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Linking Texts…

“Marigolds” by Eugenia CollierStory found in textbook on page: 74Online version of the story: http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/schools/clarksburghs/academics/english/Marigolds-J-Douglass.pdfOnline Audio of the story: http://www.sanjuan.edu/webpages/arisantillanes/files/03%20Marigolds.wmaOnline PowerPoint (great for introducing the story): http://www.slideshare.net/vrburton/marigolds

Essential Question – How does regret change a person?

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.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, L. 4b-c Identify and correctly use patterns of word changes that indicate different meanings; Consult general and specialized reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning, it’s part of speech, or its etymology.

Introduction: It’s a horrible thing when you accidentally drop grape juice on your mom’s favorite carpet. It’s even worse when you gossip about a friend, or ignore your teacher’s request for you to quiet down. At one time or another, everyone has said and done something that makes them flinch with regret. Everyone has something they would like to take back.

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Making the Connection: Marigolds is a story that explores the idea of regret. It also investigates concepts such as vanity, beauty, and poverty. After you finished reading Marigolds, you will explore nonfiction texts and visuals that are also about the same topics.

Evaluating the text: The story Marigolds takes place in rural African-American community during the 1930’s. This was a time of intense racial segregation, poverty, and restrained opportunity. Most African-Americans faced hard times and extreme poverty. During the Great Depression all Americans were suffering financially; however, African-Americans were particularly hard hit. The setting is crucial to determining the stories theme. As you read, think about the role the setting plays, and how it influences the narrator’s experiences and the problems she must deal with and overcome. The setting offers important clues about the development of the stories theme, or central message. For instance, the figurative, or nonliteral, description of “futile waiting” as “the sorrowful background music of our impoverished little community” powerfully describes the setting and hints at the hopelessness of the narrator’s circumstances. While you read, think about how the setting influences the narrator’s experiences and the challenges she confronts. What message do those experiences teach readers about life? How does it lead the reader to the story’s theme?

Skills for Reading: Coming to a ConclusionsA conclusion is a logical judgment founded on information in the text and on your own experiences and prior knowledge. While reading “Marigolds,” keep track of your thoughts by creating a graphic organizer like the one below (which also includes an example). After that, you can practice coming to a conclusion.

Student Example:Text Information Prior Knowledge My ConclusionAll the narrator remembers about her hometown is dust.

Many people usually can remember something nice or happy about their childhoods

The narrator had a difficult childhood because she can’t remember anything happy about it.

Vocabulary in ContextFill out the chart below, using these words from the story: bravado, degradation, exuberance, futile, impotent, nostalgia, ostensibly, perverse, poignantly, retribution, squalor, stoicism

I know this word well I’ve heard of this word/ I know something about this word

I don’t know this word at all

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About the Author Eugenia Collier was born in raised in the highly segregated city of Baltimore, Maryland. Her parents were educated professionals and instilled the importance of education in her from an early age. She earned degrees at both Howard University, and later at Columbia.She worked as a case carrier in Baltimore, and later became a college professor and began her writing career. She credits her African-American heritage as her inspiration for her stories.

Marigolds by Eugenia Collier (story also found in textbook on page 74)View this picture of the Marigold. What mood does it evoke? Explain.

A Close Reading Exercise

When I think of the hometown of my youth, allthat I seem to remember is dust—the brown, crumblydust of late summer—arid, sterile dust that gets intothe eyes and makes them water, gets into the throatand between the toes of bare brown feet. I don’t knowwhy I should remember only the dust. Surely theremust have been lush green lawns and paved streetsunder leafy shade trees somewhere in town; butmemory is an abstract painting—it does not present

What details in the first passage allow the reader to visualize the setting? Explain.

What point of view is this story being told in? How do you know?

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things as they are, but rather as they feel. And so,when I think of that time and that place, I rememberonly the dry September of the dirt roads and grasslessyards of the shantytown where I lived. And one otherthing I remember, another incongruency ofmemory—a brilliant splash of sunny yellow against thedust—Miss Lottie’s marigolds. Whenever the memory of those marigoldsflashes across my mind, a strange nostalgia comeswith it and remains long after the picture has faded. Ifeel again the chaotic emotions of adolescence,illusive as smoke, yet as real as the potted geraniumbefore me now. Joy and rage and wild animalgladness and shame become tangled together in themulticolored skein of fourteen-going-on-fifteen as Irecall that devastating moment when I was suddenlymore woman than child, years ago in Miss Lottie’syard. I think of those marigolds at the strangest times; Iremember them vividly now as I desperately passaway the time. I suppose that futile waiting was the sorrowfulbackground music of our impoverished littlecommunity when I was young. The Depression thatgripped the nation was no new thing to us, for theblack workers of rural Maryland had always beendepressed. I don’t know what it was that we werewaiting for; certainly not for the prosperity that was“just around the corner,” for those were white folks’words, which we never believed. Nor did we wait forhard work and thrift to pay off in shining success, asthe American Dream promised, for we knew betterthan that, too. Perhaps we waited for a miracle,amorphous in concept but necessary if one were tohave the grit to rise before dawn each day and labor inthe white man’s vineyard until after dark, or to wanderabout in the September dust offering one’s sweat inreturn for some meager share of bread. But God waschary with miracles in those days, and so wewaited—and waited. We children, of course were only vaguelyaware of the extent of our poverty. Having no radios, somewhat unaware of the world outside our community. Nowadays we would be called culturally deprived and people would write books and holdconferences about us. In those days everybody weknew was just as hungry and ill clad as we were.Poverty was the cage in which we all were trapped,and our hatred of it was still the vague, undirectedrestlessness of the zoo-bred flamingo who knows thatnature created him to fly free. As I think of those days I feel most poignantlythe tag end of summer, the bright, dry times when webegan to have a sense of shortening days and theimminence of the cold. By the time I was fourteen, my brother Joey

