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December 25
A Christmas Carol was the first book transmitted over radio!
Grades | 7 – 12 |
Calendar Activity Type | Author & Text |
Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol as a "potboiler," or an inferior work done purely for quick profit. Unfortunately, while the book was an instant success and remains one of his best-known works, Dickens made little profit because people purchased pirated editions. There were no copyright laws at that time in England.
Chances are, your students have either seen or will be seeing a production of A Christmas Carol in December. What a perfect time for a collaborative project for middle school and primary students!
Have a middle school English class or the drama club write a script for A Christmas Carol on a level that primary students can read and perform. Involve students in home and career classes to create the costumes and scenery for the production. Invite film students to record the performance and have computer students create a website showcasing photographs from the project.
- Dickens
This online resource from PBS provides information about the life and career of Dickens.
- Discovering Dickens: A Community Reading Project
Since 2002, Stanford University has encouraged community reading and discussion of Dickens' novels through the serial release of his major works. Biographical and historical context information is included with each serial publication.
- The Dickens Page
This webpage includes hundreds of links to primary and secondary documents on various aspects of Dickens' life and work.
- Charles Dickens
This page from The Victorian Web provides extensive links to Dickens' biography, chronology, a list of works, an introduction, and other relevant essays.
Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Unit
Beyond the Story: A Dickens of a Party
Students attend a 19th Century Victorian party to celebrate Scrooge's new outlook on life. They research characters from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol and assume those personas for the party.
Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Unit
Lights, Camera, Action: Interviewing a Book Character
Students get the inside scoop on a story when they create interview questions and answers for characters in the books they read.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Unit
Audio Broadcasts and Podcasts: Oral Storytelling and Dramatization
After exploring Orson Welles' 1938 broadcast of H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds, students create their own audio dramatization of a text they have read.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
A Tale of a Few Text Messages: A Character Study of A Tale of Two Cities
Students use A Tale of Two Cities to explore relationships, plot points, character traits, and background by writing text messages between characters within the novel.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Dialect Detectives: Exploring Dialect in Great Expectations
Great Expectations is rich in dialogue and in the dialect of the working class and the poor of Victorian England. What does Dickens reveal about his characters using dialect?
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
There Are No Small Parts: Minor Characters in David Copperfield
This lesson capitalizes on students' interest in social networking by asking students to build an online profile for a minor character in Charles Dickens' David Copperfield.