9-11+ B4

Summary of Lesson 1

In today’s lesson we began studying our first book: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which should be used to help plan and write the paragraphs assigned for homework. The powerpoint contains loads of information on the context of A Christmas Carol, thinking about how the backdrop of Victorian England influences the themes in the book, and considering what modern parallels can be drawn between society in the 1800s and society today. We also considered how to form well-evidenced and well-structured opinions critiquing literature, thinking about how the use of references to the text and quotations can be used to strengthen and affirm our arguments. We had a great discussion on everyone’s favourite and least favourite parts of the book, and the class did some great work thinking about how the history behind a book can influence our thinking about it. Everyone worked fantastically in today’s lesson, there was some really lovely and thoughtful comments, questions and ideas on the book as a whole and everyone did really well with learning and conceptualising the context of the novel. I was really impressed by everyone’s attitude and the energy they brought to class today, as well as with their contributions, particularly when thinking compassionately about the issues of poverty and inequality. I loved how empathetic the students were to the plight of those less fortunate than themselves, and how they thought really deeply around the moral of the story in A Christmas Carol, and how it could be applied to their own lives. Well done everyone, have fun writing the homework, and keep up the fantastic work! 🙂

Homework 

Here is the link to the video that I recommended watching. It’s a brilliant video and is only 5 minutes long, so definitely give it a watch if you can: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5czA_L_eOp4&feature=youtu.be

Question B, please see the attachment~~~

Thanks

Hello Beth,

Here is the link to question B.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rFYg0foR-xllYopTRdrCTPCRRcTVV_FyqcHG4VMu9ys/edit?usp=sharing

Thank you. 🙂

Here is my homework for Question B.

Thanks a lot!

Question B，Thanks！

It is important to know Victorian London because its shows us Dickens childhood, it makes us feel the hard labour that he did nearby the river. It shows us that on Christmas it is a day of giving and happiness with your family, it meas that don’t be like scrooge and let someone’s death overcome your mood and all. Also in the time of Charles Dickens, Christianity was very populated at the times so they give some money to the needed and is necessary . As you can see that you can nearly immediately who was from the east and west making it seeing how it fits in with the history of his time makes you get the main point even easier than the others. The idea of money at the time was important to understand the ending. If you don’t know what a shilling is then you thought it was a made up currency or thing making you perplexed about how it worked. Also it describes how his nephew’s family lived in if you didn’t know about it you would just be sorry for them not knowing how lucky they actually are. It is very important to know about the Victorian era in England since it explains the concepts that you don’t know, it explains the concept that he lived in, the childhood of Dickens are explained in his novels Dickens’ life is his book, and if you want to understand it then you must know what Dickens lived in. The history of him is his life that’s all you need to know is the history. Because all his book are based on his life, for example Oliver Twist was when his dad was sent to prison and he needed to work for a factory near a river, stress it in to you!

Question A，sorry

QB，pls check

my homework

Thank you for the encouragement, here is my home for ‘A Christmas Carol’

Hope you enjoy it!

BR,

Yinghao

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XBPV83kV95otHXSrcVwD-JmRwpjA62IbegIKUHFkmEo/edit

Question B. Thanks

A Christmas Carol’s moral shows how anyone can change. At the beginning of the book, Scrooge only  cares about money and doesn’t care about things like Christmas which he doesn’t gain money from. In chapter 1, Scrooge is saying “out upon Merry Christmas,” and stating that Christmas doesn’t make people richer. However, after four spirits’ visit, Scrooge changes. The spirits show Scrooge perspectives and how bad it can be for poor people during Christmas. Scrooge became kinder and more generous. Christmas Carol also shows inequality and how people should be kind to each other. Scrooge’s clerk, Bob Cratchit is poor and still kind, and caring, whereas Scrooge, who is rich, is quite greedy and selfish. The story shows anyone can be kind, and just smiling at people or helping them with a task could really help someone else. Lots of people were poor in the story yet at the start, Scrooge did not think of helping them. He suggested work houses or prisons and thought Christmas a nuisance. He also would not join group activities and said that “every idiot that goes about with Merry Christmas on their lips should be boiled in his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.” Luckily, the spirits helped him to be a nicer person.

