impact someone’s sense of belonging; the groups you belong to help form your social identity.

• Say: You’ve also practiced using verbs that signal you are connecting examples to the idea they support, such as shows, suggests, demonstrates, reveals, and implies.

• Ask: Besides shows, suggests, demonstrates, reveals, and implies, what other signal verbs could you use during an evidence-based discussion?

  • indicates, connects to, clarifies, explains, emphasizes

• Say: Let’s write the norm: We use relevant words to build and explain our ideas. Think of ways you can use vocabulary words and signal verbs in our discussion.

• Ask: Our final norm should be about how we respond. In a strong discussion, we respond to ideas, not to people. This means using both a respectful tone and respectful words. What are respectful ways to disagree or build on someone’s thinking?

  • “I agree because . . . ,” “I want to add . . . ,” “I see it differently because . . . ,” and “Can you clarify . . . ?”

• Say: Let’s write the norm: We respond to ideas rather than individuals. We don’t label someone’s comment as “wrong”; we explain our thinking and evidence.

Display the norms so they are visible during discussion. Invite students to ask any clarifying questions.

Connection to Today’s Learning

• Say: Our conversation norms will help us be respectful, stay on topic, build knowledge of how to use vocabulary, and learn from one another during the discussion.

Part A: Preparing for Discussion (SL.7.1.a-d, SL.7.6) (10 minutes)

Provide students with the Accountable Talk Sentence Stems and Reflect and Respond graphic organizers to help them formulate their thoughts during the discussion.

Invite students to add any additional talk stems/moves used during previous routines to the Accountable Talk Sentence Stems organizer.

Review: Reflect and Respond Dialogue Routine

Explain that students will be following a Reflect and Respond dialogue routine for their discussion.

Say these Directions: During our discussion today, we’re going to follow the Reflect and Respond Dialogue routine. This routine helps us build meaning together instead of just sharing separate opinions. Here’s what our group discussion will look like. You will work in groups of four, and each round will follow the same structure:

• I will ask and post the text-dependent question.

• You will get two to three minutes to reread, find evidence, and write down your ideas in response.

• One student begins as the presenter and shares their responses.

• Two students are responders, and each has one minute to speak and share their responses.

• The final student acts as synthesizer and has 30 seconds to synthesize the group’s thinking, naming one point of agreement or one point of tension between the responses

Say these Directions: To make sure everyone practices leadership, the first speaker and the final speaker will rotate each round. By the end, each person will have led once and ended once. Remember to follow the norms we established for this discussion.

• Say: Academic discussions sound different from casual conversations with friends. During today’s discussion, we will adapt our speech to a formal academic context by speaking in complete sentences, using evidence-based language, avoiding slang or vague filler words, and responding respectfully to classmates’ ideas.

Add this norm to the class discussion chart:

Use formal academic English appropriate for discussion.

Examples:

• “I would like to build on what ___ said.”

• “The text suggests ___ because ___.”

• “From Ponyboy’s perspective, ___.”

• “I interpret this differently because ___.”

Before students begin, work with them to set a goal for the discussion.

Say these Directions: Let’s set a group goal for what we want to accomplish today. Our goal is to use evidence from our annotations of The Outsiders to discuss how the book develops ideas about belonging and how it responds to the Essential Question.

• Record the goal on the board.

Say these Directions: Now, set an individual goal for your participation today. You can choose from these suggestions or think of your own.

• Say: Strong academic discussions require us to adjust our language for the task and audience.

Display

• Say: Notice how formal academic English uses precise vocabulary, complete sentences, and evidence-based reasoning.

• Display the suggested goals below. Instruct students to write down their goal.

  • I will use formal academic English and incorporate the vocabulary word(s) ___________ and _______.

  • I will respond to at least two classmates’ ideas.

  • I will use at least two evidence-based examples to answer questions.

  • I will use at least three signal words to share my ideas.

