A Christmas Carol

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What are some examples of holidays that include traditions, festivals, or rituals? Use bulleted lists or a chart to organize traditions, festivals, and rituals in connection with the holiday they typically accompany. Are these holidays tied to certain religious beliefs? What do holidays and accompanying traditions often represent to people, and why do many people have an emotional response to them?

Teaching Suggestion: It may be beneficial to introduce the novella with a discussion of holiday celebrations around the world; students can share specific holidays, traditions, and festivals they celebrate in their families and communities or have witnessed friends or extended family celebrating. In this way, though the text focuses on the Christian tradition of celebrating Christmas, the novella can be used as a springboard for discussion of holiday celebrations in other cultures. If student demographics do not represent a diverse group of beliefs, investigation and research into other holiday celebrations like Diwali, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, and winter solstice may be appropriate. Students also have the opportunity for cross-curricular learning by examining the historical backgrounds of these holidays.

• This National Geographic for Kids link gives a brief description of holidays around the world. Learners might start here in researching different holiday traditions and the people that celebrate them.
• NPR’s article on the proliferation of created holidays offers the chance to discuss some of these days and evaluate their relevancy, perhaps in small groups. As an extension, students might create their own holiday (choosing a name, date, and reason for the observance of the holiday). This brief activity might be used as a springboard for a larger conversation about the cultural importance of celebrations and commemorations.

2. What does the phrase “social justice” mean? Why is it important for people to care about the health and well-being of their neighbors and communities? How might one person make a difference in the world (beyond financial donations)?

Teaching Suggestion: After independent reflection and journaling time, students can engage in small group conversation about the benefits of altruism and humanitarianism, noting examples that come up in discussion. Questions to consider are: What is the role of the individual versus the government in helping those in need? How does being generous help the giver as well as the recipient, and what are the most practical ways to help people suffering from poverty, disease, displacement, and addiction? To extend the topic throughout the unit’s instruction, students might select a community organization to serve and/or support as a class project. For example, students could give their time to visiting memory care facility residents, participating in a neighborhood clean-up project, or organizing the shelves at a local food pantry.

• This 10-minute TEDx Talk on volunteerism explains the benefits of community service.
• Students can search on this website for service opportunities in their communities.

Short Activity

What makes A Christmas Carol such a popular and lasting work of literature? Use quality resources to investigate one or more of these guiding questions.

• In what era did Charles Dickens live and write, and what social concerns and historical events characterized this period?
• What story qualities made Dickens a popular writer?
• How and why did Dickens write A Christmas Carol?
• How did the traditions with the celebration of Christmas change around the time of the publication of the novella?
• What values and morals do we often associate with Christmas?

Working in a small group, prepare a brief presentation of learned facts based on your investigation. Compile new information in your notes as each group presents.

Teaching Suggestion: Students might benefit from a brief examination of the history of Christmas celebrations in Victorian England before independent research of the guiding questions. Dickens’s novella was influential on the way the monarchy celebrated the holiday, which in turn changed the way the public celebrated with rituals and traditions, such as hanging greenery and sharing a large meal. Alternatively, the class might compile a list of traditional Western Christmas rituals (e.g., decorating a tree, having a holiday meal with family/friends, and sending/receiving Christmas cards). Encourage students to be on the lookout for scenes depicting these rituals in the text. Regarding the values associated with Christmas celebrations, such as the spirit of giving, generosity, and cheerfulness that permeates the season, students might be prompted to share how and why this mood is common during the holiday season. The discussion can also lead to how these values may or may not differ from other cultures’ holiday celebrations.

• This 12-minute British Library video explores the historical and cultural background of the novella.
• This timeline of Charles Dickens’s life is helpful in understanding his place in history and the British literary canon.
• This link offers photographs of Dickens’s original manuscript which shows the editorial changes Dickens made during the writing process.
• For more on the Victorian era and Dickens’s life, visit the Charles Dickens Museum.
• The University of Colorado at Denver sponsors the article “How A Christmas Carol Became a Holiday Classic.”

Differentiation Suggestion: Visual learners, those interested in art or graphic storytelling, and English learners might illustrate depictions of holiday celebrations in their family/community using a storyboard graphic organizer. If they choose to share the illustrations, class members can draw comparisons between the holiday celebrations presented and the celebration of the Christmas holiday.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the novella.

Why do you think some people are fascinated with paranormal phenomena? How do you respond when authors incorporate elements of the supernatural in works of literature? In your opinion, what makes for a good ghost story?

Teaching Suggestion: People of the Victorian Era held very particular interests and beliefs about death and the afterlife. In preparation for Dickens’s use of ghosts in the novella, students might follow up their journal response to this prompt with an online exploration of Victorian ideas and rituals surrounding death using these or similar resources.

• This article from The Guardian explores the reasons why Victorians were so obsessed with ghost stories and, surprisingly, enjoyed them most around Christmastime.

Differentiation Suggestion: For a more creative approach or for students who would benefit from an opportunity in fiction writing, learners might compose their own ghost story. Alternatively, using the “fractured fairytale” method, students might work in groups to compose a tale together; this method allows for each student in the group to contribute one portion of the story. A plot diagram graphic organizer including exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution may be helpful for planning purposes.