Thursday, February 7, 2013

Dickens, Me, and My Students

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Through the great inspiration of a blogger name Fanda, I am aware that today is the great Charles Dickens' birthday.  On your birthday, you should always know why people respect and honor you. I thought that I would write (kind of to Dickens) about my favorite experience with A Tale of Two Cities.

It is kind of interesting/tricky to start teaching students about Dickens because they are intimidated by the length of his books, the denseness of his writing, and it is harder for them to get into it. With this particular class had read three whole Shakespeare plays the previous month, so to me if they get through that--then Dickens shouldn't be hard.  The best thing to me about this opportunity to teach students--they started to get into and catch on.

This is the great part about Dickens--his stories transcend time.  My students were able to relate to the relationship between Lucie and her father.  They start to follow the French Revolution---they are fascinated by the guillotine and the secret plotting.  They relate to the prison and trapped feeling that Dr. Manette experiences.

Some of them might start to appreciate Dickens' writing, but it really starts to come with the teacher appreciates it as well.  Give them the opportunity to really dive into the writing, and they will start to see what is so great about the amazing Charles Dickens.
A Tale of Two Cities (Dover Thrift Editions)
This is actually the edition we used, because it is very cheap and
the students can  have their own copy to mark up

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