Lesson 32: The Outsiders, Narrative Writing, Part 6

Think-Pair-Share

Have students take out their copies of The Outsiders with their annotations.

• Say these directions: Yesterday, you planned a rewritten scene from Chapter 9 using the PLACE strategy. Today, you will use that plan to begin drafting your narrative. Use evidence from The Outsiders in your response to the Think-Pair-Share question.

Ask students to consider their response independently and then share and refine it with a partner before whole-class discussion.

• Ask: How will your character’s dialogue and actions reveal their identity in your scene?

  • My character is Dally, and his dialogue and actions will show that he is tough but also cares deeply about Johnny. In the scene, Dally speaks in short, direct sentences, which shows he does not like to express his emotions openly. However, his actions—like driving fast to the hospital and ignoring the police—show that he is desperate and afraid of losing Johnny. This contrast between what he says and what he does reveals that he is loyal and protective, even if he tries to hide it.

Connection to Today’s Learning

• Say: Think about how you used PLACE—aim, challenges, and effects—to understand your character. Writers use these details to show who a character is and what matters to them. Today, you’ll use dialogue and voice to bring that character to life as you draft your scene.

Language Study: Sentence Combining

Briefly review the different kinds of sentences students learned about in Lesson 31—simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex. Remind students that these sentence types all show connections between ideas.

Say these directions: As you practice combining sentences to form different sentence types, you are also combining ideas. When authors combine ideas, they make writing more precise, more accurate, and easier to understand.

Display Example Sentences: Present the following sentences and read them aloud:

• I asked my friends what their reasons were for fighting. All my friends gave different reasons when I asked them.

Model Combining Sentences: Review that the relationship between the ideas in the sentences affects how you will combine them.

• Ask: How are the ideas in the first and second sentence related?

  • The second sentence explains what happened as a result of the first sentence.

Add When to the beginning of the first sentence. Point out that the first sentence is now a dependent clause.

• Say: The word when helps me combine these two sentences to show their relationship.

Display the new combined sentence:

When I asked my friends what their reasons were for fighting, all my friends gave different reasons.

• Ask: Which phrase did I edit out of the second sentence?

  • when I asked them

• Why do you think I took out this phrase?

  • It is repeated at the beginning of the first sentence.

• Ask: Does the new sentence repeat any words or phrases?

  • my friends, reasons

• Say: Let’s see how we can make this sentence less wordy while expressing the same ideas.

Underline the phrase what their reasons were for fighting.

• Ask: How can you rewrite this phrase to be shorter while expressing the same meaning?

  • Ex. why they wanted to fight, why they fought

Underline the phrase “all my friends”.

• Say: We already know the speaker is describing their friends. How can we rewrite this phrase?

  • they, they all

Display the revised sentence. (Ex. When I asked my friends why they fought, they all gave different reasons.)

Practice Combining Sentences: Present the following sentences and read them aloud:

Some of my friends fought because everyone else did the same thing, and they wanted to fit in. Others fought because, when they competed with others, they enjoyed themselves.

• Ask: How are the ideas in the first and second sentence related?

  • The first sentence and the second sentence show two examples of the same idea.

• Say these directions: Work with a partner to find one way to combine these sentences and make them more precise. First, choose a transition word you can add that shows their relationship. Then make the sentence less wordy by rewriting words and phrases to be shorter and taking out words and phrases that repeat ideas.

  • While some of my friends fought because everyone else did, others fought because they enjoyed competing.

• Ask: What makes the revised sentence easier to read and understand?

  • Because the revised sentence is less wordy, readers can understand its ideas more quickly.

• Ask: Explain to a partner how combining and editing sentences helped you to understand how to make your writing more precise.

Connection to Today’s Learning

• Say: Think about how editing made the ideas in the sentences clearer. As you draft and revise today, consider how your sentences can express ideas with clarity and precision.

Part A: Learn About Dialogue and Voice: The Outsiders, Chapter 9 (W.7.3.b, W.7.3.d, W.7.4, RL.7.3, RL.7.6) (10 minutes)

Briefly review that when students rewrite their Chapter 9 scenes, many of them will include dialogue and they will all convey a character’s voice or personality.

Think-Pair-Share

Have students reread the Chapter 9 passages beginning when Darry says “I don’t know if you ought to be …” and ending when Ponyboy says “I’ll get hold of a little one, okay?” and annotate in response to these questions. Ask students to annotate key lines that reveal character identity or voice.

