Blues Ain’t No Mockin Bird by Toni Cade Bambara

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Blues Aint No Mockin Birdby Toni Cade Bambara

• Lesson developed by Susan Lenski
• sjlenski_at_pdx.edu

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Please think about these questions and answer
with yes or no.

• Friends can take my picture with their cell
  phones any time they want to.
• Its OK for a stranger to take my picture with a
  cell phone when Im not looking.
• Government officials have the right to take
  pictures of anyone at any time.

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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 Judsons
  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.

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Role Playing

• Granny
• Cathy
• Tyrone
• Terry
• Narrator
• Man with camera

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• Go tell that man we aint a bunch of trees.
• Mam?
• 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 wagond been roamin
  around all morning. The tall man with a huge
  camera lassoed to his shoulder was buzzin our
  way.

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• Theyre makin movie pictures, yelled Tyrone,
  stiffenin his legs and twistin so the tired come
  down slow so they could see.
• Theyre making movie pictures, sang out Terry.
• That boy dont never have anything original to
  say, said Cathy grown-up.
• By the time the man with the camera had cut
  across our neighbors 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 wed get a shot or
  two of the house and everything and then

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Think for a moment

• Is the man with the camera invading this familys
  privacy?

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Reading Dialect

• This story was written by Toni Cade Bambara in
  1971. Its written in a form called dialect,
  which means that its written the way people
  talked at that time in that region. Well talk
  about African American English later, but its
  important to remember that languages change so
  the dialect in this story will be different from
  todays AAE.

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First read of the story

• Its 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.

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What happened? Look back at the text as we put
the events in sequence.

• 1.
• 2.
• 3.
• 4.
• 5.
• 6.
• 7

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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?

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Exit Slips

• Write one or two sentences on your index card
  about this question
• Were Granny and Granddaddys response to the
  photographers justified?

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Day 2

• Blues Aint No Mockin Bird

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Civil Rights Movement
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1960s moments

• http//www.history.com/states.do?actionstatecont
  entTypeStatestateCivil20RightsparentId1968
• Play Civil Rights video

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Looking at Characters, Second reading
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Granny
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Granddaddy
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Dialect
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Third reading

• Nonstandard grammar
• Unusual vocabulary
• Idiomatic expressions

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Dialect discussion

• Give me one example of each of these
• Nonstandard grammar
• Unusual vocabulary
• Idiomatic expressions

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Dialect and Authors 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?

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Exit Slip

• 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?

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Day 3

• Blues Aint No Mockin Bird

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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?

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Making Connections

• Develop a scenario taking place today that
  concerns issues of privacy. In groups of 3 or 4,
  come up with a scenario that could happen to YOU
  or to someone else who is living today.

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Back to the story

• Were Granny and Granddaddys response to the
  photographers justified?
• Think of three reasons why it was and three
  reasons why it wasnt. Write them down.

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Writing Taking a stance

• Write a paper taking a stance about the issue of
  privacy using ideas from the story and those from
  your life. I will number you off by 1s and 2s.
  People who are 1s will be pro-privacy, people who
  are 2s will be anti-privacy. You will have 15
  minutes to write.

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For or Against?

• Do you think the government has the right to
  invade the privacy of citizens who receive
  benefits? Develop a paper using examples from
  the story and from your own life.

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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.

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Take it home

• Ask your parents/guardians what they think about
  the issue of privacy.
• Continue this discussion on our classroom blog.
• Look at the website links Ive posted on our
  class website to learn more about the author, the
  Civil Rights Movement, and hawks.