Transcript Blues Ain’t No Mockin Bird by Toni Cade Bambara

Blues Ain’t No Mockin
Bird
by Toni Cade Bambara
Lesson developed by Susan Lenski
[email protected]
Please think about these
questions and answer with
“yes” or “no.”
1. Friends can take my picture with their
cell phones any time they want to.
2. It’s OK for a stranger to take my picture
with a cell phone when I’m not looking.
3. Government officials have the right to
take pictures of anyone at any time.
Here is the first paragraph
of the story.
 The puddle had frozen over, and me and Cathy went stompin in it.
The twins from the next door, Tyrone and Terry, were swingin so
high out of sight we forgot we were waitin our turn on the tire.
Cathy jumped up and came down hard on her heels and started
tap-dancin. And the frozen patch splinterin every which way
underneath kinda spooky. “Looks like a plastic spider web, she
said. “A sort of weird spider, I guess, with many mental problems.”
But really it looked like the crystal paperweight Granny kept in the
parlor. She was on the back porch, Granny was, making the cakes
drunk. The old ladle dirpping rum into the Christmas tins, like it
used to drip maple syrup into the pails when we lived in the
Judson’s woods, like it poured cider into the vats when we were
on the Cooper place, like it used to scoop buttermilk and soft
cheese when we lived at the dairy.
Role Playing
 Granny





Cathy
Tyrone
Terry
Narrator
Man with camera
 “Go tell that man we ain’t a bunch of trees.”
 “Ma’m?”
 “I said to tell that man to get away from here
with that camera.”
 Me and Cathy look over toward the meadow
where the men with the station wagon’d been
roamin around all morning. The tall man with a
huge camera lassoed to his shoulder was
buzzin our way.

“They’re makin movie pictures,” yelled Tyrone, stiffenin
his legs and twistin so the tire’d come down slow so
they could see.
“They’re making movie pictures,” sang out Terry.
“That boy don’t never have anything original to say,” said
Cathy grown-up.
By the time the man with the camera had cut across
our neighbor’s yard, the twins were out of the trees
swingin low and Granny was onto the steps, the screen
door bammin soft and scratchy against her palms. “We
thought we’d get a shot or two of the house and
everything and then—”
Think for a moment…
 Is the man with the camera
invading this family’s privacy?
Reading Dialect
 This story was written by Toni Cade
Bambara in 1971. It’s written in a form
called “dialect,” which means that it’s
written the way people talked at that time
in that region. We’ll talk about African
American English later, but it’s important
to remember that languages change so
the dialect in this story will be different
from today’s AAE.
First read of the story
 It’s easier to understand stories written in
dialect if you hear them.
 Divide into your groups of three or four
and read the story out loud. Take turns
reading.
 You have 15 minutes.
What happened? Look back
at the text as we put the
events in sequence.







1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7
Issues of Power and
Privacy
Did the camera men have the right to take
pictures?
Should Granddaddy get in trouble for
ruining the camera and film?
What do you think should happen next?
How does this story present issues of
power?
Out the door
class work grade 20 pts.
 Write one or two sentences on your index
card about this question:
 Were Granny and Granddaddy’s
response to the photographers justified?
Looking at Characters,
Second reading
Actions
Feelings
Thoughts
Conversations
Granny
Actions
Feelings
Thoughts
Conversations
Granddaddy
Actions
Feelings
Thoughts
Conversations
Dialect
Nonstandard
grammar
“The puddle
had frozen
over, and me
and Cathy…
“Cathy and I” is
standard because
“I” is one of the
subjects of the
sentence.
Unusual
vocabulary
The screen
door bammin
soft….
We can figure out this
word by its context.
What word would you
use?
Idiomatic
expressions
Making cakes
drunk…
Idioms are phrases
that make no sense
just looking at the
words.
Second reading
 Nonstandard grammar
 Unusual vocabulary
 Idiomatic expressions
Dialect discussion
 Give me one example of each of these:
 Nonstandard grammar
 Unusual vocabulary
 Idiomatic expressions
Dialect and Author’s Craft
 Why do you think the author wrote the
story in dialect?
 How does using dialect evidence power?
 Do you think the use of dialect was
effective?
Out the door 20 pts.
 Write one or two sentences on your index
card to answer this question:
 In what ways did the author use dialect to
develop the characters of Granny and
Granddaddy?
Refreshing our Memory
 What happened in the story?
 Why is the time period that the story was
written important to our understanding?
 How was power portrayed in the story?
 What do you think about the privacy
issue illustrated in the story?
Homework question
 Were Granny and Granddaddy’s
response to the photographers justified?
 Think of three reasons why it was and
three reasons why it wasn’t. Write them
down.
Justified
Not justified
Final words…
Literature has the capacity to help us
understand human behavior in the past,
and it also helps us think about current
issues.
When we identify themes in literature, we
are able to understand ourselves and our
world in new ways.