9-11+ B5

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 excellently in today’s lesson, I was particularly impressed and moved by the maturity and thoughtfulness which the class lent to issues of poverty and inequality in not only Victorian England but also our own world today. The ideas that were expressed about the role of poverty, wealth and charity in A Christmas Carol were very sophisticated and the class spoke beautifully on the message they felt Dickens was trying to convey along these lines. I really enjoyed the students’ analysis of how the book was written, and that they considered the novel on conceptual, as well as textual, grounds. Overall I was super impressed with everyone’s work today and really look forward to meeting you all again next week! Really well done everyone, keep up the fantastic work and have fun exploring the context of the novel in your homework! 🙂

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

This is my homework which is Question B.

The moral of A Christmas Carol is that money will not make a person happy if you keep it and do not share it with anyone. Scrooge only cares about having loads of money and tightly grasping it in his hands. Through the novel, Scrooge at the beginning was very cold-blooded and was very greedy. At the end of the novel, he is willing to donate, gives Bob Cratchit a pay rise and gives the family a turkey. Now he is very caring, but at the beginning, he’s very mean. It also means that it’s never too late to change your character. He would never have done it without the ghosts, that is what inspired him to become a better man. The ghosts also brought him to the future where his grave was (probably because he was too bitter). When he saw that, it gave him a shock and he pleaded to make it not happen, that is partly why he changed. In the text, it mentions that he doesn’t want Tiny Tim to die. The Ghost of Christmas Present uses his own words against him ‘to decrease the surplus population’. He looks at the celebrations and he felt left out. We also learn from this story that you need to learn from mistakes. Marley says: “The common welfare should have been my business,”.  It means that Marley is instructing Scrooge to change his ways before it is too late as he saw his name on a grave. Another lesson we can learn from the story is that you always need to respect your team members. Bob Cratchit (who is Scrooge’s clerk) got no breaks and very little warmth.
They can make your business larger.The main lesson in the story is to be respectful to others and not be bitter.

This is my homework for lesson 1. I am answering question B.

the main moral of A Christmas Carol is that money can’t buy happiness but sharing its can. That is only the main moral there are a lot more like kindness will always be repaid back. I say this simply because at the end of A Christmas Carol when Ebenezer Scrooge realised the true importance of money and sharing it, he turned into a man of care and friendliness that was repaid back by everyone he had helped and by repaid back I don’t mean by money. Another of this book’s message is that think before you say or speak. This is another moral of the book A Christmas Carol because in stave III (stave3) the ghost of Christmas past- the second spirit- quotes Scrooge’s words ‘decrease the surplus population’ to use them against him. When the spirit or ghost does this Scrooge is overcome with penitence and grief.

Question A: Is it important to know the Victorian England in order to understand ‘A Christmas Carol’?

Yes, it is. To know Victorian England helps understand the story better. I have learned that in 1800’s, London was split into two parts: the east and the west. The poor lived in the east and the wealthy and rich lived in the west. In the story the Cratchit family represented the people who lived in the east, while Scrooge represented those in the west. A member of the Cratchit family worked for Scrooge, which was similar to how the people in the east were servants to the people in the west. At the beginning of the story the Cratchit family and Scrooge weren’t something you would call friends, in fact Scrooge was a very bitter and awful man, he didn’t speak to anyone at all unless it was necessary, but throughout the story Scrooge changed into a better man. At the end he was the opposite person of who he was before, he and the Cratchit family became more than the master and servant, they became friends. I think this story expressed Charles Dickens wish, he wanted the east and the west to become less divided, to become as one.

As you can see, it is important to know the Victorian England, the context of this story, in order to understand ‘A Christmas Carol’ better.

There are several moral in the《A Christmas Coral》

First, I think friendship or membership is a theme. Scrooge and Marley were business partners in the time when Marley did not die. Friends remember and care about each other no matter what, and that is I think the main reason why scrooge goes to the house they spend their time together on the Christmas Eve. Therefore, when Scrooge was in the haunted house he had illusions of Marley’s face.

Second, in my opinion the changing yourself is an important moral, too. In the beginning of the story scrooge was a grumpy and greedy men, by following the Christmas ghosts, he turned into a more sympathetic person. He can see the society in a different view, he now knows how awful the conditions are in the east, and how luxurious the environment is in the west. As a result, by experience and atmosphere, you can change your point of view and personalities.

Third, I think that society is also an important moral. The social differentiation between the east and the west is also important. In the west it is very luxurious but in the east people are still worried about basic foods and clothes. It gives us a note of the Victorian general mood of society. The dialect is different too, imagine a west talking to an east, well that couldn’t happen!