Modeling a Discussion Round

Choose three student volunteers to join you in modeling a discussion round. Post the example question on the board: How does Ponyboy’s character show what it means to belong? Give students in the model group two minutes to find textual evidence to support their responses before starting the model discussion. Ask other students to listen quietly and pay attention to the procedure.

• Say: As you listen, notice how speakers adapt their speech for an academic discussion by using complete sentences, precise vocabulary, respectful responses, and evidence from the text.

• Have Student 1 start as the presenter.

  • In Chapter 2, Ponyboy explains that members of the gang stick up for and defend other members, no matter what. This example demonstrates that to Ponyboy, belonging means protecting and standing by other people, even if you don’t agree with them all the time.

• Have Student 2 respond.

  • I agree, and I’d like to add that earlier in Chapter 1, Ponyboy describes how Soda sticks up for him when Darry criticizes him or when Steve wants to exclude him. The author repeats the phrase “kid brother” to show that, from Ponyboy’s perspective, being a “kid brother” makes him feel like he does not belong. He thinks that belonging means not being treated like a “kid.”

• Have Student 3 respond.

  • I see it differently because I think that being a “kid brother” is an important part of Ponyboy’s social identity. This role defines who he is in both the gang and his biological family. Ponyboy explains in Chapter 1 that the gang accepts him because he is Darry and Soda’s younger brother.

• Playing the role of the final speaker, model how to synthesize the group's thinking:

  • Say: Hearing your points helps me understand that the nature of a person’s relationship with others can affect what it means for them to “belong.” Because Ponyboy is younger than his brothers and other gang members, he feels his youth affects his role in the group. The examples also demonstrate that people can feel a sense of belonging even when they disagree with others in their group.

After modeling, check understanding by asking students to identify the steps of the routine, the role of signal verbs, and one piece of evidence they will use. This ensures readiness before the full group discussion.

Check for Understanding

Provide students with a confidence continuum (i.e., 1–5). As needed, model how to demonstrate a level of confidence using the continuum.

Part B: Reflect and Respond Dialogue (SL.7.1.a-d, RL.7.2) (20 minutes)

Prepare for the discussion by separating students into groups of four, as class size allows. With smaller classes, the entire class can form a discussion group.

Reflect and Respond Dialogue

Say these Directions: With your group, discuss your responses to the following questions.

• Ask: How do Chapters 1–6 develop the theme of belonging? What evidence from the text supports your response?

• Ask: How do Johnny’s and Dally’s characters show what it means to belong? How do their senses of belonging compare to Ponyboy’s? Use evidence from the text in your response.

• Ask: To what extent do you think Ponyboy, Johnny, Dally, and the other greasers choose to belong to a group? To what extent do you think these characters are forced by society to belong to a group? What evidence from the text supports your interpretation?

• Ask: How do relationships and communities shape a person’s sense of belonging and identity? Reference at least one chapter from The Outsiders. Optionally, you may also reference another text from this unit.

As needed, guide students to recall relevant informational texts from the unit (such as “What Is Social Identity?”) and their main ideas.

After discussion, debrief by asking groups to share one shared insight and one tension. Highlight strong uses of evidence, signal verbs, and respectful responses. Reinforce how discussion skills connect to analyzing text and understanding belonging.

Reflection

Transition students into partner reflection. Have students review their individual goals for the discussion. Prompt them to discuss what helped or hindered them in achieving these goals. Model reflective language for clarity, as needed.

Say these Directions: Think about the goal you set for yourself before the Academic Discussion. Did you meet this goal? If so, what helped you meet it? If not, what did you find challenging, and what do you think you could do differently next time? Discuss your answers with a partner.

• Optional Sentence Starter:

  • “My goal was to ____. I did/did not meet it because _______. Next time, I will try to ________.”

    • My goal was to use at least three quotes as evidence to support my ideas. I was only able to use two quotes because I spent a long time thinking about responses, and I ran out of time during the discussion. Next time, I can write my thoughts more quickly, or I can focus on the strength of my responses, not on the number of quotes.

Instruct students to write a response to the following prompt in their Journal:

• What do you think helps someone see from another person’s perspective?