The Outsiders

Webquest on Society and Class

Mr. Snyder’s LA Class

IS 126, 7^th Grade

Bsnyder3@schools.nyc.gov

Introduction

One swift look around your school cafeteria will validate it: people are cliquey creatures. They move in small packs, kind of like meerkats, only taller and generally less hairy. Once formed, these cliques can be very hard to break into.

In a way, we can see why cliques exist. After all, there's safety in numbers, and folks naturally gravitate toward people who may have similar interests or experiences. But, because by definition they have to exclude most folks to include a few, cliques can also cause a lot of hard feelings, loneliness, and tension.

The Outsiders deals with this same phenomenon. Sure, we get two rival gangs, but they're grouped as the rich kids (the Socials) and the poor kids (the Greasers). Since we get the perspective of Sodapop, Ponyboy, and the Greasers, we really get a feel for what it's like to be an outsider.

More than likely, though, that's not exactly news to you. Everyone, at some point in their life, has been on the outside looking in. It's one of the sad facts of life. But that also means, despite all these cliques, we're all in the same gang.

Task

Your group’s task in this webquest is to research our current social and class system. Your focus can be either narrow (social classes within the school system, neighborhood or city) or broad (social classes within the state of New York, the United States or the world). Please identify at least one way in which the current class system helps one group of people while hurting another.

· You will use the Internet and other various outside sources in your paper.

· Discuss and evaluate how the theme of society/class is relevant to today’s society.

· Give concrete examples of the problems that are presently occurring.

· Offer solutions that you feel can help solve the problem.

· Formulate your research into a PowerPoint presentation.

· Before beginning this project, please review the steps needed to follow in order to complete this task successfully. It is found on the TIPS website:

1. Define the social problem.

2. Gather evidence connected to the problem.

3. Identify the causes of the problem.

4. Evaluate existing public policies related to the problem.

5. Develop your own public policy solutions.

6. Select the best solution

Process

· As you separate into your cooperative learning groups, I will choose a leader for each group. From there, the leader will define and assign responsibilities for the other members of the group.

· Group discussion time will need to be organized in order to come up with your point of view on society and class systems. What are current problems that you find?

• Next, using The Outsiders as a guide, you must come up with at least five examples of social/class problems occurring today.  Think about the problems that the Greasers faced in the book; are their similar problems in present communities?

• Now that you have identified what the specific issues/problems are, you need to identify what the sources of these issues are.  What is at the root of the problem?  How did the issue become exposed in the first place?

You may need to refer to your website resource guide.

• At this point you MUST refer to your website resource guide.  You need to research different policies that have been implemented to counteract the harmful effects of our current class system.

• After researching different policies, choose the one that bests supports your main ideas, and evaluate the policy at a critical level.

• Since we have come to the conclusion that harmful effects of our class system still exist in our society today, the policy that you are researching is not 100% effective.  It is now time for your cooperative learning group to brainstorm, and come up with at least three solutions to end these harmful effects.  These solutions must have the potential to be more effective than the policies that you have found through your research.

• Now, choose the one solution that you feel will be the most successful out of the three.  Why do you feel that this is the best solution?  What do you predict will happen once this solution or policy is applied to the problem?  How will this process of desegregation improve our community and our lives?

• After you have completed all of the above steps, it is time for the FUN to begin!  Now you can compile all of the information you have found in a POWERPOINT PRESENTATION!!  If you have questions about the set up of a PowerPoint Presentation see the following website.

Website Resource Guide

· https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKKQnijnsM

· http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/american-class-system-and-structure-definitions-types-of-social-classes.html

· https://new.edu/resources/social-class-in-the-united-states

· http://www.nytimes.com/pages/national/class/index.html

· http://www.shmoop.com/the-outsiders/society-class-theme.html

· http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/articles/2012/09/13/where-do-you-fall-in-the-american-economic-class-system

Evaluation

	Exemplary	Accomplished	Developing	Beginning
Organization	Information presented in logical, interesting sequence	Information in logical sequence	Difficult to follow presentation--student jumps around	Cannot understand presentation--no sequence of information
Subject Knowledge	Demonstrates full knowledge by answering all class questions with explanations and elaborations	At ease with expected answers to questions but does not elaborate	Uncomfortable with information and is able to answer only rudimentary questions	Does not have a grasp of the information. Cannot answer questions about subject
Graphics	Explain and reinforce screen text and presentation	Relate to text and presentation	Occasionally uses graphics that rarely support text and presentation	Uses superfluous graphics or no graphics
Research	Uses a variety of sources in reaching accurate conclusions	Uses a variety of sources in reaching conclusions	Presents only evidence that supports a preconceived point of view	Does not justify conclusions with research evidence
Screen Design	Includes a variety of graphics, text, and animation that exhibits a sense of wholeness. Creative use of navigational tools and buttons	Includes a variety of graphics, text, and animation. Adequate navigational tools and buttons	Includes combinations of graphics and text, but buttons are difficult to navigate. Some buttons and navigational tools work	Either confusing or cluttered, barren or stark. Buttons or navigational tools are absent or confusing
Oral Presentation Elocution/Eye Contact	Maintains eye contact and pronounces all terms precisely. All audience members can hear	Maintains eye contact most of the time and pronounces most words correctly. Most audience members can hear presentation	Occasionally uses eye contact, mostly reading presentation, and incorrectly pronounces terms. Audience members have difficulty hearing	Reads with no eye contact and incorrectly pronounces terms. Speaks too quietly

CONCLUSION

When your group has successfully completed all tasks listed above, you should be able to explain to other students how the social problems of our class system as it was portrayed in The Outsiders still exists today. The information, that you present, should be clear enough to make others aware of the fact that, while some things change as time passes, other things, unfortunately, remain the same. The gaining of this knowledge will hopefully motivate others to take a good look at society and convince them to take a strong interest in creating a positive change.

LA Common Core Standards

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.7.4

Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused, coherent manner with pertinent descriptions, facts, details, and examples; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.7.5

Include multimedia components and visual displays in presentations to clarify claims and findings and emphasize salient points.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.2

Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.7.8

Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient to support the claims.