Question A. Thanks

I Think you still need to read old books like’A Christmas Carol ‘ because it shows you how different authors use different writing techniques in different times. It also shows us how life was back then as some of the book would be described through the author’s era. Another reason is that it shows us how words have changed and evolved through time and we can compare the different techniques and languages used in writing. It also shows how different it was back then and also how humans have changed.

What is the moral of the story A Christmas Carol?

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is a classic story that we still read today, although it is approximately 200 years old. The story has a very strong moral behind the book though, and it is pointing out things in Victorian London through a classic story.

The moral is simple and easy. It is, “if you are rich and Miserly then you will not have a good afterlife.” Scrooge is the miserly person in the Storey And he never shares with anybody he does not spend money either and he is disrespectful to anybody poorer than him. His old friend shows him that and it does not work, so he sends three spirits to teach him a lesson.

The moral is the heart of the Storey without it the Storey wouldn’t be real it gives a warning to miserly people, begging them to change their old habits of heartlessness. Also, the moral makes the reader feel guilty since it awakes memories of Scrooge-like times.

There is also something else hugely impacts the story which is Christianity. Without it, Christmas wouldn’t be real, and the book couldn’t be real either.

The moral and book doesn’t say if you are already miserly, you can’t change, because at the end Scrooge changes and becomes a “second father” to Tiny Tim. Tiny Tim’s family was struggling and after seeing what Christmas really was, Scrooge helped Tim’s family, they united.

In my opinion, the moral is the most important part of the book except Christianity.

Summary of Lesson 2

In today’s lesson we continued our study of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, this time delving deeper into the core of the book itself to think about themes. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which should be used to help plan and write the paragraphs assigned for homework. The powerpoint contains lots of ideas on the themes in the novel which the students had identified, analysis of that thematic material, thinking about how to fit this into Point, Evidence, Explain essay paragraphs, and information on the genre of a morality drama and the dramatic convention of character arcs. We also had a fantastic discussion at the beginning of the lesson recapping on last week’s ideas of context and relevance in the modern world, and the students engaged in a fascinating in-depth analysis of the theme of ghosts in the novel, linking this theme to others such as religion and coming up with many different interpretations and ideas for what the ghosts in A Christmas Carol could communicate or symbolise. Everyone worked fantastically today, the energy was super high and we had some brilliant ideas bouncing around from student to student. I was particularly impressed by the discussions we had over the (quite tricky!) concept of a morality drama, and the adeptness with which the class engaged with the idea of characters as symbols, ascribing themes to each character within A Christmas Carol and discussing the role of morality in the story. I also really enjoyed hearing the students’ differing interpretations of Scrooge’s character arc and how it manifests the theme of redemption and change, and thought that the way they engaged with each others’ opinions on the topic was fantastic. Really well done everyone, you all worked beautifully together today and I was really impressed by how you handled the thematic analysis of the novel, particularly when writing your P.E.E. paragraphs and using quotational evidence to back up your points. You all thought super creatively in today’s lesson and I look forward to seeing you all again next week. Keep up the amazing work! 🙂

Homework 

Dear teacher ， please see the attachment~  thank you~

please see the attachment~  thank you~

Lesson 2 Homework

To me, I think that the ghost of Christmas yet to come had the most effect of Scrooge, because in the book it shows him his grave and what happens, that way it makes him want to change his behaviour as quick as possible also it shows him the future and want to change it. In the text it says that it was a ‘Phantom’ suggesting it is full of dread and also it says it walks in gloom telling us that it wasn’t just sadness but also fogginess and dread. It also says in mystery, it doesn’t just mean that it is something that you don’t know, but something that is explicable. ‘Shrouded’ means it is a cloth to wrap a dead body but also mean to cover and not to see it suggesting that it is like the grim reaper who take people souls. All of the other ghosts are not as bad as the final one, The first ghost of Marley was frightening, second on my list. The first ghost represents memory as the second shows generosity. Making the third the worst. Black is a very strong colour to use in suspense writing because it gives of the tone that it is dead and covered. This shows that as Dickens described it as deadly and cruel showing how scary it is and the tone it gives of the effect of the spookiness and dread. So the last ghost has the biggest impact on Scrooge, also it is not surprising since it is the last ghost and definitely the worst. Scrooge also feel bad for Tiny Tim that his death depends on Scrooge. So that is my reason why I think the last ghost as the most effect on Scrooge.

my homework

Here is my homework for lesson 2.

