A set of two 1.5hr session plans for a KS3 English group centred around the book The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton.

Session one spends a significant length of time looking at sub-groups, so is also relevant for those studying GCSE sociology.

Both of these sessions were intended to be an hour and a half long, but how long they take, to a large part, depends on the group: how chatty they are, which themes they are most interested in, and their general knowledge of topics relevant to the book.

The questions are more for a guide than a prescribed lesson, with the aim being discussion and sharing of thoughts, rather than right and wrong answers.

There are multiple references to smoking, drinking and violence in the book, so probably not for a pre-teen reader.

Session 1

This session focused very heavily on teen sub-culture, looking at what it meant to be a teenager in 1960s America and Britain. It looks at the influences of the time on teenagers, and the influences that found their way into the book.

S.E.Hinton being only a teenager herself when she wrote this book was heavily influenced by popular culture of the time and we thought about how this impacted our reading of the book fifty years on from when it was first published.

The slides are not necessary for the session, but for those that like a visual as they go along, they are there.

To help with the homework, should you choose to do it, this is the link for the character profile worksheets: https://www.thecambridgehomeeducator.com/character-profile-worksheets/

Session 2

This session goes through the story again, looking at the role individual characters have within the book and how they develop through the story.

We actually ran out of time for this session as the group spent a long time recapping the story, so you might want to a bit longer than 90 mins to do the session justice, or cut it up into two separate sessions with one looking at the story and the other looking at characters.