What He Needed Was Right In Front of Him by Serena O. (G4) What He Needed Was Right In Front of Him By Serena O. Grade 4 Have you ever been extremely defeated by the homework your teacher assigned you? That’s how Jacob originally felt when his teacher assigned him to write the sounds he hears on a piece of paper shaped like an ear in the story “An Earful” by Dale-Marie Bryan. Throughout the story, Jacob’s feelings change from being frustrated to happy once he realizes sounds are all around him. At the beginning of the story, his teacher assigned him his homework of collecting sounds. Jacob thought it was unfair at first when his teacher assigned him the homework of writing the sounds he hears. In the text it says, “Not fair he thought. How could he collect enough sounds on his family’s farm?” In the text, it uses words like groaned, thumped, crunched, and scrambled at the beginning, showing he was cranky and annoyed. Jacob was grumpy the whole bus ride home. When he got home, he was worried and felt frustrated about his homework. He went outside and started thinking about what to do about his homework. Therefore, when Jacob got home, he started in a grumpy mood but then ended up finding the solution. He realized all the sounds he had never noticed. He was in a grumpy mood the whole time because of the assignment. He went outside to his treehouse to think of what to do. With all the sounds of the different animals around him, he could not think completely. At last, he yelled, “QUIET!” That was when he realized those sounds were exactly what he needed! In the text, it phrases, “the scolding of the blue jays and the chattering of the sparrows. How could a person think?” He started recognizing. That’s exactly what he needed! Finally, at the end of the story, Jacob felt calm and happy. He had exactly what he needed and got right to work. In the end, he started calming down and actually listening to all the different sounds around him. He was happy that he had an “earful” of sounds to write. In the text, it says, “Suddenly, he sat up straight. Cows mooed and puppies yipped. Chickens cackled in their yard. “I hear you!” he called. There were plenty of noises on the farm. He had an “earful” of homework to do!” In the end, he finished his homework and had a lot of sounds. To conclude, his homework defeated Jacob at the start, but slowly throughout the story he started realizing that what he needed was right in front of him. Jacob’s feelings changed from the start, when he was frustrated about his homework, to the end, when he figured out the different sounds all around him, that he had not been paying attention to the whole time. How would you feel and do if you were Jacob?
