The Outsiders – Teaching The Outsiders (and more)

Me, Seventh Grade Behavior, stories, The Outsiders

OMG! Haircut!

mrC

I’m going to dispense with the “oh noes, vacation is over, and I didn’t do anything except sleep in, install a toilet, and play Wii” in one sentence and be done with it. There. Also, before I get back to 120 Seconds tomorrow, I have another first to share. (That’s another beautiful thing about this […]

Euphemisms, Follow up, Seventh Grade Behavior, The Outsiders

Oh, of course!

mrC

As we have seen, the seventh grade mind works in mysterious ways. Last week left us pondering seventh grade translations for the euphemism, “vertically challenged.” In addition to the correct response, short, and many silly ones (retarded? stupid?), we also received three sincere, mystery responses: hard, clumsy, and gay. Here are the kids’ explanations: Hard […]

Presenting the Book, Seventh Grade Behavior, The Outsiders

“Who is this Jhonny?”

mrC

Most of them have gotten past chapter 10, and the answers to my question, “Why is Dally’s death somehow sadder than Johnny’s?” are starting to trickle in. I’ll share some of those soon, when we talk about chapter 12, but I want to talk about this guy Jhonny. (me, reading the first responses to the […]

Presenting the Book, Seventh Grade Behavior, The Outsiders

I hate “make-up” work requests. Also, silence.

mrC

I was going to talk about the absolute silence that reigned when I turned them loose to read silently today. OK I will anyway, then I’ll rant about make-up work requests. I told them today I was going to read aloud up to the bottom of page 146, and then they were going to read […]

Presenting the Book, Seventh Grade Behavior, Stories of Seventh Grade, The Outsiders

Chapter Nine – Part I (Also, sarcastic comedy.)

mrC

Admittedly, chapter 9 has some filler. I still don’t get Pony’s little poll about why each of them fights. I finally eliminated questions about that from my quizzes. Unlike almost everything else in the novel, this feels tacked on, maybe just to build tension for the rumble. There are a few laughs. Soda trying to […]

Presenting the Book, Seventh Grade Behavior, The Outsiders

Almost there…kleenex at the ready.

mrC

Right now we are well into chapter 7. It’s only been a week (book time) since chapter 1, and S. E. Hinton starts us off by showing a slice of life at the Curtis house. Friends come and go, they get to eat chocolate cake for breakfast, pillow fights. Almost sounds fun. Then we get […]

Presenting the Book, Seventh Grade Behavior, The Outsiders

First Tears

mrC

My friendly and sensitive class is also the furthest ahead in the novel. When Johnny tells Dally that he wants to turn himself in, and Dally flips out and tells Johnny that he doesn’t want him to “end up like me,” we stop and talk about Dally. This class is quick to realize that Dally […]

Presenting the Book, Related readings, The Outsiders

“But it says he!”

mrC

The boys are in the church cutting their hair (some of the girls visibly wince as Johnny “starts sawing” on Pony’s hair with the same knife he used on Bob) and killing time with Gone With the Wind. We’re talking about irony and Richard Cory. We go through the poem, and I keep the fourth […]

Presenting the Book, Random Featured Post, Seventh Grade Behavior, Stories of Seventh Grade, The Outsiders

“How cute. Like hobos…” (Also: Hank Williams.)

mrC

Wednesday. Vocabulary Pretest. Talk of facades and irony. Both figure large in The Outsiders. More on that later. Today I have more insight from my friendly class. We’re reading chapter 4 (the death of Bob, Dally helping with the getaway, jumping the train out of town), and we get to where Dally is telling Pony […]

Presenting the Book, The Outsiders

The Hook is Set.

mrC

Since yesterday was late start day, classes were 11 minutes shorter, and what with copying the homework into planners and warmup and Academic Words Pretest #1, we ran out of time for Outsiders. Boy Howdy, they were ready today. The three biggest parts of chapter three: 1) Ponyboy blowing up about Darry and dissing Johnny […]

Presenting the Book, The Outsiders

Which one is the real you?

mrC

Well. I guess daily posts might be a little ambitious for me… They’ve been begging to read Outsiders. (All according to plan.) Almost as much as they’re begging to see “Unpack Your Adjectives” again. One kid even said, “That’s why you don’t let us take it home. We’d just read it all in one night. […]

Other activities, Presenting the Book, Stories of Seventh Grade, The Outsiders

“It’s all about the love, then.”

mrC

Already missed a day. Dang. Tuesday was big day. I introduced KBAR and our first Show not Tell assignment. First KBAR. You can read the KBAR page for yourself, but during the first part of the year, while we are reading The Outsiders aloud in class, I try to use my mutation of our school-wide […]

Presenting the Book, Seventh Grade Behavior, The Outsiders, Tips

Read The Outsiders aloud…

mrC

I have been teaching The Outsiders ever since I started teaching junior high. The only “required” novel when I got to my school in 1993 was Tom Sawyer. The “approved” novels were shtuff like A Day no Pigs Would Die and Where the Red Fern Grows. Ummm, no offense, but I couldn’t cope. (Actually, I […]

Seventh Grade Behavior, The Outsiders

“Sorry about that Chief.” (also: Hippies!)

mrC

I really did mean to post yesterday, but my fine web host decided it was a fine time to botch an upgrade, and my sites were inaccessible until this morning. Sorry about that. And the even more beauty part was that last night was Back to School Night, when I like to showcase to parents […]