1. Elements Review Activity: “The Scarlet Ibis”
Using the elements you have learned thus far, answer the following questions over the assigned story. You may use your notes to help answer each question. You will also need to have your story packet, as the questions should be answered with text-based information. This means you need to give actual examples from the story…not just vague answers.
Click on any of the speakers to have the information
read as you complete this activity.
Created by: Amy Fuhr

2. How to… Be sure to save your work after each slide
Insert answers in textbox: Click on the appropriate box and simply type in
your answers.
Use the drawing tools pen: Click on the little pen in the bottom left corner
of the slide. Choose the color pen you want and draw the lines as
needed. When you are finished, change the pen back to the arrow. You
will be prompted to keep or discard your notations, always choose “keep.”
Be sure to save your work after each slide
so that you do not lose any answers!

3. P L O T
Label the plot diagram correctly and then click on the box to see if your answers are correct.
Click here to see correct answers.

4. P L O T
Label the plot diagram correctly and then click on the box to see if your answers are correct.

5. Click here to see correct answers.
Using the drawing tools pen, match each conflict to either internal or external.
P L O T
The narrator cries over Doodle’s death.
The narrator wants to
kill Doodle.
Internal
The narrator names his little brother Doodle.
The narrator leaves his brother in the thunder storm.
external
The narrator makes Doodle touch his casket.
The narrator teaches his brother to walk.
Click here to see correct answers.

6. P L O T Internal external
Using the drawing tools pen, match each conflict to either internal or external.
P L O T
The narrator cries over Doodle’s death.
The narrator wants to
kill Doodle.
Internal
The narrator names his little brother Doodle.
The narrator leaves his brother in the thunder storm.
external
The narrator makes Doodle touch his casket.
The narrator teaches his brother to walk.

7. What is the climax of “The Scarlet Ibis”?
P L O T
Click on the choice that best answers the question.
a. When Doodle walks for the first time.
b. When Doodle is sick all winter.
c. When Doodle dies during the thunderstorm.

8. What is the climax of “The Scarlet Ibis”
P L O T
a. When Doodle walks for the first time.
Sorry, try again!

9. What is the climax of “The Scarlet Ibis”
P L O T
b. When Doodle is sick all winter.
Sorry, try again!

10. What is the climax of “The Scarlet Ibis”
P L O T
c. When Doodle dies during the thunderstorm.
CORRECT!

11. Using the box below, type in the answer to the following question: What happens in the resolution of the story? Explain your answer.
P L O T

12. Method of Characterization
Next to each method of characterization, give at least one text-based detail for the narrator and Doodle.
C H A R A C T E R
Method of Characterization
Narrator
Doodle
Appearance
Actions
Speech / Thoughts
How others feel about the character

13. S E T T I N G
Check all of the boxes that are appropriate for the setting (time and place) of the story.
farm
South Dakota
North Carolina
suburb
inner city
California
Using the above information, discuss how the setting affects the overall understanding of the story.

14. Using the drawing tools pen, match each example of imagery to the correct sense. Each sense may be used more than once.
I M A G E R Y
hurricane
SIGHT
cruelty
peach cobbler
SOUND
graveyard flowers
coffin
SMELL
bleeding tree
scarlet ibis
TASTE
mother crying
sheltering Doodle
TOUCH
rotting brown magnolia petals
Click here to see correct answers.

15. rotting brown magnolia petals
I M A G E R Y
Using the drawing tools pen, match each example of imagery to the correct sense. Each sense may be used more than once.
hurricane
SIGHT
cruelty
peach cobbler
SOUND
graveyard flowers
coffin
SMELL
bleeding tree
scarlet ibis
TASTE
mother crying
sheltering Doodle
TOUCH
rotting brown magnolia petals

16. What is the mood? Discuss how the setting and imagery show the mood of the story. Remember that mood is how the story makes the reader feel…emotion words.
M O O D

17. Third-Person Omniscient
Provide a definition for each of the three types of point of view below and justify which one is the viewpoint of this story with a text-based explanation.
P O I N T of V I E W
Point of View
Definition
Justification
First-Person
Third-Person Limited
Third-Person Omniscient

18. T H E M E
THEME is the central idea or message in a work of fiction. It’s a perception about life or human nature that the writer shares with the reader. Some ways to look for a theme include:
review what happens to the main character. (Does the character change during the story? What does the character learn about life?)
skimming key phrases and sentences that say something about life or people in general.
thinking about the story’s title. (Does it have a meaning that could lead to a major theme?)
remembering that a story may have more than one theme.

19. T H E M E
Fill in the chart below with details from the story. To insert your answers, simply click in the box and type your answers. Continue to the next page.
Key Passages
What Narrator Learns
Importance of Title
“Doodle was my brother, and he was going to cling to me no matter what I did, so I dragged him across the burning cotton field to share with him the only beauty I knew, Old Woman Swamp.”
(Example Response)
Doodle really is a companion, someone with whom he can share the place he loves, Old Woman Swamp.
The scarlet ibis, like the beauty of Old Woman Swamp and like Doodle’s fragile goodness, is rare and “beyond the touch of the everyday world.”
“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 at times I was mean to Doodle.”

20. T H E M E Key Passages What Narrator Learns Importance of Title
“But all of us must have something or someone to be proud of, and Doodle had become mine. I did not know then that pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death.
“For a long, long time, it seemed forever, I lay there crying, sheltering my fallen scarlet ibis from the heresy of rain.”

21. T H E M E
To make an INFERENCE, readers look at details and make logical guesses about what they mean. To draw a conclusion, readers combine these inferences with what they already know. An active reader of fiction is constantly making inferences and drawing conclusions about what the characters are doing or thinking and what motivates them.
Inferences are often needed to understand the theme of the story. The author relies on the reader’s ability to make inferences and draw conclusions about the main characters and events. This really means to “read between the lines” since the author is unlikely to directly state the theme of the story.

22. T H E M E
Use the chart below to infer something about the main character’s feelings. Use these inferences to draw a conclusion about him.
PASSAGE
INFERENCE
“It was bad enough having an invalid for a brother, but having one who possibly was not all there was unbearable.”
“I began to make plans to kill him by smothering him with a pillow.”
“Renaming my brother was perhaps the kindest thing I ever did for him, because nobody expects much from someone called Doodle.”
“One day I took him up to the barn loft and showed him his casket, telling him we all believed he would die.”

23. T H E M E
Use your inferences from the previous page to draw conclusions about the main character. Basically, what have you learned about the character.

24. T H E M E
Based on your inferences about the main character and title of the story, write a theme statement below. Explain why you believe your statement fits the story.
When finished, save your assignment to the group folder on the “S” drive.