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The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst
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Pre-Reading Journal Think about the colors red
and scarlet. Write down all of the things you
associate with these colors. Include
expressions, objects, titles, etc.
Did you think of
UGA?
hearts?
stop lights?
blood?
sunsets?
Kool Aid?
your grandmas hat?
sunburn?
Mars? a kickball? cherries? candy? medicine?
vitamins? tomatoes? graded papers?
redheaded ladies with bad tempers?
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The scarlet ibis is a vivid scarlet bird (50 cm)
with a curved bill. The sensitive bill is used to
search for food, mainly small animals in the mud
along the coast.
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flying to their evening roost in the mangrove
The scarlet ibises live in large groups and fly
in V-formation from their roosts to their
feeding grounds. They contrast splendidly with
the normal green color of the landscape, the
brown of the mud flats and the blue of the sky.
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The ibises feed in shallow waters along the
coast, in the mud flats and in the lagoons. As
is known from the zoo, they have to eat a lot of
shrimp to retain their color.
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They sleep in large groups in the mangrove trees
along the coast, together with herons. In these
trees they make their nests (a pile of sticks)
and both parents take care of the young.
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young bird changing from brown to red
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. The ibises breed in young mangroves and if not
enough of these trees are found in Suriname, the
birds fly away to breed on the coast of Colombia,
Venezuela, Guyana, French Guiana or Brazil. In
Trinidad they are protected as the the national
bird of that island, but they did not breed there
for the last 30 years.
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Each small square indicates the observation of at
least 1 (group) of these birds, the medium ones
at least 4 observations and the largest ones 10
or more.
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DISABILITY CELEBRITY QUIZ
Many important people have had forms of learning
disabilities. Try to match the description with
the name of the important person in the list.
Remember, if they can cope with their disability
and succeed, others can too!
Albert Einstein  Harriet Tubman   Magic
Johnson      Ludwig Beethoven George
Patton    Tom Cruise Franklin D.
Roosevelt Whoopi Goldberg James Earl Jones Mel
Tillis
This composer was deaf when he composed his 9th
Symphony.
Ludwig Beethoven
Although paralyzed from polio, this man became
governor of New York and was elected president
four times.
Struck by an overseer as a child, a fractured
skull caused this abolitionist to have narcolepsy
the rest of her life. She rescued hundreds of
slaves on the Underground Railroad.
Harriet Tubman
Albert Einstein
Franklin D. Roosevelt
A mathematician and physicist who did not speak
until the age of three. Math and writing were
difficult for him.
Known as Darth Vader in Star Wars, this actor
overcame stuttering in high school.
James Earl Jones
This Sister Act actress has dyslexia but has
succeeded in a movie career.
Whoopi Goldberg
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DISABILITY CELEBRITY QUIZ
Many important people have had forms of learning
disabilities. Try to match the description with
the name of the important person in the list.
Remember, if they can cope with their disability
and succeed, others can too!
This actor is unable to read even today because
of dyslexia. He learns lines by listening to
tapes.
Magic Johnson      George Patton    Tom Cruise
Mel Tillis
Tom Cruise
Famous for his athletic skill on the basketball
court, this athlete has a reading disability.
This country music entertainer developed
humorous routines about his stuttering.
Magic Johnson
Mel Tillis
This war hero could not read until the age of
twelve, but he became a famous general in World
War II.
George Patton
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The theme of The Scarlet Ibis reveals a truth
about the effects of love and pride.
As we read The Scarlet Ibis, see if you can
find passages in which the narrator or Doodle
states the essence of the theme.
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Quotations from The Scarlet Ibis
There is within me (and with sadness I have
watched it in others) a knot of cruelty borne by
the stream of love, much as our blood sometimes
bears the seed of our destruction, and sometimes
I was mean to Doodle.
I did not know then that pride is a wonderful,
terrible, thing, a seed that bears two vines,
life and death.
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Now lets read The Scarlet Ibis, in which
the narrator's brother "Doodle" is born
physically handicapped and is  expected to die,
yet lives. The narrator is forced to take Doodle
everywhere in a go-cart. After much effort, he
succeeds in making Doodle walk. Then, he is
determined to teach Doodle more...
and find out what the red bird has to do with it!