Thanks a lot !

Which ghost has the biggest influence to Scrooge?
As if for me, I would say that all the ghosts had large influence, but if I had to pick one it might be the ghost for the Christmas future. I am not really keen on the answer, though.
Why? Well, first of all, this ghost made Scrooge felt bad for what he had done before. Secondly, the ghost is more stronger than Scrooge and the other spirits. Thirdly, he changed Scrooge the most because Scrooge end up pleading to the ghost about living again and he will live a good life (which he had not done before.), the evidence is in the book, chapter three, nearly at the end of the chapter.
Scrooge has a very different characters than others, first the start was Marley’s ghost, because he is the one that warned Scrooge that he have to be happy with all his heart, and he is also the one that told Scrooge there would be three (four all add up, two Christmas past, one present and one future.)ghost haunting Scrooge. The difficulties that Scrooge are facing might be the ghosts, because it is hard to listen to them and it is also hard to get their commands and suggestions inside Scrooge and have some serious thinkings. At the end, Scrooge learned that he should be merry, loved, happy, cared to others and himself; don’t be really negative and unfriendly; he needs a habitat at being happy, or else he won’t have any good; being rich or poor will never ever bother his joyfulness and his behavior in the past has a large effect in the future. As if for what he learned about himself it is that if he has a really big change in his life, he would be as merry as others.

Which Spirit Has the most influence on Scrooge?

Personally, I think that the spirit which has the biggest influence on scrooge is the last spirit, the spirit of Christmas yet to come. This spirit is the one who shows him horrible things about what will happen when he dies. It shows him the bed curtains ripped down, his property taken and sold for little money, how Tiny Tim died and most important of all, he was shown that he died. This had a big impact on him, bigger than the other two spirits could provide. What Scrooge did not want was a death, since he wanted to not be cursed for eternity, wearing chains, keys and other heavy things. He realised things about the poor and beggars. He realised that they deserve dignity and the men that came to ask for money to donate to the poor were doing very good deeds. He also realised it is kind, respectful and generous to give to poor. The spirit of Christmas yet to come is the spookiest spirit since it is cloaked, it does not speak and I would definitely be rather scared and I would freak out, since it is frightening.

I think that the spirit who affected Scrooge most was the ghost of Christmas Future. The ghost really dented Scrooge and it was after this that he became a better person and a second father to tiny Tim. The story shows how the phantom carried an air of gloom and mystery which made Scrooge bend down on his knee. Overall, Scrooge was actually quite scared of the spirit; his legs trembled so much that he could hardly stand. This last visit was more effective comparing to the other spirits since the ghost of Christmas Future had lots of reaction. When the phantom showed Scrooge his death in the future, with nobody mourning him he cried “No spirit! Oh no no!” With the other spirits he changed but with the last ghost he changed most. I still think that other spirits changed him because the spirit of Christmas Past made him beg to be removed, “Please spirit, no more!” Scrooge seemed quite changed when the second spirit visited him so the first and last ghosts are almost tied. I noticed that the ghost of Christmas Present was different to the other spirits. The second spirit was a more jolly and happier ghost compared to the solemn, grave ghost of Christmas Future. The ghost of Christmas Present also is the only spirit that does not make Scrooge plead to take him back home. Instead, the phantom makes Scrooge want to stay longer. Out of all the spirits, the ghost of Christmas Present was the least effective on Scrooge.

I think the ghost that had the biggest effect on him was the ghost of Christmas yet to come. I think this because as soon as the spirit came, he reacted immediately and became a second father to Tiny Tim. The scene is very mysterious and I think it was the mystery and the spookiness that made him change and realize he had to be a better person as the phrase ‘”No, Spirit! Oh no no!”‘ suggests that he is scared and full of remorse, regret, and guilt. Also, it was only after the ghost of Christmas yet to come that he became a better person (not that the other ghosts had any influence on him).