What words in the first three paragraphs are you unfamiliar with? Circle them and find out what they mean using a dictionary.

What does the narrator mean when she says, “ I suppose that futile waiting was the sorrowful background music of our impoverished little community when I was young.”

What is the American Dream? Does our narrator believe that it is a dream attainable by her community members?

Which motto would the members of the narrator’s community more likely to believe in: Hard work equals success or wait for a miracle? Explain your answer.

Reread the highlighted portion of this paragraph and rewrite it in your own words.

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and I were the only children left at our house, the olderones having left home for early marriage or the lure ofthe city, and the two babies having been sent torelatives who might care for them better than we. Joeywas three years younger than I, and a boy, andtherefore vastly inferior. Each morning our mother andfather trudged wearily down the dirt road and aroundthe bend, she to her domestic job, he to his dailyunsuccessful quest for work. After our few choresaround the tumbledown shanty, Joey and I were freeto run wild in the sun with other children similarlysituated. For the most part, those days are ill-defined inmy memory, running together and combining like afresh watercolor painting left out in the rain. Iremember squatting in the road drawing a picture inthe dust, a picture which Joey gleefully erased withone sweep of his dirty foot. I remember fishing forminnows in a muddy creek and watching sadly as theyeluded my cupped hands, while Joey laugheduproariously. And I remember, that year, a strangerestlessness of body and of spirit, a feeling thatsomething old and familiar was ending, and somethingunknown and therefore terrifying was beginning. One day returns to me with special clarity forsome reason, perhaps because it was the beginning ofthe experience that in some inexplicable way markedthe end of innocence. I was loafing under the greatoak tree in our yard, deep in some reverie which Ihave now forgotten, except that it involved somesecret, secret thoughts of one of the Harris boysacross the yard. Joey and a bunch of kids were borednow with the old tire suspended from an oak limb,which had kept them entertained for a while.“Hey, Lizabeth,” Joey yelled. He never talkedwhen he could yell. “Hey, Lizabeth, let’s gosomewhere.”I came reluctantly from my private world.“Where you want to go? What you want to do?”The truth was that we were becoming tired ofthe formlessness of our summer days. The idlenesswhose prospect had seemed so beautiful during thebusy days of spring now had degenerated to an almostdesperate effort to fill up the empty midday hours.“Let’s go see can we find some locusts on thehill,” someone suggested.Joey was scornful. “Ain’t no more locusts there.Y’all got ‘em all while they was still green.”The argument that followed was brief and notreally worth the effort. Hunting locust trees wasn’t funanymore by now.“Tell you what,” said Joey finally, his eyessparkling. “Let’s us go over to Miss Lottie’s.” The idea caught on at once, for annoying MissLottie was always fun. I was still child enough to

Based on what you have read so far, what can readers infer about the narrator’s life? Explain using details.

Theme: Reread the highlighted portion of the paragraph. In your own words, what is the author saying?

Common Core L4b: Language alert! DerivationsWords that are created from another word or base are derivations. The word generate meaning, “to bring into existence” has many derivations, including generation and regenerate. Reread the highlighted passage and locate another derivation of generate. Based on how the word is used in context, what does it mean?

