The Outsiders Project

During January and February 2018, Mrs. Gembka and Ms. Beauchamp's seventh grade ELA students visited the library to work on their final project regarding The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton.  Written in the 1960's by a teenager, The Outsiders is a classic story about gangs, social issues, friendship, and family.  Although an older work, The Outsiders contains timeless themes that still resonate with today's youth.

The Outsiders describes an incident where Johnny Cade, a member of the "Greaser" gang, stabs a rival gang member.  The rival gang member later dies.  As the basis for the ELA research project, students were assigned one of two claims: either Johnny acted in self-defense or he should be found guilty of manslaughter.

While visiting the library, students used a variety of online sources to find supporting evidence for their claim.  The students first utilized the "FindLaw Legal Dictionary" web page to learn basic legal terminology.  Students then took notes about other legal cases involving manslaughter and self-defense verdicts.

Links to a legal dictionary and past court cases were provided via the library website.

On their final research day in the library, students created MLA-formatted bibliography pages using Microsoft Word.  This built upon skills previously taught by Mrs. Walkowiak in technology class.  Students demonstrated their ability to locate the necessary components for citations and their knowledge as to why citations are needed to avoid plagiarism.

When the students returned to the classroom, they spent time locating and analyzing textual evidence within The Outsiders book that would lend support to their claim.  With all of their research in place, students worked on creating an evidence-based essay surrounding their claim.

On February 5th, 2018, seventh grade ELA students returned to the library for a visit from a guest speaker.  Mrs. Ashley Lowry, an Assistant District Attorney for Erie County, provided an informative presentation designed to help students with their project.  She explained her own educational background, what it takes to work in the legal profession, aspects of the legal process, and tips for formulating claims regarding The Outsiders.  The visit was well-received.  The students asked great questions and left the session with key takeaways to improve the quality of their own projects.

ADA Ashley Lowry shares legal information, as well as
insights for The Outsiders project.

With their essays complete, students returned to their classrooms for the final component of the project: a debate!  This was a highly-anticipated portion of the project.  Students enjoyed using their debate skills to try to convince their classmates of which verdict is appropriate.  During the debate, students judged each other on the quality of evidence, the clarity of the argument, and respect/overall demeanor demonstrated.

Seventh grade ELA students will return to the library during April and May to complete an in-depth research assignment on environmental issues.  Looking forward to having this great group in again!