Forth, I think it is most important, money can’t buy everything. Even though Scrooge is a business man that has lots of money. But he is not close to his family, and that is why it represents money can’t buy everything. Money can’t buy love, it can’t buy friendship either.

Lastly, to summarize the main morals are: membership, changing yourself, social differentiation, money can’t buy everything.

Lesson 1 home work from Luis. sorry for the delay.

thanks

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 fab 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 an excellent 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. The class worked brilliantly today, I was really impressed by all their work particularly when thinking about the concept of morality in the novel, and their ability to link their ideas back to what we learnt about the historical context of the book in last week’s lesson. The students’ ability to think thematically and to use those themes to analyse other parts of the novel such as Scrooge’s character arc was really fantastic, and we had some really interesting contributions from everyone about what they think the genre of the novel might be. Really well done everyone, I really enjoyed our lesson today and you have all produced some wonderful work. Keep up the amazing work and all the brilliant energy and enthusiasm and I will see you all next week! 🙂

Homework 

Each ghost in a Christmas Carol take Scrooge to a different time in his life. The ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge to his past, which brings mix-up emotions such as pain, but also happiness. The Ghost of Christmas Present takes Scrooge to different places on Christmas Day, showing the poor people in the east being happy and satisfy on this day. The Ghost of Christmas yet to come shows Scrooge his death by using of silence and gesture which is why this ghost has the most impact on Scrooge, because he sees what will happen to him if he does not change his ways.

The spirit takes Scrooge to several scenes of early Christmases, and several of those images affected Scrooge’s opinion of himself and make him want to change his actions and attitudes. When he sees himself as a child at boarding school, left alone over the Christmas vacation, he wishes he had been kinder to the Christmas caroler who had come to his shop the previous evening. When he sees his sister, Fan, coming to pick him up another year to bring him home, it is implied that he may wish he treated his nephew, Fan’s son, better when he invited him to Christmas dinner.

The biggest effected on Scrooge in Stave Two was when he observed Fezziwig’s  Christmas festival celebration. The contrast between himself and the now scrooge is so obvious. That Scrooge wishes himself that he could say a word or two to his clerk just now, showing that he is having a change of heart about the way he treats Bob Cratchit.

Nevertheless, when the spirit brings him to the image of Belle breaking their engagement, and when it shows him Belle’s life married to another man, Scrooge protests and finally responds with anger, trying to snuff the spirit out his memory. This shows that scrooge is changing deep in his heart.

This is lesson 2 homework (which ghost made the biggest influence on Scrooge and why?)

I think that the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come made the most greatest impact on Scrooge though the other two ghosts or spirits (the Ghost of Christmas Past and the Ghost of Christmas Present) did help to emphasise  everything that Scrooge saw in his and the last spirit’s journey . The reason for why I think that the third and last spirit made the largest influence on Scrooge is when in the book it reads ‘Scrooge crept towards it , trembling as he went; and following the finger , read upon the stone of the neglected grave his own name, EBENEZER SCROOGE.”Am I that man who lay upon t he bed?”he cried , upon his knees.’because this section in the book shows that a creeping realisation had hit him. This is what in the character arc in what I think is the realisation point.

This is my homework.

The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come made the most difference because it is what made a spark in Scrooge’s brain and forced himself to change. Together they visited the grave, with his name on it. ‘“Am I that man who lay upon the bed?” he cried, upon his knees’ says that he has to change. ‘“Spirit!” he cried, tight clutching at its robe, “hear me! I am not
the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been but for this intercourse.’ means that Scrooge is begging for another chance. In Scrooge’s character arc, it is the point where he realises he did something wrong.

Please ignore my last piece of homework.

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come made the most difference because it is what made a spark in Scrooge’s brain and forced himself to change. The last two ghosts made him look at everything in the past or present, but I think the future is the most important as you don’t know what is going to happen. He was buried in a very unpleasant area of the city (we know this because a woman states that ‘“If he wanted to keep ‘em after he was dead, a wicked old screw,”). Lots of people also stole Scrooge’s very valuable items such as towels, spoons, clothes and sugar tongs when he was about to die, showing he was very mean. He also regrets what he had done after seeing his name on the grave. The story mentions the phrase ‘I will not be the man I must have been’.

Here’s my homework-Sarah🦥

Here’s my homework Luis

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. I was particularly impressed with how the class picked apart the language/structure/literary technique element of author intent and literary analysis- well done for this guys! The students also produced some very thoughtful ideas on the power of particular words and structures over others. 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

Hi, this is my homework.