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scamper along with the group over rickety fences andthrough bushes that tore our already raggedy clothes,back to where Miss Lottie lived. I think now that wemust have made a tragicomic spectacle, five or sixkids of different ages, each of us clad in only onegarment—the girls in faded dresses that were too longor too short, the boys in patchy pants, their sweatybrown chests gleaming in the hot sun. A little cloud ofdust followed our thin legs and bare feet as wetramped over the barren land. When Miss Lottie’s house came into view westopped, ostensibly to plan our strategy, but actuallyto reinforce our courage. Miss Lottie’s house was themost ramshackle of all our ramshackle homes. Thesun and rain had long since faded its rickety frame siding from white to a sullen gray. The boards themselves seemed to remain upright not from being nailed together but rather from leaning together, like ahouse that a child might have constructed from cards.A brisk wind might have blown it down, and the factthat it was still standing implied a kind of enchantmentthat was stronger than the elements. There it stoodand as far as I know is standing yet—a gray, rottingthing with no porch, no shutters, no steps, set on acramped lot with no grass, not even any weeds—amonument to decay.In front of the house in a squeaky rocking chairsat Miss Lottie’s son, John Burke, completing theimpression of decay. John Burke was what was knownas queer-headed. Black and ageless, he sat rockingday in and day out in a mindless stupor, lulled by themonotonous squeak-squawk of the chair. A batteredhat atop his shaggy head shaded him from the sun.Usually John Burke was totally unaware of everythingoutside his quiet dream world. But if you disturbed him,if you intruded upon his fantasies, he would becomeenraged, strike out at you, and curse at you in somestrange enchanted language which only he couldunderstand. We children made a game of thinking ofways to disturb John Burke and then to elude hisviolent retribution.

Based on the description of Miss Lottie’s house, what can readers infer about her financial and social standing? Explain using details.

What details in this paragraph help the reader to understand John Burke?

Analyze this visual – Does it match what you pictured John Burke looking like based on the description provided by the narrator? Why or why not?

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But our real fun and our real fear lay in MissLottie herself. Miss Lottie seemed to be at least ahundred years old. Her big frame still held traces of thetall, powerful woman she must have been in youth,although it was now bent and drawn. Her smooth skinwas a dark reddish brown, and her face had Indian-likefeatures and the stern stoicism that one associateswith Indian faces. Miss Lottie didn’t like intruderseither, especially children. She never left her yard, andnobody ever visited her. We never knew how shemanaged those necessities which depend on humaninteraction—how she ate, for example, or evenwhether she ate. When we were tiny children, wethought Miss Lottie was a witch and we made up talesthat we half believed ourselves about her exploits. Wewere far too sophisticated now, of course, to believethe witch nonsense. But old fears have a way ofclinging like cobwebs, and so when we sighted thetumbledown shack, we had to stop to reinforce ournerves.“Look, there she is,” I whispered, forgetting thatMiss Lottie could not possibly have heard me from thatdistance. “She’s fooling with them crazy flowers.”“Yeh, look at ‘er.”Miss Lottie’s marigolds were perhaps thestrangest part of the picture. Certainly they did not fit inwith the crumbling decay of the rest of her yard.Beyond the dusty brown yard, in front of the sorry grayhouse, rose suddenly and shockingly a dazzling stripof bright blossoms, clumped together in enormousmounds, warm and passionate and sun-golden. Theold black witch-woman worked on them all summer,every summer, down on her creaky knees, weedingand cultivating and arranging, while the housecrumbled and John Burke rocked. For some perversereason, we children hated those marigolds. Theyinterfered with the perfect ugliness of the place; theywere too beautiful; they said too much that we couldnot understand; they did not make sense. There wassomething in the vigor with which the old womandestroyed the weeds that intimidated us. It shouldhave been a comical sight—the old woman with theman’s hat on her cropped white head, leaning over thebright mounds, her big backside in the air—but itwasn’t comical, it was something we could not name.

Theme and Setting: How does Miss Lottie feel about the Marigolds? Explain.Theme and Setting: Reread this quote- “For some perverse reason, we children hated those marigolds. They interfered with the perfect ugliness of the place; they were too beautiful; they said too much that we could not understand; they did not make sense.” In your own words, why did the children hate the marigolds? Why didn’t they “make sense?”

Analyze Visuals – How

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We had to annoy her by whizzing a pebble into herflowers or by yelling a dirty word, then dancing awayfrom her rage, reveling in our youth and mocking herage. Actually, I think it was the flowers we wanted todestroy, but nobody had the nerve to try it, not evenJoey, who was usually fool enough to try anything.“Y’all git some stones,” commanded Joey nowand was met with instant giggling obedience aseveryone except me began to gather pebbles from thedusty ground. “Come on, Lizabeth.”I just stood there peering through the bushes,torn between wanting to join the fun and feeling that itwas all a bit silly.“You scared, Lizabeth?”I cursed and spat on the ground—my favorite gestureof phony bravado. “Y’all children get the stones, I’llshow you how to use ‘em.”I said before that we children were notconsciously aware of how thick were the bars of ourcage. I wonder now, though, whether we were notmore aware of it than I thought. Perhaps we had somedim notion of what we were, and how little chance wehad of being anything else. Otherwise, why would wehave been so preoccupied with destruction? Anyway,the pebbles were collected quickly, and everybodylooked at me to begin the fun.“Come on, y’all.”We crept to the edge of the bushes thatbordered the narrow road in front of Miss Lottie’splace. She was working placidly, kneeling over theflowers, her dark hand plunged into the golden mound.Suddenly zing—an expertly aimed stone cut the headoff one of the blossoms.“Who out there?” Miss Lottie’s backside camedown and her head came up as her sharp eyessearched the bushes. “You better git!”

does this painting compare to the description of Miss Lottie? Explain your answer.

