The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurts

The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurts

Found in novel on Page 592

Audio found online: http://www.calapitter.net/dead/39/scarlet_ibis.html

Essential Question: Why do people hurt the ones they love the most?

Common Core Standards: RL.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. RL. 2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text. RL. 3 Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme. L.9-10.4a-b Use context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase; identify patterns of word changes that indicate different meanings.
Additional Resources and Lesson Plans:
Graphic Organizer for Active Reading found here (also includes lesson on synonyms and antonyms: http://go.hrw.com/resources/go_mk/la/latm/LITRES14.PDF
Scarlet Ibis PowerPoint: http://curriculumcompanion.org/public/lite/mcdougalLittell/ml09/media/ml09_u4p1_scarlet.htm
An Exciting WebQuest Activity called Mystery and Meaning: http://www.aacps.org/aacps/boe/INSTR/CURR/COMED/HSWebQuest/ScarletIbis/index.htm
Introduction: Sometime we are the cruelest to those we love the most. Adults are better at controlling their emotions, but children often act quickly on their feelings, hurting their loved ones with their words and actions. How do you deal with your emotions? What harm can come from a reckless word or actions?
Making the Connection: Why do you think people are the hardest on those they love the most? Discuss this question and list your answers with a small group. Share your answers with the class. How many groups came up with the same answers?
Evaluating the Text -Symbols are a literary device and symbols can be people, animals, places, objects, or activities that represent something beyond itself. Authors use symbols to emphasize crucial concepts and characters traits. Symbols can act as clues or hints to the story’s theme. For instance, in the story you will read next, The Scarlet Ibis, the swamp symbolizes the love between two brothers. As you read, try to identify other symbols in the story.
Skills for Reading –Inferences are educated guesses based upon what you have read and your prior knowledge or experience. Sometimes inferences are referred to as reading between the lines. Being able to make logical inferences will prove valuable in determining a story’s theme.
Vocabulary in Context
The following words are critical in understanding the story you’re about to read. Restate each word using a different word in the column next to the first phrase.
Vocabulary Word is bolded / What the word means
Exotic trip to Fuji
Reiterate the directions for further explanation
Evanesce, like a ghost who suddenly disappeared
An imminent danger to Homeland security
She believed in the infallibility of her talents
Studied hard and with doggedness
Precariously took risks
Many of his unorthodox beliefs were considered heresy
About the Author
/ James Hurst was born in North Carolina. He attended college and served in World War II, and after attended the world famous Juilliard School. There he studied singing and later moved to Rome hoping for a career in the Opera. Later he moved to New York and took a job at a New York bank.
He wrote “The Scarlet Ibis” while working at the bank. When he is asked about the meaning of the story he said that is a commentary on the “tenacity and splendor of the human spirit.”
The setting for the story is the North Carolina coast and is very important to the story. Hurst uses many of the local plants as symbols in the story.

Dialectical Journals

The term “Dialectic” means “the art or practice of arriving at the truth by using conversation involving question and answer.” Think of your dialectical journal as a series of conversations with the texts we read during this course. The process is meant to help you develop a better understanding of the texts we read. Use your journal to incorporate your personal responses to the texts, your ideas about the themes we cover and our class discussions. You will find that it is a useful way to process what you’re reading, prepare yourself for group discussion, and gather textual evidence for your Literary Analysis assignments.

Procedure:

o  As you read, choose passages that stand out to you and record them in the left-hand column of a T-chart (ALWAYS include page numbers).

o  In the right column, write your response to the text (ideas/insights, questions, reflections, and comments on each passage)

o  If you choose, you can label your responses using the following codes:

o  (Q) Question – ask about something in the passage that is unclear

o  (C) Connect – make a connection to your life, the world, or another text

o  (P) Predict – anticipate what will occur based on what’s in the passage

o  (CL) Clarify – answer earlier questions or confirm/disaffirm a prediction

o  (R) Reflect – think deeply about what the passage means in a broad sense – not just to the characters in the story. What conclusions can you draw about the world, about human nature, or just the way things work?

o  (E) Evaluate - make a judgment about the character(s), their actions, or what the author is trying to say

o  Complete journal entries for at least two passages each week. You can earn up to 25 points per week for your journals.

Sample Dialectical Journal entry: THE THINGS THEY CARRIED by Tim O’Brien

Passages from the text / Pg#s / Comments & Questions
“-they carried like freight trains; they carried it on their backs and shoulders-and for all the ambiguities of Vietnam, all the mysteries and unknowns, there was at least the single abiding certainty that they would never be at a loss for things to carry”. / Pg 2 / (R) O’brien chooses to end the first section of the novel with this sentence. He provides excellent visual details of what each solider in Vietnam would carry for day-to-day fighting. He makes you feel the physical weight of what soldiers have to carry for simple survival. When you combine the emotional weight of loved ones at home, the fear of death, and the responsibility for the men you fight with, with this physical weight, you start to understand what soldiers in Vietnam dealt with every day. This quote sums up the confusion that the men felt about the reasons they were fighting the war, and how they clung to the only certainty - things they had to carry - in a confusing world where normal rules were suspended.

