Teaching The Outsiders

Instructions for You

Objective: Hinton does such a good job making her characters real, we wouldn't be surprised if we saw Ponyboy walking in the halls. Analyzing characters— their thoughts, actions, how they relate to others, what motivates them—is an important skill, one we all do without even knowing it. In this one-day (fifty-minute) activity, students will create a mock interview with one of the main characters from the book.

Materials Needed: Example of an interview; pen and paper

Step 1: Introduce the topic of interviews and steer the conversation around to their purpose—getting to know someone better and finding out how they tick. Some helpful questions to ask include:

• If you could interview one person, who would it be? Why?
• Have you read any good (or not so good) interviews lately? What made them so good (or bad)?
• What's the point of interviewing someone? 
• So, the purpose of interviewing someone is

Step 2: Let your students know they'll be working in pairs to "interview" one of the characters from the book. They'll work together to come up with questions and then answer them.

Step 3: Go ahead and share this interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson with your students so they can see the format for writing the questions and answers. Emphasize how open-ended the questions are and how long the answers are—not because they always have to be, but because they totally can be.

Step 4: Get the party started by guiding the class to come up with about six basic questions that everyone will use. Here are some possibilities:

• Where do you see yourself in five years? Ten years?
• What do you want to be when you grow up?
• Tell me about your family. 
• What do you think about school? 
• What are your favorite things to do? 
• If you had one wish, what would it be? 
• How did you get to be a part of the gang?
• What do you think of the gang?
• Is there one particular person that you really hit it off with? If so, why?

Step 5: As a group, brainstorm a list of major characters that the interviewers can choose from, just to make sure they don't choose some random person like Pony's mom, who isn't a round enough character to really know. If they really want to choose a significant, but dead, character, tell them to pretend they're interviewing the character before he died. (Need a character brush-up? We've got you back.)

Step 6: Let students know that once they've broken up into pairs, they'll need to come up with an additional three questions that are pertinent to their character. Some possibilities include:

• What do you think about Pony and Johnny going into the fire? What would you have done?
• Dally, how would you describe your relationship with Johnny?
• Darry, how do you feel about giving up college? 
• Pony, have your thoughts about Dally changed? If so, how? 
• What do you like about being a Greaser/Soc? 
• Johnny, what were you thinking that night by the fountain?

Step 7: The kids will break into pairs, write their extra questions, and then answer them. They can take turns being the interviewer and the character or talk over the answers together.

Step 8: Once everyone's finished, come back together and have each group share a couple of their questions and answers. If time permits, have the other kids say whether they agree or disagree with the answers.

Instructions for Your Students

Objective: Hinton does such a good job making her characters real, we wouldn't be surprised if we saw Ponyboy walking in the halls. Analyzing characters like Pony—their thoughts, actions, how they relate to others—is something we do almost without thinking as we're pulled into the story, like when our moms serve broccoli for dinner and we wonder why they hate us.

You and a partner are going to choose one of the characters and put yourselves in their shoes (don't worry, they'll fit), and then try to figure out how the character would answer questions if s/he were real and you were interviewing the person for a magazine.

Step 1: Let's first get the discussion going about interviews in general. What's the point of an interview?

Step 2: Now it's time to check out a real interview with the one and only Neil deGrasse Tyson. Notice how most of the questions are open-ended—and how long the answers are a result.

Step 3: We're going to get the party started by coming up with about six basic questions that everyone will use. The trick is to get the person talking, so try to ask open-ended questions. Stay away from "What's your favorite color?" and "Did you like it?" because they only need one-word answers. Instead try things like, "What would you do if…" and "What did you think when…?" and "How did you feel about…?"

Step 4: It's time to come up with a list of major characters that can be interviewed. No minor characters allowed, like Pony's mom, who we just don't know enough about. If you end up choosing a significant character that dies in the story, you can say your interview happened before they bit the dust.

Step 5: Find a partner. Whoop, whoop!

Step 6: Okay, you have a set of generic questions that everyone's using, but now you and your partner need to think up three more questions that are specific to your character.

Step 7: Ready for your interview? You can take turns being the interviewer (asking the questions and writing the answers) and the character (answering the questions), or you can both talk over and write the answers together.

Step 8: When everyone's crossed the finish line, come back together with the class and share a couple of your stellar questions and answers.