Instructor Access (optional grading support) for Unlimited Access families is available for this course!
Deck the halls and prepare for the Christmas season with Charles Dickens! If you’d like a full-semester credit, choose "Instructor Access" to work on a literary-critical paper with Mrs. Nicholson.
Special notes: Includes optional writing component.
Total class meetings: 6
Duration of each class: 55 minutes
Prerequisite: Willingness to read!
Suggested grade level: 9th to 12th grade
Suggested credit: ½ semester Literature, Victorian Literature, or British Literature (One full semester if you choose the optional paper project.)
Instructor: Eleanor Bourg Nicholson
Instructor Email: ebnicholson@protonmail.com
Course description: "Marley was dead, to begin with…” Dickens’ A Christmas Carol has such a deep cultural importance that most of us probably are familiar with its opening lines. To unpack this familiar and yet widely misunderstood work, we will proceed backward chronologically, exploring three of the most important Christmas stories ever written. As we become more intimately acquainted with the great writer and the period in which he lived, we will gain through him a deeper appreciation for the sacred mystery of Christmas. In addition to cultivating artistic appreciation and a love of reading, this course facilitates the development of critical reasoning, the disciplined use of the imagination, and a strong knowledge of historical and literary context.
Course outline:
Class 1: The Cricket on the Hearth (first half)
Class 2: The Cricket on the Hearth (second half)
Class 3: The Chimes (first half)
Class 4: The Chimes (second half)
Class 5: A Christmas Carol (first half)
Class 6: A Christmas Carol (second half)
Course materials: Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, The Chimes, and The Cricket on the Hearth. Any edition is acceptable (e.g. ISBN-13:978-1593080334, https://amzn.to/3BD47uu), just make sure, if you select a Christmas Stories collection, that these three stories are included. These are also available for free online via Project Gutenberg, https://www.gutenberg.org/.
Homework: Expect to spend 1-3 hours per class reading. Each class we will have an identification quiz (12 questions, multiple choice, open book). At the end of the course, we will have a review quiz and a concluding thoughts assignment. There is an optional paper project that requires Instructor Access. This paper project can increase the suggested credit for the course to a full semester. An answer key is not provided for this course.
- Teacher: Eleanor Nicholson