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the alarming sphere of influence of ponyboy

so my brother met this girl who had stay gold tattooed across her knuckles and he related to the book back in the day and so do lots of seventh graders--apparently so did whoever it is that writes the songs for the bravery. the line is:" i never had a summer of 69, i never had a cherry valance of my own". now, what scares me is that even at 7:30AM in the morning i thought, wow, i'm not sure if this person understands the relationship between ponyboy and cherry--based on the rest of the song lyrics. but i would have to read them all to know for sure. so many students think that ponyboy and cherry are romantically involved or that they should be a couple, even though it is clear that bob and dallas are her love interests. the text does not support a romance. question: take the oustiders off the list or keep it? wadda y'all think?
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Published Sunday, May 06, 2007 11:20 PM by mz.w

Comments

 

MysteryTeacher said:

This was THE BOOK that turned my daughter around to reading.  Up until 6th grade she never read more than a text book unless I read it to her.  Then came The Outsiders.  After that she has not been able to put books down.  She is a voracious reader.  I say keep the book.

May 7, 2007 10:48 AM
 

mz.w said:

yeah---it really grabs so many kids. me personally, couldn't stand it in seventh grade. the only character i related to was bob b/c he thought the fighting was pointless. my younger bro hella dug it and that means something to me, cuz he wasn't really into school and he related to the outsider thing.  i still don't care for it, altho i get more out of it now. we do 3 novels every year and the outsiders or the giver are the best at grabbing the kids. we're looking at a district wide reading list and there is at least one school that will object to the giver for sure and there are possible objections to the outsiders so we are looking at other options.  all my personal feelings aside, the outsiders does grab their attention--for some of them it's the only book they read all year.

May 7, 2007 11:48 PM

About mz.w

i teach 7th and 8th grade langauge arts and social studies. i'm going into year 3 of teaching social studies and year two of teaching language arts on my own. i have a single subject credential in social science. my goal is ditch language arts entirely. i love teaching! ah-ha moments are the best!!!