A Christmas Carol By Charles Dickens Ebenezer Scrooge & Jacob Marley TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Stave I Assignment-------------------------------------------------- 2-14 /73 II. Stave II Assignment------------------------------------------------- 15-26 III. Stave III Assignment------------------------------------------------ 27-39 IV. Stave IV Assignment------------------------------------------------ 40-48 /68 /78 /56 V. Stave V Assignment------------------------------------------------- 49-55 /42 VI. Culminating Writing Task (Narrative)---------------------------- 56-57 Total Score: /317 1
Stave One: Marley s Ghost 1. Ironmongery (1) - Vocabulary 2. Unhallowed (1) - 3. Emphatically (1) - 4. Executor (1) - 2
5. Residuary Legatee (1) - 6. Ramparts (2) - 7. Entreaty (2) - 8. Ruddy (3) - 9. Phantoms (3) - 10. Dismal (4) - 11. Morose (4) - 3
12. Indignantly (4) - 13. Veneration (5) - 14. Involuntarily (5) - 15. Impropriety (5) - 16. Extremity (5) - 17. Resolute (6) - 18. Portly (6) - 4
19. Liberality (6) - 20. Ominous (6) - 21. Destitute (6) - 22. Workhouses (7) - 23. Idle (7) - 24. Facetious (8) - 25. Tremulous (8) - 5
26. Regale (9) - 27. Tacitly (9) - 28. Melancholy (10) - 29. Livid (11) - 30. Peal (11) - 31. Balustrades (11) - 32. Hearse (11) - 6
33. Cravat (12) - 34. Ledgers (13) - 35. Incredulous (14) - 36. Caustic (14) - 37. Waggish (14) - 38. Spectre (15) - 39. Infernal (15) - 7
40. Goblins (15) - 41. Swoon (15) - 42. Apparition (15) - 43. Fettered (16) - 44. Girded (16) - 45. Ponderous (16) - 8
Stave One: Marley s Ghost Study Questions Provide details from the text to support all of your answers. 1. Provide a character sketch of Scrooge. What is the reader s initial impression of the main character? 9
2. What is the setting of the story? Why does Dickens use this setting for his novel? 3. Who comes to visit Scrooge? What classic line does Scrooge deliver in reply to this visitor s holiday wishes? How do Scrooge and his nephew differ in their feelings about Christmas? What does this reveal about their characters? 10
4. Who comes to the counting-house next? Why is Scrooge so adamant about not giving away a penny? What does this further reveal about his character? 11
5. How does he appear to treat his employee? What is Scrooge s attitude toward giving Cratchit the day off on Christmas? Should his attitude surprise the reader? 12
6. What does Marley explain about his chain? What is he now condemned to suffer? What is the purpose of Marley s visit to Scrooge? 13
7. Is a theme beginning to develop within Stave One? If so, what might it be? 14
Stave Two: The First of the Three Spirits 1. Transparent (21) - Vocabulary 2. Opaque (21) - 3. Repeater (21) - 4. Preposterous (21) - 5. Perplexed (22) - 15
6. Recumbent (23) - 7. Contradiction (23) - 8. Fluctuated (23) - 9. Gloom (23) - 10. Reverently (24) - 11. Bonneted (24) - 12. Conducive (24) - 16
13. Reclamation (24) - 14. Supplication (24) - 15. Remonstrated (25) - 16. Vestige (25) - 17. Jocund (26) - 18. Cupola (26) - 19. Feeble (26) - 17
20. Latent (27) - 21. Despondent (27) - 22. Earnestness (27) - 23. Despairingly (28) - 24. Ferocious (29) - 25. Condescension (29) - 26. Celestial (29) - 18
27. Terrestrial (29) - 28. Withered (29) - 29. Tumult (30) - 30. Capacious (30) - 31. Negus (32) - 32. Corroborated (33) - 33. Agitation (33) - 19
34. Idol (34) - 35. Fraught (35) - 36. Supposition (35) - 37. Dowerless (35) - 38. Repentance (35) - 39. Boisterous (37) - 40. Despoil (37) - 20
Stave Two: The First of the Three Spirits Study Questions Provide details from the text to support all of your answers. 1. What has happened to time at the beginning of this section? How does the reader know this? 2. How does this first spirit s appearance seem to contradict itself? What is especially curious about its head? 21
3. Who is the solitary boy left at the school? How does Scrooge s character change completely as he watches the boy? How might this be an example of foreshadowing? 22
