Composition #3 The
Upstairs Room—Grade 7
Assignment: Write a one
paragraph essay describing a character from The
Upstairs
Room through the use of an attribute or
character trait the character
displays in the novel.
Topic: Choose
a major character from The Upstairs Room.
Brainstorm some
personality traits (using adjectives not nouns) which you
believe your
chosen character possesses. Be sure that you can support the
personality
trait through something you read about the character in the
novel.
Sample Topic Sentence
________________ (character) displays her
_______________
(character trait) in the novel The Upstairs Room by Johanna Reiss.
Due Date: Rough draft: 8 February 2007 in class
Original: 14
February 2007 in the Basket by Break
Skill/Concept
Stressed: The
ability to describe a character in terms of a personality trait and
how that trait is shown through something that occurs in the
story.
Requirements: 1.Original
title. The same rule applies as for your proceeding
essays. DO
NOT use the title of the story or the name of the
character.
Catch the reader’s attention & use your imagination.
2. Write a
well-developed one paragraph essay describing your chosen
character in terms of her personality trait and how it
relates directly
to some event in the story.
3. DO NOT
USE contractions or to be verbs.
4. DO USE
present tense, third person, correct heading, and correct spelling,
punctuation, sentence structure and vocabulary
5. Type or
word process the final copy of your original using the MLA style.
6. Double
space heading and essay.
7. Essay
will be worth 100 points.
8. Essays
will be conferenced and revisions will be worth 100
points.
BoBo the
Clown
Mrs. McDonald
English 7-2
14 February 2007
Saved
by Cleverness
Johan Oosterveld
displays his cleverness in the novel The
Upstairs Room by Johanna
Reiss.
Johan displays his cleverness when he builds a hiding place for the two
Jewish girls he is
hiding in his home during World War II. By
building the hiding place, Johan outsmarts the
German
soldiers who come in search of any hidden Jews. Johan builds the hiding place behind
the closet in the girls’ room. The bottom
shelf of the closet lifts up so that a person can walk into
the small room and hide without anyone seeing
them. During the many searches of the house, the
girls are never discovered. Due to Johan’s
cleverness, these two young Jewish girls survive
the war. By planning and building a very
clever hiding place for the two girls, Johan displays his
clever attribute.