A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Introduction to ‘A Christmas Carol’

This resource contains three introductory activities for classes studying ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens.

A mind map activity is intended to activate any prior knowledge learners have about the story. There is also a short summary of the plot divided into paragraphs for sequencing.

Finally there is a collaborative activity focusing on traditional Christmas celebrations, comparing the festival described by Dickens with contemporary customs.

Storyboard of ‘A Christmas Carol’

This simple storyboard summarises the story of ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens in eight images with captions.

Text-only and image-only versions are also included. The storyboard is provided on PowerPoint so can be used electronically, but is mainly intended to be printed out to make flashcards. These can be used for pair or group work in a range of ways which will give opportunities for exploratory talk, such as sequencing or matching activities. The images are the same as those used in other EAL Nexus ‘A Christmas Carol’ resources.

Characters of ‘A Christmas Carol’

This resource is made up of several sets of flashcards.

There are picture-only cards of ten of the characters in ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens, and corresponding cards with just the names of the same characters. Also provided are word + picture cards of the same ten people. These can be used as a matching exercise, and can also be matched to the accompanying information cards giving the basic details about each character. Two versions of the information cards are included, one in more accessible English than the other, for differentiation. Finally there is a collaborative activity using a graphic organiser. This is a character chart for learners to fill in to show what they know about each of the main characters in the book.

‘A Christmas Carol’ Parts 1-5

There is also a short summary of the plots of Staves 1-5, accompanied by flashcards of key words. A list of more abstract key words and phrases is also included, to be translated into the learner’s first language. The pack also contains several DARTs activities to reinforce understanding of the summary. An answer sheet is supplied so that learners can check their own work where appropriate. This resource is intended to be used in conjunction with similar packs on the other Staves of ‘A Christmas Carol’ also available on EAL Nexus.

Resource downloads

On the right hand side of this page are a number of documents that you can download for free. Please note that the Teaching Notes and Resources can be found in the pdf document (the first item on the list), whilst the PowerPoint document(s) include(s) presentation(s) which you can display on your interactive board in your classroom.

© The Bell Educational Trust Limited. This resource is free to use for educational purposes.

This resource was originally developed by R. Wilson for EAL Nexus and has been adapted for The Bell Foundation’s teaching materials and resources. The resource was formally referenced as EAL Nexus.