“Rikki-Tikki-Tavi”

1. “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” OBJECTIVES: - understand & identify personification - identify events that advance the plot - identify third-person omniscient point of view - word analysis, fluency, & vocabulary development • By Rudyard Kipling

2. Anticipatory Guide

3. Connect to your life • Some animals instinctually prey on other animals. These animals are called natural enemies. • What natural enemies in the animal kingdom can you name? With a partner, brainstorm a list of natural enemies, both common and exotic.

4. Build Background • Cobras can be found in Africa, Australia, & Asia. Although all species form hoods by widening their beck ribs, the Indian cobra, which is about five and a half feet in length, has a distinctive spectacle mark on its hood. • The venom of the cobra is enclosed in a groove in the short fangs at the front of the mouth. About ten percent of cobra-bite victims die. The strength of the poison varies from species to species.

5. Build Background • The Indian cobra is not the largest or most poisonous of the species, but it kills several thousand people each year because of its habit of going into houses at dusk to catch rats.

6. Build Background • Cobras feed mostly on small animals. Depending on the species, they either have live offspring or lay eggs. The female Indian cobra lay her eggs in a hollow tree or on the ground and guards them until they hatch. • Snake charmers often use cobras because their strikers are slow and enough for the skillful charmer to avoid. The snakes sway in response to the charmers movements, not his music.

7. Build Background • If you lived in India, you certainly would know the mongoose and the cobra as a pair of natural enemies – a pair that will fight to the death. The mongoose, growing only to a length of 16 inches, seems hardly a match for the poisonous cobra, a snake that averages 6 feet in length and 6 inches around. • This story is set in India during the late 1800s. At that time, great Britain ruled India. British families lived in open, airy houses called bungalows.

8. Vocabulary Preview • Please record these vocabulary words in your Vocabulary Notebook. This activity will take 10-15 minutes and is due next class period! • consolation • cower • cunningly • revive • scuttle • thickets • savage • gait

9. Let’s find an example. Find an example of personification and copy that in your notebook to share with the rest of your class. • when human qualities are given to animals, objects, or ideas. • For example, animal characters in many animated films, or robot characters in science fiction films and stories are personified. Give three examples. Personification

10. Point of View • Stories that are told by a narrator who is not a participant in the events of a story are said to be in third person point of view. • Some third-person narrations only provide the thoughts, feeling, and knowledge of the main character. This is called third person limited point of view.

11. Third-Person Omniscient“ All-Knowing” • ~ Some narrators relate the thoughts & feeling of all the characters, as well as causes & outcomes of events. He or she also tells the story, adding information that none of the other characters know. • ~ Find two examples that demonstrate Third-Person Omniscient Point of View and record in your notebook to share with your classmates.

12. Events in the Plot • An event must be an action rather than a feeling or thought, it must move the story forward, and it must be necessary to the outcome. For example, the actions that wash Rikki out of his burrow and into Teddy’s house are considered events because that introduce the leading characters, describe the setting, and set the stage for the central conflict.

13. You are done for now! We will begin reading next class period! “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” Pg 109

14. Literary Response & Analysis • After you have read • Rudyard Kipling based this story on close and careful observation of nature. What have you learned about mongooses from reading it? Find and cite specific details from the story. • What have you learned about cobras? • What do the above details tell you about Rudyard Kipling?

15. Animal Quality Rating 1. Rikki brave, loyal 10 2. Nag 3. After you have read • Personification ~ When a writer gives human qualities to an animal, object, or idea, this is called personification. In “Rikki-tikk-tavi,” the animals in the garden are personified, conversing as though they were human. ~ With a small group, make a list of the animals in this story and brainstorm the “human” qualities that each shows. Rank the qualities on a scales from 1-10, with 10 being the most admirable.

16. Examples of Omniscient Narrator page # • Kipling describes things Rikki couldn’t know when he was unconscious. Pg 124 P 1 After you have read review & application Third-Person Omniscient“ all-Knowing” • ~ thoughts & feeling of all the characters • ~ causes & outcomes of events • ~ adds info that none of the other characters know

17. The setting & main characters: Statement of the Problem: Event 1: Events thru 7: Statement of the Solution: Story Theme (what is the story really about?): What are the most important lessons in the story: Events in the Plot • An event must be an action rather than a feeling or thought, it must move the story forward, and it must be necessary to the outcome. Use this map to record major events of the story.

18. Vocabulary Matching • Valiant Immensely Cowered Revived Gait Consolation Cunningly Scuttle Matching: Fill in the blank in each sentence from the story with the correct vocabulary word from the list above. • The warmth of the fire ______ the wet little mongoose. • When he saw the cobra, Darzee, the tailorbird, ______ in his nest. • It was a ______ to the family to have Rikki-tikki-tavi as a pet. • Rikki-tikki-tavi ______ found the coba eggs among the melons. • The muskrat ______ away when the cobra came near.

19. Vocabulary Matching • Valiant Immensely Cowered Revived Gait Consolation Cunningly Scuttle • “One day, a high summer flood washed Rikki-tikki-tavi out of the burrow where he loved with his father & mother & carried him, kicking & clucking, down the roadside ditch. He found a little wisp of grass floating there & clung to it till he lost his senses. When he ______, he was lying in the hot sun in the middle of the garden path.” • “They gave him a little piece of raw meat. Rikki-tikki-tavi liked it ______. • “Darzee & his wife only ______ down in the nest without answering, for from the thick grass at the foot of the bush there came a low hiss – a horrid, cold sound that made Rikki-tikki-tavi jump back two clear feet.”

20. Vocabulary Matching • Valiant Immensely Cowered Revived Gait Consolation Cunningly Scuttle • “Rikki-tikki’s eyes grew res again, and he danced up to Karait with the peculiar rocking, swaying motion that he had inherited from his family . It looks very funny, but it is so perfectly balanced a ______ that you can fly off from it at any angle you please; and o dealing with snakes that is an advantage.” • “’Nag is dead—is dead—is dead!’ sang Darzee. ‘The ______ Rikki-tikki-tavi caught him by the head and held him fast. The big man brought the bang-stick, and Nag fell in two pieces. He will never eat my babies.’”

21. What do others think about him/her? How does he/she look? What does he/she do? What does he/she say? Characters name: Character Description

22. “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi”By Rudyard Kipling • Check through your literature packet before turning it in. Look for completion, & accuracy.

23. Let’s See How You did “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” Correct your answers Pg 123