Week 15: Starting "A Christmas Carol" & other fun things!

Welcome back! Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday. I'm so excited for the next unit: A Christmas Carol! I love this novel so much and I've found a way to teach it so 7th graders can understand it, as the language is Victorian 18th Century British and uses a lot of unknown words. Here are the advantages of tackling this holiday text:

• Learning how to determine unfamiliar vocabulary words
• Practice finding and identifying figurative language
• Improve listening and reading comprehension
• Explore informational texts in context of the novel
• Conduct a book-to-movie comparison
• We'll watch Disney's "Christmas Carol" and...if the Christmas ghosts smile upon us... "The Man Who Invented Christmas" (about the actual writing of the novel).
• Explore a classic Dickens piece in context of the time period
• Draw parallels from Dickens Christmas to modern day holiday celebrations and allusions in pop culture (there are many!)
• Explore bigger themes such as kindness to others, helping the poor, how the individual makes a difference, the ability we have as humans to drastically change

Plus, we'll be reading by "candlelight" (a.k.a. battery candles) to replicate the time period and doing some other fun activities in context of the novel. Can you tell I'm pumped? Only an English teacher would get this excited about a novel!

If you miss a day, don't get behind on the reading!!!
Audio Link: https://librivox.org/a-christmas-carol-dramatic-reading-by-charles-dickens/
Online Novel: http://www.read.gov/books/christmas-carol.html

Remember, our class is participating in Scholastic's Pajama Drive. You can send new pajamas to class by the end of the month and then Scholastic will arrange a place for me to drop them off. This is a great way to give back and make a difference. Information is here: http://www.scholastic.com/pajamadrive/

Week 15

November 26-November 30th

Monday, November 26
Monroe Grade Level Benchmark
Introduction to "A Christmas Carol"
K-W-L-Q chart/Dickens Intro.
Article: The Real Reason...
(Non Fiction N & N Practice)
*Honors: Modified Intro and Newspaper Day

Tuesday, November 27
"A Christmas Carol" Webquest
Jigsaw Style

Wednesday, November 28
CC Vocabulary (pair-share)
CC: Chapter 1

Thursday, November 29
CC: Chapter 1 Bellringer
CC: Finish Chapter 1

Friday, November 30
CC Chapter 2 Vocabulary
CC: Chapter 2


CODE PHRASE FOR A ROBINS REWARD: I'm excited to read "A Christmas Carol!"