1960s & The Outsiders Gallery Walk

In planning this lesson, I felt more rushed and aimless than usual. I was in a bit of scramble mode and lost sight of the specific learning objectives—or at least struggled to clearly articulate them. One key reminder for myself: backwards design matters. Planning ahead not only improves the lesson, but also makes everything feel less stressful.

Lesson Sequence

We started with a gallery walk activity. Each station featured a photo and a short paragraph about an aspect of life in 1960s America. The topics included:

• The War on Poverty

• Education Equality

• Youth Activism

• Civil Rights Movement

• Latino (UFW) and Native American (AIM) Rights

• Feminism

• LGBTQ+ / Stonewall Riots

Students were asked to examine the blurbs and images and then make a connection between what they saw and The Outsiders. For the most part, students stayed on task during the gallery walk, though I had to redirect a few.

Delayed Reaction on Learning

When we came back together as a full group to discuss, I was mostly met with silence. At first, I panicked—I thought I’d made the task too difficult or too disconnected. The energy felt flat, and it seemed like the discussion wasn’t landing.

But then, I read their written responses, and was pleasantly surprised by the engagement with ideas. Especially with the LGBTQ+ station, which I was nervous about—including because it felt like the hardest to directly tie into the novel, and I worried it might invite problematic or dismissive reactions. But reading through what students wrote, I saw some real, thoughtful connections being made. A few responses danced on the edge, but overall, they either independently or with a bit of framing found strong, respectful ways to relate it back to The Outsiders.

Takeaways for myself:

1. Work on making whole-class sharing feel more accessible and less intimidating.

2. Don’t judge engagement solely in the moment. Sometimes, understanding just takes a little longer to show up—kind of like a time-release reaction.

Other Activities

As a brain break and transition, we did a sequencing activity where students lined up based on the events of The Outsiders. It worked well as a quick refresher and helped set up the next phase of our project.

To wrap up, students selected which character they’d be writing from the perspective of, and which scene they’d be rewriting. This led into our summative creative writing assignment.

Overall, students seemed genuinely energized and excited by the project. They were buzzing with ideas, and I’m looking forward to seeing the final products.