I think the ghost that influenced Scrooge the most was the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, because in the book the ghost confronted Scrooge with his own grave. This was very shocking and eye-opening for Scrooge.

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows Scrooge his lonely-demised future if he continues to be driven by money and profit. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is by far the most terrifying because Dickens describes it with death imagery and was shrouded in a black garment. Dickens uses the word “shrouded” which implies covering a corpse before burial.

A reason I have to back up my point about the 3rd ghost is that when Scrooge had got to the graves, he wasn’t fully changed but after that he was as jolly and as nice as Santa. The other ghosts had contributed to his transformation. For instance, The Ghost of The Christmas Past reflects on Scrooge’s misdemeanour in the past which he cannot change anymore. The Ghost of Christmas present shows Scrooge how other people are celebrating Christmas no matter how rich or poor they were. All of them celebrated similarly. Scrooge can’t change the current but can learn from it. The Ghost of Yet to Come prophesises Scrooge’s future which he can still decide to change most importantly. It is never too late to become a better person.

Also, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come unleashed Scrooge’s suppressed feelings to show empathy and compassion towards other people. For example, at the beginning his actions towards tiny Tim were heinous but at the end he took good care of him.

I think the most life-changing moment was in the presence of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come when Scrooge concluded “I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.” And he kept his word.

Hi Beth, here is my homework for Which ghost has the biggest influence on Scrooge and why?

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MQgdDua_Ea2cIWnaW3SohH_Rl-1KV6BSUjCFTFAMhns/edit

please comment on my submitted Homework.

Happy Reading!

Yinghao

Summary of Lesson 3

In today’s lesson we completed our study of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, finishing up with a lesson on close textual analysis using the Haberdasher Aske’s 11+ paper, which I’ve attached to this post. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which should be used to help write the exam questions assigned for homework. The powerpoint contains lots of ideas on how to use literary analysis in an exam context, focusing on concepts of word choice, literary techniques, structure and thinking about author intent. It also includes a mark scheme for close textual analysis P.E.E. paragraphs completed in the lesson, and some thoughts on how to self-evaluate. The class produced some brilliant work today, and every student was super engaged and enthusiastic throughout our lesson together. We had some really interesting conversations about the ways in which literature should be viewed as a construct that the author has moulded in order to invoke particular reactions from their readers, and a really good debate about how to both create and analyse atmosphere through the use of literary techniques. The students also did some great work on synonyms and produced some very thoughtful ideas on the power of particular words. I really enjoyed our final lesson together on this book, really well done to everyone for all of your hard work over the past three weeks! You all picked up on the key skills of close textual analysis fantastically, and I hope to see you all again in lessons in the future. Keep up the amazing work everyone, you should all be very proud of the work you have produced, and I hope you have a lovely end of the year 🙂

Homework 

Dear teacher，

please see the attachment， thank you!

4.Why do you think the writer describes Scrooge’s clerk as working in “a dismal little cell”? 4 marks

5.Look at lines 16-22. What does the reader learn about the characters of Scrooge and his clerk in this paragraph, and the conditions in which they work? 6 marks

6.Look at lines 26-28. How is the description of Scrooge’s nephew used as a contrast to the description of Scrooge in paragraph 1? 6 marks

7.Explain how Dickens creates atmosphere in paragraph 2 of this extract.
6 marks

8.Based on the passage as a whole, write a short paragraph describing Scrooge and his office in your own words. 6 marks

4. The word dismal means dark and dull wich would describe the room perfectly as he isn’t doing anything fun. The word cell is boring, grey and dull so he is basically in a dull room with nothing in but him, candles and letters.

5. I think the clerk is cold and also dismal as he is in a dismal cell and if he was happy, the cell would be happy as well, illuminated by the clerks joy. he is also cold as it says ‘it looked like one coal’. Scrooge, however, was warm, agitated and focused as he had a little fire to keep him warm, he was agitated as people outside were celebrating Christmas and he does not like Christmas, and he is focussed as he is keeping an eye on his clerk.