4. Why do you think Dickens included the appearance of Scrooge s sister, Fan? What purpose does the inclusion of her character serve in the plot of the novel? 5. What descriptive language does Dickens use to create the mood of Fezziwig s party? As Scrooge watches the festivities at Fezziwig s, what is his reaction? How does this contrast the mood found within Stave One? 23
6. According to the young woman in the next scene, what is the reason that she no longer desires to marry Scrooge? 24
7. Scrooge tries to hide the light on the spirit s head, but cannot. Why not? What does the light symbolize? 25
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Stave Three: The Second of the Three Spirits 1. Prodigiously (39) - Vocabulary 2. Especial (39) - 3. Petrification (40) - 4. Dogged (41) - 5. Artifice (41) - 27
6. Scabbard (41) - 7. Compulsion (42) - 8. Genial - 9. Facetious (42) - 10. Lolling (43) - 11. Apoplectic (43) - 12. Opulence (43) - 28
13. Wanton (43) - 14. Demurely (43) - 15. Entreating (43) - 16. Beseeching (43) - 17. Bilious (44) - 18. Declension (47) - 19. Tremulous (47) - 29
20. Ubiquitous (48) - 21. Penitence (50) - 22. Baleful (51) - 23. Deliberating (51) - 24. Plaintive (52) - 25. Scanty (52) - 26. Blithe (53) - 30
27. Moor (53) - 28. Chafed (54) - 29. Grog (54) - 30. Affability (55) - 31. Humbug (55) - 32. Sexton (57) - 33. Affront (58) - 31
34. Execrable (58) - 35. Precepts (60) - 36. Abject (61) - 37. Meagre (61) - 38. Prostrate (61) - 39. Degradation (61) - 40. Appalled (61) - 32
41. Factious (61) - 42. Solemn (62) - Stave Three: The Second of the Three Spirits Study Questions Provide details from the text to support all of your answers. 1. What mood describes the transformation of Scrooge s living room at the beginning of Stave Three? 33
2. How does the character of this spirit match the mood of the room? What does its rusty sheath with no sword symbolize? 3. Why are the Cratchit children so excited about this Christmas Day? What does this information communicate about their family? 34
4. What famous line is uttered by Tiny Tim? How does Dickens communicate the importance of the little boy to Bob Cratchit? How does Tiny Tim affect Scrooge? How does the spirit humiliate Scrooge where Tiny Tim is concerned? 35
5. What does Bob Cratchit s toast to Scrooge tell the reader about his character? How s does Mrs. Cratchit s opinion of Scrooge differ from Bob s? 36
6. What was Dickens s purpose in including the brief scenes on the moor, at the lighthouse, and on the ship? 37
7. In spite of Scrooge s attitude toward Christmas, what has his nephew resolved to do? What does this communicate to the reader about his character? 8. What happens to the spirit s appearance as the night wears on? Why does this occur? 38
9. What warning does the spirit issue to Scrooge near the end of Stave Three? What words of Scrooge s are once again echoed by the spirit? 39
Stave Four: The Last of the Spirits 1. Shrouded (63) - Vocabulary 2. Waning (64) - 3. Scarcely (64) - 4. Snuff (64) - 5. Pendulous (65) - 6. Excrescence (65) - 40
7. Render (66) - 8. Slipshod (67) - 9. Disgorged (67) - 10. Sepulchers (67) - 11. Frousy (67) - 12. Plunder (69) - 13. Loiter (70) - 41
14. Recoiled (70) - 15. Bereft (71) - 16. Dominion (71) - 17. Odious (71) - 18. Avarice (71) - 19. Threshold (73) - 20. Faltered (74) - 42
21. Hob (74) - 22. Reconciled (75) - 23. Inexorable (76) - 24. Intercedes (78) - Stave Four: The Last of the Spirits Study Questions Provide details from the text to support all of your answers. 1. How is the Phantom different than the other spirits that the reader has been introduced to so far? What is apparently the spirit s official name? 43
2. Who are the two groups of businessmen discussing at the beginning of Stave Four? What appears to be their level of interest in the proceedings? 44
3. Into what part of town does the spirit guide Scrooge? How does Dickens description of the pawn shop add to the mood of this stave? 4. What is the irony of the three servants arriving at the pawn shop at the same time to sell their wares? What appears to be the attitude of all three sellers? 45
