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The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

Teaching literature concepts and literary devices through The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton will be engaging, thought-provoking, and thorough with this Socratic Seminar and literary devices novel study. This Socratic Seminar–based novel study helps your students actually think, discuss, and write about the text—while you still cover every major reading and writing standard.
 
  

This middle school ELA unit is built around a simple, repeatable structure: build or review background knowledge → read → write → discuss → revise. 

Students use guiding and interpretive questions to prepare their thinking, participate in structured discussions, and then turn those ideas into stronger written responses.

What makes this unit different:

  • Instead of assigning dozens of comprehension questions, students focus on one strong question at a time—which leads to better discussions, stronger writing, and deeper understanding.
  • You’re not just “getting through the novel.” You’re teaching students how to think about literature.

What's included:

  • 15 structured, step-by-step lesson plans with pacing and teaching support
  • Ready-to-teach slides for every lesson (no extra prep)
  • Guiding + interpretive discussion questions that build deeper thinking
  • Digital + print student notebooks and reading response pages
  • Reading response organizers and examples to model strong writing
  • Literary device reference pages and mini anchor charts
  • Editable, differentiated reading response rubrics (multiple grade levels)
  • Full Socratic Seminar implementation guide with norms, pacing, examples, and troubleshooting
  • Conference forms and anecdotal notes for small group + individual support
  • Print + digital formats for flexible classroom use

Students build their understanding through discussion, and that shows up in their writing in a big way. This unit covers sixth, seventh, and eighth-grade CCSS literature standards in an engaging, structured format—without adding more work to your plate.

The 16 lesson plans are:

  1. Pre-Lesson: Socratic Seminar Norms
  2. The Outsiders Day 1: Point of View
  3. The Outsiders Day 2: Plot
  4. The Outsiders Day 3: Central Idea
  5. The Outsiders Day 4: Character Traits
  6. The Outsiders Day 5: Symbolism
  7. The Outsiders Day 6: Author's Craft
  8. The Outsiders Day 7: Theme
  9. The Outsiders Day 8: Point of View vs. Perspective
  10. The Outsiders Day 9: Conflict
  11. The Outsiders Day 10: Narrative Point of View
  12. The Outsiders Day 11: Characterization
  13. The Outsiders Day 12: Author’s Purpose
  14. The Outsiders Day 13: Movie Comparison
  15. The Outsiders Day 14: Comparing Texts
  16. The Outsiders Day 15: Objective Summaries

In this unit, your students will have consistent support and meaningful conversations with their peers, be exposed to grade-level (and above) literature and vocabulary, and become part of a reading community. At the same time, you still have the flexibility to support students at their individual reading levels.

Prep is quick and easy. Just review the guiding questions, print or display the reference materials, and you’re ready for an engaging, results-producing class period. There’s no fluff and no busywork in my reading units.

TEACHERS LIKE YOU SAID…

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Amy S. says, "OBSESSED!!!! I am teaching summer school and I'm normally a math teacher but I am also teaching them ELA. I found this and I honestly wish I taught ELA so I could buy the rest of the novel studies and do them! This is the way you should teach ELA. Easily able to teach all standards through reading notebook, vocabulary, discussion. Lesson plans are soooo thorough. I highly suggest all upper elementary ELA teachers look into your resources!"

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Sarah V. says, "I really appreciate how this unit is organized and how thought provoking it has been. We are only a few days in and the students are loving the socratic seminar setup and I, being a newbie with this type of discussion setup, am enjoying all of the instructions and lack of busywork for students to just get done. I'll be purchasing more for the novels that I teach! 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Krista L. says, "Students are thrilled to be talking about the book instead of doing a ton of comprehension questions. My students’ writing improved because they are hyper focused on answering the discussion question and are actually using textual evidence to answer, because instead of 5-10 questions, they have one. The vocabulary and extra comprehension questions are very useful as well.