Seventh-graders take a look at classic story of Scrooge
By:Eric Schwarz
Seventh-graders are celebrating Christmas and learning about the Victorian Era by performing one of the most famous holiday stories, Charles Dickens’ "A Christmas Carol."
The students in Karen McLaughlin’s four language-arts classes at Alexander Batcho Intermediate School are videotaping a three-act abridged version of the play through today; they started last Friday.
Each class does its own production. Students are responsible for stage duties, scenery, costumes, special effects, camera, direction and performing the play, which runs about 40 minutes on tape.
Students in Ms. McLaughlin’s second-period class taped several segments of the play Monday morning.
From the experience, assistant director Kristen Daniel said she learned: "You have to work in a group. You run into problems no matter how well you’re prepared."
Joshua Krantz plays a young Scrooge, during the man’s bittersweet childhood.
"It’s OK to play it," Joshua said. "I really don’t like to be a mean person."
Bryan Thoden does get to be a mean Scrooge, in a scene where Scrooge refuses give money to a gentleman solicitor for a charity.
"He was excellent, really nasty," Ms. McLaughlin said.
For costumes and scenery, students had to research the issues, and then they "raided" the ABIS trove for school plays, and the students brought the other materials from home.
"Nobody has money, so they’re not expected to buy anything," Ms. McLaughlin said.
Like many seventh-grade classes, the students in Ms. McLaughlin’s second-period class range from short to tall, slight to stocky, and they had to make sure they had appropriate costumes that fit over their street clothes.
"They did a lot of gluing together. A lot of belts and scarves," Ms. McLaughlin said. "They get very serious about filming their shots, what scenery is up. You can’t hear a pin drop."
The students have to work quickly to finish the videotaping in five class periods during the course of a week, Ms. McLaughlin said, and they need to edit the tape on the fly.
"Right now, when somebody messes up, they have to rewind and re-re-record the scene," said Ms. McLaughlin. "Sometimes they have to do a retake five times. If one individual doesn’t do the part, you see everyone looking at him."
They worked quickly to change scenery, costumes and backdrops, working in the middle of the room, with the desks pushed to the side, and the backdrops covering the chalkboard.
Because the classes are in competition with each other, each brought in its own props. The second-period students brought in a coat rack that they took away after their class was over.
The classes, however, did share the painted backdrops.
"The whole thing is student-oriented," Ms. McLaughlin said. "I set them up; they vote for a director and assistant director. They sign up for different committees."
The project fulfills a requirement under the state’s core curriculum content standards for the seventh-grade, to do a dramatic presentation and to learn workplace-readiness skills, Ms. McLaughlin said.
Those skills include using technology, learning safety standards, self-management, and cooperating in a group.
The project is not all fun. It also is graded and counts for 30 percent of the grade for the marking period.
"They’re not funny or cute when they’re doing a project," she said. "This class, so far, everyone has individually done well."
Ms. McLaughlin will watch the tapes during the Christmas vacation to assign part of the grade. She also plans to show the tapes to the other seventh-grade classes if the students grant their permission, and also plans to show the best one on the Channel One televisions throughout the school.
This is the second year Ms. McLaughlin has done the play with her students. The novel, play, movie and its numerous takeoffs are about Ebenezer Scrooge, a stingy man who had forgotten the spirit of Christmas until he saw visions of the past, present and future.
Bob Cratchit, Scrooge’s employee, and his family are much the opposite, with Cratchit insisting that they treat Scrooge with kindness despite Scrooge’s parsimony.
"With the publication of ‘A Christmas Carol’ in 1843, (Dickens) defined the Victorian Christmas as a family-oriented occasion," according to a fact sheet the students received. "The portrait still influences us today with its view of Christmas as a time for giving and sharing, and for home and family."
"Last year I was surprised," Ms. McLaughlin said of the 1999 productions. "Three of the four classes did really well. The other class went down in a flame of glory."