Unit
Beyond the Story: A Dickens of a Party
Grades
6 - 8
Lesson Plan Type
Unit
Estimated Time
Ten 50-minute sessions
Author
Publisher
NCTE
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Overview
Students are invited to attend a 19th Century party as a character from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. To play this role, students must understand the values and customs Dickens' characters represented in Victorian society. This lesson is divided into three stages: Group Investigative Roles, Individual Characterizations, and Individual Presentations. Students collaboratively research the life and times of Charles Dickens as it relates to a character, and write and present a first-person character analysis.
Featured Resources
Party Planner: This handout, used for planning a Victorian-themed party, can be used to plan a variety of literature themed parties.
From Theory to Practice
This lesson blends the interactive strategies of Bernie Dodge's WebQuest Taskonomy with the reading and writing character workshops outlined in Donald Graves' book, Bring Life into Learning. This lesson can be used to teach characterization, elements of drama, and presentation skills. It engages students in cooperative learning, note taking, and roleplaying activities. Students research print and nonprint sources, and search selected Internet sites in an effort to understand the motives, actions, and symbolism of Dickens' characters. The researched information is synthesized into a first-person character analysis.
Further Reading
Common Core Standards
This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.
State Standards
This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.
NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts
- 1. Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
- 3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
- 5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
- 7. Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.
- 8. Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.
- 12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).
Materials and Technology
- Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol, from the University of Virginia Electronic Text Center, or another version of the story. The following versions are possibilities:
- A Christmas Carol (1984) starring George C. Scott, David Warner, Susannah York, Frank Finlay, Edward Woodward and Nigel Davenport. 100 min., or another video version of the story.
- A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens adapted by Frederick Gaines from Five Plays from the Children's Theatre Company of Minneapolis, published by the University of Minnesota Press.
- A Christmas Carol adapted by Frederick Gaines, performed by Children's Theatre Company of Minneapolis. McDougal Littell Audio Library 2002.
- A Christmas Carol (1984) starring George C. Scott, David Warner, Susannah York, Frank Finlay, Edward Woodward and Nigel Davenport. 100 min., or another video version of the story.
- Internet access
- (optional) Books, reference material, and other nonfiction resources available for further research, as students' interest dictates.
Printouts
Websites
Preparation
- Read, listen to, and/or watch a version of Charles Dickens' novella A Christmas Carol with students.
- Discuss the story and Victorian period with students.
- Check the Internet resources to ensure that all Websites are appropriate for your students.
- Make copies of handouts and rubrics (some of which are located in the Websites section), as necessary. Students can also access this information online, if you prefer.
- Bookmark Websites and make print resources available for student access.
- Collaborate with the school library media specialist to identify available resources within your school.
- Make arrangements for the Presentation segment of the lesson plan, including, if you desire, Victorian refreshment, games, music, and so forth.
Student Objectives
Students will
- research print and non-print sources of information, taking notes and recording bibliographic information using MLA format.
- work collaboratively to learn more about the Victorian period and prepare for individual presentations.
- write a character sketch and prepare for a presentation based on that character.
- deliver a convincing first-person account assuming the persona of the character.
Session One
- As you complete your discussion of A Christmas Carol with students, introduce the project that students will work on to explore the story and the Victorian period in more detail.
- Explain to students that Ebenezer Scrooge's nephew Fred is hosting a New Year's Day party to celebrate Scrooge's new outlook on life. The revelations of his miserly, miserable past have left Scrooge eager to learn more about those who have helped him to change. In order to accomplish this, it is necessary to understand the values and customs each character represents in Victorian society.
- Explain that this task will be divided into three stages: Group Investigative Roles, Individual Characterizations, and Presentations.
- Grades will be determined by the performance rubrics for each stage.
- Demonstrate how to access all the information for the WebQuest online and provide students with the URL for the resources (http://www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson238/dickens_WebQuest.html).
- Ask students to come to the next session prepared to begin the first stage of the WebQuest.
Sessions Two through Five
- Explain that students will work on Stage 1 of the WebQuest, Group Investigative Roles.
- Explain that in order to connect with the people and places of Dickens' time, students will investigate four aspects of Victorian life: History, Fashion, Etiquette, and Entertainment.
- Divide students into groups of four members each.
- Each group will have four investigative roles. Each student will read and discuss the essential question, take notes from at least two of the provided Websites, and share the information with the group. Pictures may be printed to help the explanation; but notes should be paraphrased, and bibliographic citations recorded on note cards.
- Provide students with the URL for the Group Investigative Role Cards (http://www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson238/role_cards.html).
- Display on an overhead or pass out copies of Stage One: Rubric for Group Investigative Roles and discuss the rubric with students.
- Depending on student reading levels and Internet skills, allow three class periods for individual research and one for group sharing.
- As they work, circulate among students, offering them feedback and answering questions as appropriate.
Sessions Six through Nine
- Once groups have completed their research, explain Stage 2 of the WebQuest, Individual Characterizations.
- Explain that students will incorporate information researched in Stage 1 with details previously viewed and discussed in class.
- Display or pass out the Character Sketch Assignment and go over the details with students. Explain to students, in addition to writing an essay, they will role play the character and make a presentation to the class. The presentation can include costumes and props, but must be realistic and believable.
- Pass out copies of the Party Planner worksheet, which students will complete as a prewriting activity.
- Remind students to cite sources using the MLA format at the Landmarks Citation Machine or in your handbook.
- Display on an overhead or pass out copies of Stage Two: Rubric for Individual Characterizations and Stage Three: Rubric for Presentations. Discuss the rubric with students.
- As students work on their characterizations, allow them to return to the links on the Group Investigative Role Cards as they need.
- Encourage students to share their drafts with groups as they continue this project. As they work, circulate among students, offering them feedback and answering questions as appropriate.
- If students need more support as they explore character traits, the lesson plan Action Is Character: Exploring Character Traits with Adjectives provides a nice minilesson for this project.
Session Ten
- Allow students a few minutes at the beginning of the class where they will present their characters to organize their props and costumes.
- Invite students to volunteer to share their character sketches, and remember to ask them to submit a copy of the text to you for Scrooge's scrapbook (this will the the copy that you'll use to provide students with feedback).
- If desired, to accompany the presentations, provide hot spiced cider and cookies, lending wonderful aromas to the festivities.
- At the conclusion of the presentations, students may play Victorian parlor games.
Extensions
Student Assessment / Reflections
- Monitor student interaction and progress during group work to assess collaborative work skills and research skills and assist any students having problems with the project. Review student notes in journals and logs. Use the Stage One: Rubric for Group Investigative Roles to give students feedback on their progress.
- As students work on their character sketches, look for indications that they are able to connect the information from their collaborative research to the writing task. In particular, are students consulting their notes? Do they return to the Websites on the Group Investigative Role Cards if they need more information. Encourage any students who are stuck to look to their notes and group members for help. Use the Stage Two: Rubric for Individual Characterizations to provide feedback and assessment of students' written character sketches.
- Use the Stage Three: Rubric for Presentations to provide feedback on student's role play of the character that they've chosen. Student reaction to presentations will also provide useful feedback to students.
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