The Outsiders: Engaging Conversations and Deep Reflection for Adult ESL

SE Hinton's book, THE OUTSIDERS, deeply resonated with my adult ESL students and turned some of my formerly anti-book students into readers! How did I turn what they thought was a tedious task into something that made chronically late students show up early? I made it all about what they thought, and you can too!

✅ Anticipation Guides: teacher’s page + 10 one-pager anticipation guides

The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton's celebrated novel, should be more than just a read-aloud for your adult ESL classroom, and it can be with these anticipation guides. Anticipation guides are a fantastic comprehension strategy to invite your students to look deeper into the book and beyond the pages. This pre-reading approach fuels introspection into their beliefs and viewpoints while revving up anticipation for the chapter(s) ahead of them.

Students choose numbers to indicate the strength of their agreement, disagreement, or uncertainty with statements that align with the chapters (but without spoilers). These statements help them relate to the story as well as drive curiosity and investment in the storyline.

It doesn't matter if your class is doing a communal read-aloud or independent reading because these anticipation guides make sure they stay involved. I always liked to give my students time to do each guide on their own and then discuss the statements as a class or in small groups, but you can do it your way.

✅ Reflective question cards: teacher’s guide + 12 sets of reflection task cards, totaling 48 cards, covering every unit in the book

The Outsiders reflective response cards help your adult ESL students dig deeper into the story and share their diverse perspectives and individual interpretations. These are the questions that helped make my class almost like a book club, with everyone eager to look for subtext they related to. It was more than mere story time. They wanted to get personal. They looked in the book to understand themselves with the reflective questions I gave them.

Reflecting on personal experience, beliefs, and opinions helps prime students’ minds for what they are about to read or hear. These questions help guide them into making personal connections to the story, even when they originally thought there were none.

These cards are organized by chapter and are numbered in order for use, but of course you can skip any. I gave careful consideration to avoid major spoilers.

✅Going Deeper Question Cards: teacher’s page, 192 chapter-specific discussion cards

The Outsiders resonates deeply with adult ESL students with its raw portrayal of identity, belonging, and societal struggles. It brings up emotional connections that knock over language barriers, encouraging empathy and understanding within each reader. That means The Outsiders is not a book meant for answering reading comprehension questions, not when it can serve as a catalyst for deep discussions.

The complex themes such as social class, identity, loyalty, and the universal quest for acceptance make it PERFECT for passionate classroom discussions. The layered characters and poignant narrative invite your student readers to look for nuanced interpretations. And the conversations are compelling thanks to the diverse perspectives and life experiences among adult ESL students.

But students being students, you have to get them going, right? That's why you want these "Going Deeper" discussion cards!

⚠️ NOTE: There's intentionally no answer key; these discussions thrive on diverse interpretations. There isn't a single correct response. The answers can go far beyond mere comprehension. Your students' varied perspectives and interpretations will depend a lot on their own lived experiences, and there isn't an answer key that could possibly match that.

EVERYTHING IN THIS PACK WAS WRITTEN FOR ADULT ESL STUDENTS

Originally designed for my high-intermediate to advanced ESL adult learners, nothing in here has cartoonish clipart, children's content, or shallow water questions.

⚠️ Book not included. Support the author by purchasing her books.