6. I think Scrooge isn’t loving as he isn’t happy to see his nephew when he has travelled to scrooge to see him however Scrooge doesn’t realise how much it would mean to his nephew if scrooge was more loving to his nephew.

7. I think he makes it rather creepy but also expresses how much Scrooge doesn’t care. While the other poor people are freezing, Scrooge is sitting nice and comfortably in his warm and cosy house. The phrase ‘the houses opposite were phantoms.’ suggests that there were creepy thing there.

8. Scrooge is a lazy and dull man who doesn’t care about anything in the world except survival, luxury and money. He doesn’t care for the poor adn only of himself. His office is full of misery and even though it has a fire and candles, it will still be dark as scrooge is dark and if you are dark, your room is dark as well.

4. I think that Dickens meant that his clerk was in a little cell is that he was stuck there and couldn’t get out because of Scrooge. It also suggests that Scrooge is like a bodyguard not letting him through. I also say that the clerk is very busy and Scrooge was too rich to work.

5. It suggests that the clerk is very poor as it says that Scrooge has a small fire,but the clerk has so small that it look like one piece of coal. It a lso suggests that Scrooge is selfish, because he save all of his coal box for himself but he doesn’t share it to other people. I t also picks up that the clerk is a person with not much imagination about it.

6. The description is nearly the opposite suggesting that Scrooge and his Nephew has a immense different of personality. Scrooge is the cold, frosty person, but his nephew is a hot, sweating person. He also greet people nicely and his eyes sparkled as well like light popping up with joy.

7. Dickens creates atmosphere by describing the setting as a foggy, bleak weather suggesting it to be a bad setting for a start of a story. Christmas suggests a happy time but a bad setting suggests someone who hate Christmas.

8. It was a dim room with little shimmering sparkles from the fire, the clerk peeked while mumbling at Scrooge. Scrooge grumbled and whined about his taxes. The weather outside burst into the place and frosts and snow rumbled through the air, spreading frigid feelings from outside.

4. Mr Dickens uses the word cell which implies that the clerk is in a position where he is treated like a prisoner and is being watched like a hawk by Scrooge who is a bit like a warden. The relationship is probably bad because Scrooge sees that his clerk is cold and that he is putting on his scarf trying to get warm but cannot because of the tiny fire. Scrooge doesn’t give any coal for his clerk’s light which is in his room and that is showing NO empathy or compassion like being totally heartless.

5. Scrooge is rich but a cruel penny-pincher and lives in a dark, cheap and joyless counting house trying to save candles and coal. His clerk (servant) is being abused and working in an even darker, little, dismal and cold room. His living condition is bad.

On the social condition side, the Victorian era was a period of extreme inequality. Scrooge is wealthy and is known among his peers as a man of good credit. However, he treats lower class poor people heinously. He believes that the poor do not need or deserve to be helped.

6. Dickens describes Scrooge as “as hard and sharp as flint”. This implies that scrooge is hard on the outside and sharp suggests that he shows no mercy to anybody. But the word flint is interesting because it suggests that he still has a chance to change and become good. The phrase “as solitary as an oyster” implies he is hard on the outside like an oyster’s shell but in the inside the is a beautiful pearl. This also means he could still change and become a better person. Also, Dickens use words like cold, frozen, red eyes, his thin blue lips and a frost was on his head which gives the reader the impression that Scrooge is a cold and evil hearted person.

In contrast, Dickens describes Scrooge’s nephew with words like handsome, his red face, all in a glow and his eyes sparkled. This suggests to the reader, he is a nice, generous, cheerful and innocent person.

7. Mr Dickens has used show don’t tell concepts and describes the whole city as a cold and foggy place. He also describes the scene of fog pouring through key holes which is a similar scary feeling of ghosts swooping around. He also uses the metaphor “the houses opposite phantoms” which again symbolises the underworld (dead souls). This atmosphere is in contrast to a happy and merry Christmas.

8.  Scrooge treats people egregiously even if they befriend him warm-heartedly. There are similarities between Scrooge and his office. These are some examples, they are both cold, dark and gloomy. For his clerk his room was a cell but for Scrooge his office was his chamber. He is reluctant to spend money so he saved coal and candles and therefore chooses to live in a dark abyss.