5. One of the women produces a shirt in which a character had dressed Scrooge for his funeral. Which of the characters from the novel most likely prepared Scrooge for burial? 46
6. Why are things so quiet at Cratchit s house? What has happened to Tiny Tim? 7. Scrooge begs the spirit to confirm what he has learned. This confirmation of Scrooge s is a statement of the major theme of the story. What is it? 47
8. What resolutions does Scrooge pledge to make at the end of the stave? 48
Stave Five: The End of It 1. Recompensed (82) - Vocabulary 2. Sticking-Plaister (82) - 3. Pang (82) - 4. Obliged (83) - 5. Sidled (83) - 6. Unanimity (84) - 49
7. Bishop (85) - 8. Alteration (85) - 9. Malady (85) - 10. Abstinence (85) - Stave Five: The End of It Study Questions Provide details from the text to support all of your answers. 1. What is Scrooge the most grateful for when he wakes up in present time? 50
2. How does Dickens description of the weather on this Christmas Day contrast with the weather in the opening scene of Stave One? 51
3. Who is the first character to whom Scrooge reaches out with his new found joy? 4. Why is it important that Scrooge wanted his gift to the Cratchits to be anonymous? What does this communicate to the reader about the transformation of his character? 52
5. What does Scrooge mean when he tells the portly gentleman, A great many back payments are included in it? 6. How did Scrooge celebrate Christmas? 53
7. How will Bob Cratchit s life be made immeasurably happier? In addition, how will Scrooge s life become immeasurably more fulfilling? 54
8. What is Dickens seemingly imploring his readers to do within the last few paragraphs of the novel? 55
Culminating Writing Task Beyond Stave V - Common Core: Narrative CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.3.A Engage and orient the reader by establishing a context and point of view and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.3.B Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, and description, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.3.C Use a variety of transition words, phrases, and clauses to convey sequence and signal shifts from one time frame or setting to another. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.3.D Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to capture the action and convey experiences and events. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.3.E Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on the narrated experiences or events. 56
Reread the last two paragraphs of Stave V of A Christmas Carol. The novel ends on an exceedingly hopeful note regarding Ebenezer Scrooge and Tiny Tim. However, Dickens does not provide any concrete examples regarding the redemption of Scrooge. If Dickens had composed a sixth stave (Stave VI), what would he have written about Scrooge, Fred, Belle, the Cratchits, Old Joe, and the other characters of the British city that serves as the setting for the novel. Would Scrooge have become a political reformer helping to institute new public policies benefitting the poor? Would Scrooge have founded a charitable organization to assist the destitute and their families? How would Scrooge repent for his greed and avarice? How would Scrooge demonstrate his gratitude to the spirits for allowing him the opportunity to change the course of his life? In a well-developed narrative, using the novel as a model, complete Stave VI of A Christmas Carol. In your response be sure to Communicate two specific examples that serve to illustrate to the reader the continued transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge Include references to at least three additional characters from the novel (e.g. Fred, Tiny Tim, Belle, etc.) Provide at least three examples of literary devices in the piece (e.g. simile, alliteration, allusion, symbolism, personification, etc.) *N.B. Use Elements of the Short Story and Literary Terms Handouts Make sure to include multiple examples of character dialogue within the piece *N.B. Use Punctuating Dialogue Handout Check your writing for correct spelling, grammar, capitalization, and punctuation. 57