Heather Parr

TE 408

Social Groupings

Context: This lesson is designed for a 7th grade class. This lesson would be implemented
when students are just starting to read S.E. Hinton’s novel The Outsiders.

State Standards: R.NT.07.01, R.CM.07.01, S.DS.07.01, L.RP.07.01, L.RP.07.06

Objectives: SWBAT
 Connect ideas in The Outsiders to their own school environment.
 Visually represent how groups/characters in the novel affect other
groups/characters.
 Make concept maps that show relationships among different groups of people.

Rationale: In order to understand the social constructs in The Outsiders, students must
see how social constructs work in their own lives. By examining cliques in their own
school and being critical about what being in a clique ‘means,’ students can gain a deeper
and clearer understanding of how the characters in the book are socially constructed.
Also, by making connections between the social groups in the novel and the social groups
in their school, the students can find more things to relate to in the novel. Students will
also visually represent how the two social groupings view each other; this taps into
student’s multiple intelligences and gives students choice in how to demonstrate their
understanding of the novel.

Guiding Questions:
 What social groupings exist in our school?
 How does one become a part of these different social groupings?
 What do the social groupings base their membership on?
 How are the gangs in The Outsiders similar and different from social cliques in
our school?
 How do people left outside of a social grouping see that social grouping?
 How do the social groupings in the novel see each other?

Materials:
 Journals
 Chalkboard/white board
 Large sheets of paper
 Art materials
 Markers

Activities:
1. In their journals, have students do a freewrite in which they talk about social
groupings, or ‘cliques’ in their school. Write the following questions on the board
 and tell students to respond to any number of the questions (also tell students not
to name names of any specific student, since this could hurt someone’s feelings):
(20 min)
a. What types of ‘cliques’ do you see in your school?
b. How does each ‘clique’ pick its members? Social class? Athletic ability?
Academic achievement? Physical traits? Etc?
c. What types of activities do the people in different cliques take part in?
d. Can people be in two or more different cliques at the same time? Why or
why not?
2. After 20 minutes, have students get into small groups of 4 or 5 students. Pass out
a large sheet of white paper and markers to each group. (3 min)
3. Have students create a concept map of the different cliques in their school. Make
sure to tell students to draw lines to cliques that are somehow connected and write
how they are connected on the connecting line. Have students write 3 things about
each clique somewhere on the web. Model this on the board, showing students
how to do it. (25 min)
4. After 25 minutes, have each group share what they created. (10 min)
5. After each group has shared, have students find similarities and differences in
their webs. If students have different ‘facts’ for the same clique (which they
probably will) ask them how this could be? Ask them the following questions and
have a discussion: (15 min)
a. Does being involved in a clique make you see the clique differently than
someone who does not belong to it? Why would this be?
b. How do other people see cliques that they are not involved in? Do they see
them in a negative or positive light? What things cause others to see a
group in a negative light? In a positive light?
c. Do the actions of one group affect another group? Why?
6. Allow students to start their homework in class in case they have any questions. (15
min)

Homework: Have students create a (visual) representation of how the Socs see the
Greasers and how the Greasers see the Socs. This could be a poem, a drawing, a chart or
web, a song, a short movie, a diorama, a short essay, etc. (if students choose to do
something other than write the essay, have them also write a short description of their
piece). Tell students that they must be able to back up anything they represent with
evidence from the novel. Tell them to be ready to share.