• The Play and Its Context

  • Introduction to A Christmas Carol
  • Plot Summary
  • Character Profiles
  • Historical Context for Christmas Carol
  • About charles dickens
  • Christmas in the age of dickens
  • THe history of a Christmas Carol

• About This Production

  • Who’s Who in the Production
  • Interview with Michael Unger
  • Interview with Cheryl Mintz

• For Educators

  • Core Curriculum Standards
  • Suggested Activities & Questions

• Additional Resources

::Drama and assessment::
in the elementary, middle and high school classrooms

Suggested Activities / Questions

For K-5 students:

1.   Have your students read Dickens’s original story of A Christmas Carol, or read it to them in class.  (Standards 3.2 or 3.4)
2.   Ask your students which characters they liked best and least in the story, and why.  (Standard 1.1)
3.   Ask your students why they think Scrooge became so selfish.  (Standard 3.4)
4.   Hold a discussion with your students about why they think some people become too interested in money and material things.  Do they think this is good or bad?  (Standard 6.4)
5.   Discuss other holidays with your students, such as Hanukah and Kwanzaa.  Make sure to mention the importance of symbols (such as a Christmas tree, a menorah, and a kinara) to each of the holidays.  What other symbols can your students think of that are important to these holidays?  (Standards 1.5 and 6.5)
6.   Have older students research holiday traditions around the world.  (Suggest that the students choose the country from which their families originated.)  (Standards 1.5 and 6.5)
7.   Ask your students to share some of their family holiday traditions with the class.  If they did activity six, ask them to share how their own celebrations compare or contrast to those they discovered in other countries.  (Standards 1.5 and 6.5)
8.   Have your students create their own class holiday custom.  Spread the idea around the school, and have each class share their new custom with the others.  (Standards 1.5 and 6.5)

For Middle and High School Students:

1.   Have your students read Dickens’s original story.  Hold a discussion or have them write a short essay about the similarities and differences between Dickens’s story and our production.  (Standard 3.4)
2.   Divide your students into groups, have them choose their favorite section of the story, and give them a chance to dramatize the scene for their classmates.  Encourage them, if possible, to use simple costumes, set pieces and music to enhance their scenes.  (Standard 1.2)
3.   Dickens wrote many holiday stories, such as “Cricket on the Hearth” and “The Goblins Who Stole the Sexton.”  Ask your students to read some of Dickens’s other Christmas tales.  What similarities and differences did they discover between the stories and A Christmas Carol?  (Standard 3.4)
4.   Hold a discussion with your students about our society’s preoccupation with money and material objects.  How important are money and things to them?  Do we, as a society, need to change our opinions about the importance of money?  (Standard 6.4)
5.   Hold a discussion with your students to compare society’s treatment of the holidays (i.e., the decorations at the mall, advertisements on TV, holiday specials) with what Dickens was trying to say about Christmas in A Christmas Carol.  (Standard 6.4)
6.   What do your students think is the true meaning of the holidays?  (Standard 6.4)
7.   Ask your students to write their own short story or play about the meaning of the holidays.  (Standard 3.3)
8.   Hold a discussion with your students about holiday customs here and around the world.  If you plan to have a holiday party with your class, encourage them to create a new holiday custom.  (Standards 1.5 and 6. 5)