Based on the narrator’s actions in the highlighted portion, what can readers infer about her?

Theme and Setting: What connections are made between poverty described in the metaphor of the cage, and the destruction of the marigolds?

How does Miss Lottie react to the children’s destruction of her marigolds? How do you know?

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We had crouched down out of sight in thebushes, where we stifled the giggles that insisted oncoming. Miss Lottie gazed warily across the road for amoment, then cautiously returned to her weeding.Zing—Joey sent a pebble into the blooms, andanother marigold was beheaded.Miss Lottie was enraged now. She beganstruggling to her feet, leaning on a rickety cane andshouting. “Y’all git! Go on home!” Then the rest of thekids let loose with their pebbles, storming the flowersand laughing wildly and senselessly at Miss Lottie’simpotent rage. She shook her stick at us and startedshakily toward the road crying, “Git ‘long! John Burke!John Burke, come help!” Then I lost my head entirely, mad with thepower of inciting such rage, and ran out of the bushesin the storm of pebbles, straight toward Miss Lottie,chanting madly, “Old witch, fell in a ditch, picked up apenny and thought she was rich!” The childrenscreamed with delight, dropped their pebbles, andjoined the crazy dance, swarming around Miss Lottielike bees and chanting, “Old lady witch!” while shescreamed curses at us. The madness lasted only amoment, for John Burke, startled at last, lurched out ofhis chair, and we dashed for the bushes just as MissLottie’s cane went whizzing at my head. I did not join the merriment when the kidsgathered again under the oak in our bare yard.Suddenly I was ashamed, and I did not like beingashamed. The child in me sulked and said it was all infun, but the woman in me flinched at the thought of themalicious attack that I had led. The mood lasted allafternoon. When we ate the beans and rice that wassupper that night, I did not notice my father’s silence,for he was always silent these days, nor did I noticemy mother’s absence, for she always worked until wellinto evening. Joey and I had a particularly bitterargument after supper; his exuberance got on mynerves. Finally I stretched out upon the pallet in theroom we shared and fell into a fitful doze.When I awoke, somewhere in the middle of thenight, my mother had returned, and I vaguely listenedto the conversation that was audible through the thinwalls that separated our rooms. At first I heard nowords, only voices. My mother’s voice was like a cool,dark room in summer—peaceful, soothing, quiet. I loved to listen to it; it made things seem all rightsomehow. But my father’s voice cut through hers,shattering the peace.“Twenty-two years, Maybelle, twenty-twoyears,” he was saying, “and I got nothing for you,nothing, nothing.”“It’s all right, honey, you’ll get something.Everybody out of work now, you know that.”“It ain’t right. Ain’t no man ought to eat his

Common Core L4cLanguage Alert –Etymology The Latin word malus means “bad”. Words that derive from the word malus include verbs like malfunction (“fail to work properly”) and malign (“speak badly of’) What adjective in line 190 shares this etymology, or origin? What other words can you think of that also come from malus? Check a dictionary to see how many you have identified correctly.

Unlike the other children, the narrator is not happy about what they have done to Miss Lottie’s precious marigolds. What does this tell the reader about her? Explain.

How does the narrator feel

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woman’s food year in and year out, and see hischildren running wild. Ain’t nothing right about that.”“Honey, you took good care of us when youhad it. Ain’t nobody got nothing nowadays.”“I ain’t talking about nobody else, I’m talkingabout me. God knows I try.” My mother said somethingI could not hear, and my father cried out louder, “Whatmust a man do, tell me that?”“Look, we ain’t starving. I git paid every week,and Mrs. Ellis is real nice about giving me things. Shegonna let me have Mr. Ellis’s old d coat for you thiswinter—”“Damn Mr. Ellis’s coat! And damn his money!You think I want white folks’ leavings?“Damn, Maybelle”—and suddenly he sobbed,loudly and painfully, and cried helplessly andhopelessly in the dark night. I had never heard a mancry before. I did not know men ever cried. I coveredmy ears with my hands but could not cut off the soundof my father’s harsh, painful, despairing sobs. Myfather was a strong man who could whisk a child uponhis shoulders and go singing through the house. Myfather whittled toys for us, and laughed so loud that thegreat oak seemed to laugh with him, and taught ushow to fish and hunt rabbits. How could it be that myfather was crying? But the sobs went on, unstifled,finally quieting until I could hear my mother’s voice,deep and rich, humming softly as she used to hum to afrightened child.The world had lost its boundary lines. Mymother, who was small and soft, was now the strengthof the family; my father, who was the rock on which thefamily had been built, was sobbing like the tiniest child.Everything was suddenly out of tune, like a brokenaccordion. Where did I fit into this crazy picture? I donot now remember my thoughts, only a feeling of greatbewilderment and fear.Long after the sobbing and humming hadstopped, I lay on the pallet, still as stone with myhands over my ears, wishing that I too could cry andbe comforted. The night was silent now except for thesound of the crickets and of Joey’s soft breathing. Butthe room was too crowded with fear to allow me tosleep, and finally, feeling the terrible aloneness of 4A.M., I decided to awaken Joey.