Choosing Passages from the Text:

Choosing Passages from the Text:

Look for quotes that seem significant, powerful, thought provoking or puzzling. For example, you might record:

o  Effective &/or creative use of stylistic or literary devices

o  Passages that remind you of your own life or something you’ve seen before

o  Structural shifts or turns in the plot

o  A passage that makes you realize something you hadn’t seen before

o  Examples of patterns: recurring images, ideas, colors, symbols or motifs.

o  Passages with confusing language or unfamiliar vocabulary

o  Events you find surprising or confusing

o  Passages that illustrate a particular character or setting

Responding To the Text:

You can respond to the text in a variety of ways. The most important thing to remember is that your observations should be specific and detailed. You can write as much as you want for each entry. You can use loose leaf paper for your journals or download the template from the Author Study page on the ESA web site.

Basic Responses

o  Raise questions about the beliefs and values implied in the text

o  Give your personal reactions to the passage

o  Discuss the words, ideas, or actions of the author or character(s)

o  Tell what it reminds you of from your own experiences

o  Write about what it makes you think or feel

o  Agree or disagree with a character or the author

Sample Sentence Starters:
I really don’t understand this because…
I really dislike/like this idea because…
I think the author is trying to say that…
This passage reminds me of a time in my life when…
If I were (name of character) at this point I would…
This part doesn’t make sense because…
This character reminds me of (name of person) because…

Higher Level Responses

o  Analyze the text for use of literary devices (tone, structure, style, imagery)

o  Make connections between different characters or events in the text

o  Make connections to a different text (or film, song, etc…)

o  Discuss the words, ideas, or actions of the author or character(s)

o  Consider an event or description from the perspective of a different character

o  Analyze a passage and its relationship to the story as a whole

Variations on the Dialectical Journal Format

o  Metacognitive Journal – what I learned/how I figured it out (incl. pg. #s)

o  Synthesis Journal – at the end of a weekly cycle, consider your Dialectical Journal entries, group work & participation in class discussion. Analyze your overall progress as a reader & writer.

Dialectical Journal Template

In this template, two quotes have been added for you. You need to add 5 more.

Passage from the text / Pg #s / Comments and Questions
“It was the clove of seasons, summer was dead but autumn had not yet been born, that the ibis lit in the bleeding tree. The flower garden was stained with rotting brown magnolia petals and ironweeks grew rank amid the purple phlox.”
“He [Doodle] was born when I was six and was, from the outset, a disappointment. He seemed all head, with a tiny body which was read and shriveled like an old man’s. Everybody thought he was going to die….Daddy had Mr. Heath, the carpenter, build a little mahogany coffin for him. But he didn’t die, and when he was three months old, Mama and Daddy decided that might as well name him.” / 594
595 / Why does the author start the story out with images of death? Is he foreshadowing that something bad will happen?
How did it make the narrator feel when everyone said his brother would die? Did they wait three months to name him in order to not get attached to the baby?
Passage from the text / Pg #s / Comments and Questions

The Scarlet Ibis

It was in the clove of seasons, summer was dead but autumn had not yet been born, that the ibis lit in the bleeding tree. The flower garden was stained with rotting brown magnolia petals and ironweeds grew rank amid the purple phlox. The five o'clocks by the chimney still marked time, but the oriole nest in the elm was untenanted and rocked back and forth like an empty cradle. The last graveyard flowers were blooming, and their smell drifted across the cotton field and through every room of our house, speaking softly the names of our dead. It's strange hat all this is still so clear to me, now that that summer has since fled and time has had its way. A grindstone stands where the bleeding tree stood, just outside the kitchen door, and now if an oriole sings in the elm, its song seems to die up in the leaves, a silvery dust.

But sometimes (like right now), as I sit in the cool, green-draped parlor, the grindstone begins to turn, and time with all its changes is ground away--and I remember Doodle. Doodle was just about the craziest brother a boy ever had. Of course, he wasn't a crazy crazy like old Miss Leedie, who was in love with President Wilson and wrote him a letter every day, but was a nice crazy, like someone you meet in your dreams.

He was born when I as six and was, from the outset, a disappointment. He seemed all head, with a tiny body which was red and shriveled like an old man's. Everybody thought he was going to die. Daddy had Mr. Heath, the carpenter, build a little mahogany coffin for him. But he didn't die, and when he was three months old, Mama and Daddy decided they might as well name him. They named him William Armstrong, which was like tying a big tail on a small kite. Such a name sounds good only on a tombstone.

I thought myself pretty smart at many things, like holding my breath, running, jumping, or climbing the vines in Old Woman Swamp, and I wanted more than anything else someone to box with, and someone to perch with in the top fork of the great pine behind the barn, where across the fields and swamps you could see the sea. But Mama, crying, told me that even if William Armstrong lived, he would never do these things with me. He might not, she sobbed, even be "all there."

It was bad enough having an invalid brother, but having one who possibly was not all there was unbearable, so began to make plans to kill him by smothering him with a pillow. However, one afternoon as I watched him, my head poked between the iron posts of the foot of the bed, he looked straight at me and grinned. I skipped through the rooms, down the echoing halls, shouting, "Mama, he smiled. he's all there! He's all there!" and he was. As long as he lay all the time in bed, we called him William Armstrong, even though it was formal and sounded as if we were referring to one of our ancestors, but with his creeping around on the deerskin rug and beginning to talk, something had to be done about his name.