Say these Directions: As you analyze the dialogue, focus on what it reveals about character identity, relationships, and tension.

Have student pairs respond to some or all of these questions as time allows.

• Ask: Think about what is happening in the plot. How does this dialogue build tension?

  • The dialogue builds tension because Ponyboy wants to fight, but Darry is worried about him getting hurt. This conflict makes the reader feel anxious about what will happen in the rumble.

• Ask: What does Darry’s dialogue reveal about his identity?

  • Darry’s dialogue shows that he is protective and responsible, especially toward Ponyboy. He acts like a parent figure who cares about Ponyboy’s safety.

• If time, ask: How does the dialogue help readers learn more about Soda’s relationship with his brothers?

  • Soda’s dialogue shows that he understands both Darry and Ponyboy. He acts as a peacemaker who tries to keep them from arguing.

Repeat the routine by having students reread the Chapter 9 paragraphs beginning “Soda and Steve and I …” and ending “… a headache.”

Have student pairs respond to these questions.

• Ask: What line shows Ponyboy’s voice most clearly? What does it reveal?

  • Ponyboy’s voice is clear when he talks about wanting to fight because it shows he wants to prove himself. It reveals that he cares about his identity and place in the group.

• Ask: Now think about your own scene, think about the last three steps in the PLACE strategy: aim, challenge, and effects. How do you think you can use dialogue or voice to show a character’s aim, the challenges they face, and the effects on the character?

  • I can use a character’s unique voice to describe how they feel about the challenges they face and to help the reader understand how the character is feeling.

Say these directions: With your partner, write down one tip you want to remember that will help you write strong dialogue and another tip that will help you write a strong character voice.

• Optional Sentence Starters: “To write strong dialogue, I will …” “To write a strong character voice, I will …”

  • To write strong dialogue, I will show what is important to the characters through what they say. To write a strong character voice, I will share what the character wonders about or is conflicted about.

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: Write and Revise (W.7.3.a, W.7.3.b, W.7.3.c, W.7.3.d, W.7.3.e, W.7.4) (20 minutes)

Have students review the outlines they wrote in Lesson 31 and their copies of The Outsiders. Remind them that in this lesson, they will use these outlines to rewrite a Chapter 9 scene. Give students time to reread the scene they plan to rewrite. They will use what they noticed about dialogue and voice to write their own scene. As you draft, use transition words such as then, suddenly, and a moment later to clearly show how events unfold and shift over time.

Clarify that students are writing for a reader who has already read up to Chapter 9—in other words, students do not need to introduce the characters or the setting as brand new. Instead, they should focus on describing their character’s aim, challenge, and emotional response in the scene rather than reintroducing the setting or characters. Make sure your scene stays true to what you know about the character from the text, even as you create original dialogue and narration.

Write a Narrative Scene from a Character’s Perspective

• Say: Yesterday, you created an outline using the PLACE strategy. Today, you will turn that plan into a narrative scene from your character’s perspective. Let’s look at how an outline becomes a paragraph.

Model: Outline → Draft

Display Sample Outline (from Lesson 31):

P (People): Dally and Ponyboy

L (Location): Driving to the hospital after the rumble

A (Aim): Dally wants to see Johnny before he dies

C (Challenge): Time is running out; police are nearby

E (Effect): Dally feels desperate and guilty

• Say: Watch how I turn this outline into a narrative from Dally’s point of view.

Model Draft

I slammed my foot on the gas, not caring how fast the car went. Johnny didn’t have much time left, and I had to get to him before it was too late. A police siren wailed behind us, but I didn’t slow down—I couldn’t. “Hold on,” I muttered, gripping the wheel, trying not to think about what would happen if I didn’t make it in time.

Explicit Think-Aloud

Say:

Notice how I used the outline to guide my writing:

• I showed Dally’s aim by focusing on getting to Johnny.

• I included the challenge with the police and time running out.

• I revealed his feelings through his actions and inner thoughts.

• I used first-person voice to show his perspective.

• Say: I also used dialogue and inner thoughts to show character voice—just like we analyzed earlier. Now use your own outline to begin drafting your scene. Focus on showing your character’s thoughts, actions, and dialogue to reveal who they are.

Provide students with the following checklist to help them focus on goals as they write:

• Did I show the character’s aim or goal in the scene?