“Ouch! What’s the matter with you? What you

when she listens to her mother speak? How do you know?

Making Conclusions: Why is the narrator’s father crying?

Theme and Setting: What affect does the conversation between her parents have on the narrator? Explain your answer using details.

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want?” he demanded disagreeably when I had pinchedand slapped him awake.“Come on, wake up.”“What for? Go ‘way.”I was lost for a reasonable reply. I could notsay, “I’m scared and I don’t want to be alone,” so Imerely said, “I’m going out. If you want to come, comeon.”The promise of adventure awoke him. “Goingout now? Where to, Lizabeth? What you going to do?”I was pulling my dress over my head. Until nowI had not thought of going out. “Just come on,” I repliedtersely.I was out the window and halfway down theroad before Joey caught up with me.“Wait, Lizabeth, where you going?”I was running as if the Furies were after me,as perhaps they were—running silently and furiouslyuntil I came to where I had half known I was headed:to Miss Lottie’s yard.The half-dawn light was more eerie thancomplete darkness, and in it the old house was like theruin that my world had become—foul and crumbling, agrotesque caricature. It looked haunted, but I was notafraid, because I was haunted too.“Lizabeth, you lost your mind?” panted Joey.I had indeed lost my mind, for all thesmoldering emotions of that summer swelled in meand burst—the great need for my mother who wasnever there, the hopelessness of our poverty anddegradation, the bewilderment of being neither childnor woman and yet both at once, the fear unleashedby my father’s tears. And these feelings combined inone great impulse toward destruction.“Lizabeth!”I leaped furiously into the mounds of marigoldsand pulled madly, trampling and pulling and destroyingthe perfect yellow blooms. The fresh smell of earlymorning and of dew-soaked marigolds spurred me onas I went tearing and mangling and sobbing while Joeytugged my dress or my waist crying, “Lizabeth, stop,please stop!”And then I was sitting in the ruined little gardenamong the uprooted and ruined flowers, crying andcrying, and it was too late to undo what I had done.Joey was sitting beside me, silent and frightened, notknowing what to say. Then, “Lizabeth, look!’I opened my swollen eyes and saw in front ofme a pair of large, calloused feet; my gaze lifted to theswollen legs, the age-distorted body clad in a tightcotton nightdress, and then the shadowed Indian facesurrounded by stubby white hair. And there was norage in the face now, now that the garden wasdestroyed and there was nothing any longer to beprotected.

Theme and Setting: Reread the highlighted passages. Why does the narrator destroy the marigolds?

How does the narrator feel after she has destroyed the marigolds?

Common Core RL 4Make a ConclusionThroughout the story the narrator talks about Miss Lottie using fairy-tale metaphors. She calls her a witch and speaks about the “enchantment” surrounding her home. In the highlighted paragraph, she finally sees Miss Lottie for who she is really is. What changes have taken place in the narrator in order to allow her to see the real Miss Lottie?

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“M-miss Lottie!” I scrambled to my feet and juststood there and stared at her, and that was themoment when childhood faded and womanhoodbegan. That violent, crazy act was the last act ofchildhood. For as I gazed at the immobile face with thesad, weary eyes, I gazed upon a kind of reality whichis hidden to childhood. The witch was no longer awitch but only a broken old woman who had dared tocreate beauty in the midst of ugliness and sterility. Shehad been born in squalor and lived in it all her life. Nowat the end of that life she had nothing except a falling downhut, a wrecked body, and John Burke, themindless son of her passion. Whatever verve therewas left in her, whatever was of love and beauty andjoy that had not been squeezed out by life, had beenthere in the marigolds she had so tenderly cared for. Of course I could not express the things that Iknew about Miss Lottie as I stood there awkward andashamed. The years have put words to the things Iknew in that moment, and as I look back upon it, Iknow that that moment marked the end of innocence.Innocence involves an unseeing acceptance of thingsat face value, an ignorance of the area below thesurface. In that humiliating moment I looked beyondmyself and into the depths of another person. This wasthe beginning of compassion, and one cannot haveboth compassion and innocence. The years have taken me worlds away fromthat time and that place, from the dust and squalor ofour lives, and from the bright thing that I destroyed in ablind, childish striking out at God knows what. MissLottie died long ago and many years have passedsince I last saw her hut, completely barren at last, fordespite my wild contrition she never plantedmarigolds again. Yet, there are times when the imageof those passionate yellow mounds returns with apainful poignancy. For one does not have to beignorant and poor to find that his life is as barren asthe dusty yards of our town. And I too have plantedmarigolds.

