Cooperative Learning Lesson Plan: The Outsiders Vocabulary and Slang
I. Standard: RL. 8.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including
figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone,
including analogies or allusions to other texts.
II. Objective
A. I will teach students how to predict the meaning of a word based on context. We are currently
reading The Outsiders, and it is set in the 1960s. There are many slang words (as well as words that
are not slang) which the students will probably not recognize. It is important that the students are able
to determine the meaning of these words in order to understand the story.
B. Students will be able to determine the rough meaning of 10 slang/vocabulary words from The
Outsiders using the context of that word.
C. Students will fill out a worksheet with the meanings of the words, and I will collect them at the end
of the hour to see how the students did.
III. Anticipatory Set
A. Generate interest: I will begin class by asking students to tell me some school appropriate slang
words that I may not know. I will tell the students I am going to look them up after class to make
sure that they are appropriate.
B. Access prior knowledge: Once they give me one that I don’t know, I will ask them to use it in a
sentence that will help me figure out what it means. I will then guess what the word means based on
the student’s sentence. Hopefully I will get it right, and we will then have a conversation about how I
knew what the word meant based on the sentence. This will allow me to talk a little bit about how a
word’s context can help determine its meaning with the students.
C. Practice something already known: Next, I will tell students a sentence with a British word that
they will probably not know, and they will guess what the meaning is. We will then talk about how
they figured out the meaning. For example, I might say, “I keep an umbrella in the boot (trunk) of my
car,” “I’m a uni (university) student,” or “I use a trolley (shopping cart) at the grocery store to put my
groceries in.” We will talk about how the words around a word and the way it sounds can help in
figuring out what an unknown word means.
IV. Purpose: I will explain to students that they are going to be learning how to figure out word
meanings because there is a lot of slang in The Outsiders that probably will not be familiar to them.
V. Input
A. Task Analysis
1. The learner needs to understand what context means and how it can help determine a word’s
meaning.
2. Procedures
i. Teacher figures out student’s slang word based on sentence
ii. Class discussion on how someone can figure out a word he/she doesn’t know
iii. Class discussion on figuring out British words that are unfamiliar
iv. Divide students into pairs
v. Each pair will make up three slang words and put them in a sentence that will help
someone determine meaning
vi. Have each pair give their slang words/sentences to another group
vii. Pairs will work together to figure out what the other group’s words mean
viii. The two sets of pairs will then conference to see if they got the meaning of the
words correct
ix. Report out to class
x. Complete worksheet on Outsiders slang independently: The worksheet will consist
of ten slang words from The Outsiders in a sentence and students will write down
what they think the word means
xi. Fill out exit slip answering the question, “What is one word from the worksheet
whose meaning you are unsure about? Why?”
xii. Collect exit slips as student leave
B. Thinking levels
1. Knowledge: Know what “context” means
2. Comprehension: Understand how a word’s context can give away its meaning
3. Application: Use a given word’s context to determine its meaning
4. Analysis: Break down how a word’s context helped determine its meaning
5. Synthesis: Create own slang word with context to help determine meaning
C. Learning styles: Interpersonal and linguistic
D. Method and materials
1. Discussion and demonstration
2. Paper and writing utensil
VI. Modeling
A. I will model figuring out a word I don’t know at the beginning of class.
B. We will discuss how to figure out an unknown word as well as what to do on the worksheet.
C. I will write down ways to figure out a word’s meaning on the board as we discuss.
D. Students will be involved in the discussion at the beginning of class because they will give me the
slang word and also explain how they think I figured out the meaning.
VII. Checking for Understanding
A. Questions
1. During the anticipatory set...
i. “How do you think I figured out what that word meant?”
ii. “How do you figure out what a word means when you don’t know?”
2. During the Cooperative Learning activity...
i. “How is that sentence going to help someone figure out what your slang word
means?”
ii. “How did you come up with that sentence?”
B. There will be several transitions during the lesson when students can ask questions.
C. Students will respond with choral response and individual response.
VIII. Guided Practice
A. Students will practice figuring out word meaning with the British words.
B. Myself figuring out a word’s meaning at the beginning of class serves as a model.
C. I will answer questions and circulate as the students are working with their partners.
D. Working with a partner to come up with a slang word and putting it in a sentence also serves as
guided practice because the students can help one another. Students will be able to see how their
partners figure out word meaning.
IX. Independent Practice
A. The worksheet on slang words from The Outsiders will be done independently.
B. It will be completed as homework if not finished in class.
X. Closure
A. Students will complete an exit slip telling me a word they struggled with and why.
B. I will read the exit slips and act accordingly the next day.