As the grade 8 students are getting ready to read The Outsiders, we read a poem and a short story on the theme of identity. “On the Sidewalk Bleeding” is a short story that explores the experience of a young man experiencing the results of his choice to belong to a gang. Students demonstrated some strong skills with identifying theme and motif while reading it. Then we read “We Real Cool”, which is a short poem that works with the same concepts as the story, and gives a great lead in to thinking about the theme and ideas around the novel.