Paraphrase the narrator’s thoughts about innocence and compassion in the paragraph.

Make a Conclusion: In your own words explain what the author is saying in these final two sentences.

Post Reading Questions

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.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text,

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1. Recognize– What is the age of the narrator?2. Identify– What is strange about Miss Lottie’s marigolds?3. Make Observations– What does the narrator do that she ultimately regrets?4. The influence of setting – Think about the most pronounced features of the story’s

setting and the figurative language the narrator often uses to portray them. How does the setting affect the narrator’s view on life?

5. Make Conclusions – What provokes the young narrator, Lizabeth, to demolish Miss Lottie’s marigolds? Provide evidence from the story to support your answers.

6. Evaluate Climax – What is the climax of this story? How does this turning point change the narrator?

7. Evaluate the Symbolism – What do Miss Lottie’s marigolds symbolize? In order to help you organize your thoughts, fill out the chart below. Add descriptions or details of the marigolds in the first box, and then fill in the second box with ideas that connect to the description/detail from the story.

Description or details about the marigolds from the story

Connections….

“…warm, passionate, and sun-golden.” “sun-golden” makes a connection to the sun, which gives life and warmth

8. Evaluate Theme – All of the characters in this story deal with the anguish and pain caused by living in poverty; however, they deal with it in very different ways. Think about the way Miss Lottie responds to her life of poverty versus the way that narrator responds. What do their responses teach the reader about living in poverty? What theme can be drawn from their responses? What other themes may also come from this story?

9. Evaluate Viewpoints – Reread and think about the narrator’s view on innocence and compassion. Do you agree with her? You may use your own life’s experiences to help support your responses.

10. Text Criticism and Social Commentary – Can “Marigolds” be thought of as a social commentary on racial segregation? Provide evidence to support your ideas

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Linking Texts

Reading for Information

Sowing changeNewspaper Article

Many hands join to transform a barren city lot into a thriving green space for plants -- and people in

North Lawndale

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August 31, 2003|By Donna Freedman, of the Chicago Tribune

Also found @ http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2003-08-31/news/0308300161_1_north-lawndale-greening-committee-lawndale-project-chicago-botanic-garden

Common Core Standards: RI. 2 Determine a central idea of a text and analyze 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 RI 3 Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them. RI. 5 Analyze in detail how an author’s ideas or claims are developed and refined. L. 4a Use context as a clue to the meaning of a word

In the story “Marigolds” Miss Lottie plants the flowers because they bring her happiness. They provide her with a bright spot, and serve as source of beauty in an otherwise depressing setting. Today, it is very common to find for inner-city residents also creating gardens to serve as their own sources as beauty. Like Miss Lottie, they are looking to transform spaces from barren to beautiful. The article “Sowing Change” will explain more about.

Focusing on the Common Core Standards: When reading for information, you will often need to understand and analyze a great deal of information. Outlining is a very efficient way to organize information. An outline organizes the text’s main ideas and supporting details according to their level of importance. Since the main ideas and supporting details are written in the form of brief phrases, an outline can be considered a text’s frame.

A. Create an outline of the article, Sowing Change, by using the Cornell Note taking method. Start by watching the Cornell Note PowerPoint with your teacher. You can also review this PDF handout / explanation of Cornell notes found @ http://www.sandburgspartans.us/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/CornellWay.pdf

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B. After you have learned about how to take excellent Cornell Notes, read the newspaper article, Sowing Change, below. Answer the question in the Close Reading as you read.

C. Next, you will complete a set of Cornell notes based on your understanding of the text. Use the template found @ http://www.sandburgspartans.us/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/CornellNoteFormat.pdfto guide you as your complete your notes. Also, there is a word template of the notes on the next page.

Cornell Notes Topic/Objective: Name:

Class/Period:

Date:

Essential Question:

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Questions: Notes:

Summary:

Sowing Change by Donna Freedman, of the Chicago Tribune

A Close Read of Informational Text

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Before you read, skim the entire article and see if you can decipher what the main topics and sub-topics may be.

The 20-by-32-foot bed of marigolds is not just a sea of orange blooms, but a Rorschach blot. Back up a few feet, look again and the shape of the African continent emerges on a North Lawndale street corner.

A pair of doorway-like arbors invites passersby off the sidewalk and into a garden where raised beds are a glory of lilies, daisies, hibiscus, nicotiana, shrub roses and other plants. In some places, flowers fight for space among broccoli, sweet potatoes and purple kale that are almost treelike in their vigor.