• Did I show the challenges or problems the character faces, as well as what they do in response?

• Did I show the effect on the character?

• Did I pace the narrative slowly in moments I want to focus on, such as by using narration or inner thoughts?

• Did I pace the narrative quickly in moments that may not be as important, such as by using clear and precise sentences?

• If I include dialogue, is the dialogue original? Does it help readers understand more about the plot, characters, and/or themes?

• Did I capture the character’s unique voice—the way they speak and think compared to other characters?

• Did I use the character’s narration, dialogue, and actions to develop a theme, such as by showing what is important to the character?

• Does my writing repeat words, phrases, or ideas unnecessarily? If so, what can I delete or reword?

• Do my sentences combine connected ideas where necessary? If not, how can I combine sentences to show relationships between ideas?

Additionally, have students consider and respond to this prompt:

• Explain three things I like about my writing or think I did well.

Circulate as students write, providing feedback and encouraging positive self-talk. Encourage students to submit a complete draft.

As time allows, have students participate in teacher feedback/conferences to revise their writing or peer feedback/conferences using the Praise/Question/Polish method:

• Praise: What do you like about this scene? What works, and what does the writer do well? Point to evidence from the scene.

• Question: What is one question you have about the ideas or events in the scene? What is unclear? Use evidence from the scene in your response.

• Polish: What is one detail you think the writer can add or delete? Why? Identify a specific detail, such as a word, phrase, sentence, or idea.

Have students revise based on feedback as time allows.

I never thought the fuzz would help me out, but I followed that cop car to the hospital because I had to see Johnny. It was my fault he lay there. He did whatever I said. I’m basically his big brother. Like an idiot, I didn’t tell him to put himself first; no, I told him to keep out of trouble. Seems like trouble found him anyway. All those people he saved in the church, everyone who called him a hero—where were they now? They were letting him die. It was too late to protect Johnny. Maybe the kid brother beside me still had a chance. He had a soft, bleeding heart, just like Johnny, and it wouldn’t do him any good.

“Ponyboy,” I said. “Listen to me. Stay tough, stay hard. Forget everybody else. They’re all just looking out for themselves.”

“You don’t mean that,” Ponyboy said. Gosh, but he looked sick.

“I swear I do.” I pictured Johnny like me, hard and mean, and I felt worse because I liked him the way he was, nice and thoughtful. Look where that got him. I needed to tell Johnny we won the rumble. I had to let him know some good came out of this mess. I owed that to my brother.

Preview Performance Task

Have students take out their homework notes.

• Lesson 31 Homework: Brainstorm two to three ideas for the narrative you will write during the Showcase. Consider moments where you may have felt like an outsider or connected to someone else across a divide (differences in group, background, beliefs, etc.). What is a story you think is important for you to tell?

Explain that later in the unit, students will use their knowledge of narrative writing to write a reflective narrative based on their own experience. Their narrative will focus on either a moment when they felt like an outsider or a moment when empathy helped them connect across a divide.

Say these Directions: Review the ideas you brainstormed. Write a sentence that explains how today’s writing practice will help you write your own story.

• Writing about characters’ feelings and emotions helped me learn how to write about my own feelings in a way that interests a reader.

Allow students to share their thoughts with a partner.

Lesson 32 Writing Rubric: Narrative Paragraph — Across Perspectives 2

Writing prompt: Continue the perspective-shift narrative, writing a second paragraph that develops the key moment from the new character's point of view. Show what this character thinks, feels, and does at the climax of the scene.

Turn and Talk

Have students discuss their response to these questions with a partner before whole-class discussion.

• Ask: What do you think makes a story worth telling? How did writing part of a character’s perspective help you understand why people tell stories about belonging, conflict, or connection? How did using dialogue, voice, or perspective help you tell a meaningful story?

  • Optional Sentence Starter:

    • “A story is worth telling if ____. Writing from _____’s perspective helped me understand that _________ about people or their experiences.”

    • A story is worth telling if it helps others understand people’s experiences. Writing from Dally’s perspective helped me understand that people tell stories to express emotions and show what matters to them.

Instruct students to read Chapter 10 of The Outsiders. As they read, have them annotate and take notes in their Journal on the following prompt:

• Identify one moment in the chapter that creates a strong emotional response for the reader. Then explain how the author creates that emotional effect using narrative techniques such as dialogue, pacing, description, or a character’s inner thoughts.