Mood With Scrooge

Edward Hynes Lakeview

7th ELA - Visual Art

Mr. LeBlanc & Mrs. Lerille

Mrs. Lerille’s students have been learning how Charles Dickens conveys mood in A Christmas Carol. Each stave of the story is packed with adjectives and repetitive words that convey a specific mood of the setting and Ebenezer Scrooge.

Through collaging, students use images, shape, color, and text evidence to create dual mood portraits: One of the student and one of Scrooge. Students practiced self-reflection and expression in creating their own abstract portraits and had fun contrasting themselves with the cold, greedy Scrooge prevalent for most of the novel.

In some portraits of Scrooge, students included the start of a kinder elements as the main character changes through visits from Christmas spirits. Projects became interactive when students included hidden hearts of Scrooge that could be revealed overtime.

Being able to support their artistic choices was essential to exhibit understanding of the text and mood. After a gallery walk, students shared what they liked about one another’s work. What impressed them about a classmate’s piece, why? Did they see something in another’s work that conveyed mood in an inventive way? Well deserved praise was shared among all the students and their elaborate portraits.