Three low, bark-covered mounds, plus a limestone-terraced hill at the rear of the site, give a sense of terrain. Shrubs, ornamental grasses and young hackberry, black locust, crab apple and magnolia trees also provide vertical uplift on this city lot.

"This is what we need: open space, a place to sit and talk, to think a while," says North Lawndale resident Gerald Earles, sitting in the garden at 12th Place and Central Park Avenue. The 130-by-100-foot garden seemed to spring up in a single day in late April.

In reality, it took more than two years, about 400 volunteers and $200,000 in donated materials and expertise to create the African Heritage Garden.

"I've always known that the community [was] capable of a project of this magnitude. We just needed a focus," says Valerie Leonard, executive director of the non-profit North Lawndale Small Grants Human Development Corp.

The corporation's attempts to garden on the site in 2001 and 2002

Consider the title Sowing Change. Based what this sowing change means, what might a reader infer this article will be about? Explain.

What was needed in order to build the garden?

Common Core L4a Language Alert –Word Origins: Many botanical terms, such as the names of plants, are

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withered and died due to a lack of water. But things finally came together this year after the Chicago Botanic Garden, NeighborSpace, a non-profit land trust, and The Enterprise Companies, a residential real estate development firm, provided financial and design support.

About 200 people, including about 25 people from the community, attended a design session in March to determine what the garden would become. All agreed that the site should have a bed shaped like the African continent and incorporate a number of plants that grow in Africa. Both ideas were part of Leonard's original plan, which was inspired by Unity Park, another Lawndale project.

That park was created five years ago by residents fed up with drug dealing and crime near 19th Street and Kostner Avenue. Gladys Woodson, who spearheaded that project, says that once the site became a well-used and neatly maintained park, the criminal element left.

"If you get enough good people to come out, the bad people are going to leave," Woodson says. She and other Unity Park organizers are helping at the African Heritage Garden as well.

In fact, the heritage garden is thriving under the care and nurturing of a variety of groups, including the North Lawndale Greening Committee, the Combined Block Club and Slumbusters. NeighborSpace, which purchased the land from the city and leases it to North Lawndale, also paid to install a water hookup.

The plants and landscape materials, design and on-site supervision were paid for by a grant from the Chicago Botanic Garden's Neighborhood Gardens program. Each year, the Chicago Botanic Garden awards money to community groups interested in greening their neighborhoods.

It all came together on April 26 when about five dozen volunteers of varying ages, mostly neighborhood residents, planted hundreds of flowers and vegetable seedlings under the supervision of the Chicago Botanic Garden's Community Gardens division. The Safer Foundation, which helps men make the transition from prison to the outside world, sent clients to build arbors and a half-dozen large raised beds.

With regular watering, the garden has thrived -- as have the weeds. Scheduled work parties and neighborhood residents keep the weeds at bay.

In late June, the Chicago Botanic Garden brought more trees and flowers, which were planted by about 30 volunteers, including 9-year-old Nikky Pierce. Nikky, who lives down the street from the garden, is pleased with the results.

derived from Latin. Some terms, however, have their linguistic roots in other languages. Withered come from the Middle English root widren, which is related to another Middle English words meaning “weathered.” Considering this information and the context clues, what does withered mean?

What is the purpose of this garden?

What new topic is introduced in the highlighted passage?

How has the garden

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"Before, it was just dirty and trashy," she says. "It looks pretty when there are flowers in it."

Elder plantswoman and neighborhood resident Annie Lott lends a hand as well as her expertise. At 92, she is an avid gardener who grows numerous flowers and 16 kinds of vegetables. It was her suggestion to put "some food, something that's healthy" in the flower beds.

"I love this garden because it brings back memories of how I was raised," says Lott, who is from Mississippi. "I was raised on a farm and our father taught us to do things for others and share."

The African Heritage Garden is a work in progress. Areas among the beds and mounds still need to be covered with stones. A shelter symbolizing a tribal hut, made with thatch and other materials from Africa, is in the works. Park benches also are likely.

But the progress has been huge, says Leonard, even though some of the volunteers had no gardening experience. "They were involved, and now they're asking, `When can we do it again?'

"That's music to my ears," Leonard says. "When you see how it was being used before and how it's being used now, that's an awesome feeling. It belongs to the community now."

affected 9 year old community member, Nikky?

How has the garden affected the 92 year old, Annie Lott?

How has this garden benefited the community and its members? How does this connect to Miss Lottie?

Be sure to complete your Cornell Notes before answering the Post Reading Questions.

Post Reading Questions for Sowing Change and a Text Analysis

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RI. 2 Determine a central idea of a text and analyze 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. RI. 3 Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are made RI. 5 Analyze in detail how an author’s ideas or claims are developed and refined W. 2f Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented

1. Summarize how, after initial holdups, the African Heritage Garden came to fruition.2. Analyze your Cornell notes and state the article’s main ideas and the supporting details.3. Making a judgment -Consider what you know about crime and what the article shares with you

about this community garden. Why might something as simple as a community garden reduce crime in a neighborhood?

4. Analyze the main ideas of both Marigolds and Sowing Change – Both texts highlight gardeners and their work. Write a brief analysis of the positive outcomes of gardens. Use evidence from the story and article to support your opinions. See the next page for help getting started on writing an analysisHow to Write an Analysis

A. Writing an analysis involves identifying and explain the parts of a subject and coming to a conclusion. Follow these guidelines:

B. To analyze the benefits of gardens, review the benefits and consider how you might break them down. For example, you could use the graphic organizer below to organizer your ideas and evidence.

Text: Benefits to gardeners Benefits to communityMarigolds

Sowing Change

C. Go back and review your Cornell notes and Close Reads for both texts to remind yourself for the main ideas you want to include in your analysis.

D. When you write, you should be methodical. Introduce the main idea, identify the evidence and then elaborate on the evidence with commentary before arriving at your conclusion.

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Reading for Information

Book CoverReaders have seen in the fiction and nonfiction texts, plants can hold splendor and life that make them powerful symbols. Investigate the book cover below and then answer the questions.

RL 7 Analyze the representation of a subject in two different mediums.

Interpret: Think about the title of the book to the left. What might the author want to persuade to think about or do?

Analyze details: What differences do you notice among the children on the cover of this book? What idea might the author trying to share? On the other hand: what similarities are shared among the children? What might this make a reader think about?

Synthesize: The word grassroots refers to organizations and movements that operate at the local level. With the book cover in mind, explain why grassroots likely means what it does.

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For additional Resources, go to the last page.

Assessment Practice: Short Constructed Responses

Text – “Marigolds”On Common Core Assessments, students will have to answer questions that focus on particular passages from a text. To build your close-reading skills, read the short constructed response questions below and pay special attention to the strategies suggest to the right.The narrator remembers precisely when “childhood faded and womanhood began”. Explain why she considers this incident to be her coming-of-age moment. Reinforce your answer with evidence from the text.

Strategies

Read the passage very closely and at least twice before determining on your interpretation

Evidence from the text can be direct or indirect quotes, such as paraphrasing. Furthermore, it can be a specific summary of something that happened in the text

It is vital that any ideas or statements you submit are supported by evidence from the text

Text – “Sowing Change”On Common Core Assessments, students will also have to make conclusions about nonfiction texts. Continue to improve your close reading skills by answering the short constructed response question below.In what ways have community gardens changed the North Lawndale neighborhood for the better? Support your ideas with evidence from the text.

Strategies

Reread the article and make note of the positive changes you discovered.

Construct insightful conclusions by connecting these changes to the construction of parks.

Include evidence for each connection that you make. It is vital that any ideas or statements you submit are supported by evidence from the text

Comparing Fiction and Nonfiction TextsOn Common Core Assessments, students will compare and contrast a literary (fiction) and nonfiction text by answering a short constructed response.How is the children’s behavior in “Marigolds” different from the community members in “Sowing Change”? What factors might have caused these differences? Support your answer with evidence from both texts.

Strategies

State how the behaviors are different, then provide a specific example for each

The second part of the questions is asking the student to make an inference, or educated guess, based on your own knowledge and the

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knowledge provided to you in the texts. After you state your inference, you must support it with information from the text that helped you to make that inference.

Additional Resources

Growing Your Own in Compton at Raymond Park Community Garden by Zach Behrens of KCETon February 10, 2011 4:00 PM

Departures is KCET's oral history and interactive documentary project that thoroughly explores neighborhoods through the people that live there. In January and early February, SoCal Focus is taking readers through the Richland Farms series one day at a time.

Compton was once known for its sugar beets, cauliflower, and pumpkins. Albeit vastly different today, the city's agricultural neighborhood Richland Farms gives a glimpse of the past tradition of growing food. One good example is the community garden found along the Compton Creek at Raymond Street Park.

There, backdropped by a playground and baseball diamond, retired landscaper Mildred Johnson has been tending to the plot since last spring. "Eating properly is becoming an issue for young people in terms of their health, so I think it would be something good for everyone, for the whole community," she explained about community participation.

One concern of Johnson's is making sure people eat the food. That's why she used what's popular at local grocery stores as an indicator of what to grow during different seasons. Last year, the list of vegetables produced included corn, tomatoes, cabbage, collard greens, lettuce, kale, bok choy, zucchini, bell pepper, broccoli, cauliflower, squashes and string beans.

Here is a video of the woman who started of the community garden and her perspective on why the community garden is important to community.

http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_focus/places/video-platformvideo-managementvideo-solutionsvideo-player.html