Teaching A Christmas Carol with social justice themes for diverse classrooms

We love this time of year. The air grows crisp and cold and sweater weather is in full effect. It is also when we begin our unit on the Charles Dickens’ classic, A Christmas Carol. If you are anything like us, you have started to decolonize your curriculum. We have put serious thought into the texts we use for our teaching and have made sure that we no longer cling to texts that only represent the white dominant culture. You may be asking, well then, why are you teaching A Christmas Carol?

This year we have focused on the theme of systems and power. We got the idea from Matthew R. Kay’s Book, Not Light But Fire. We have been trying to center each of our units of study with the frame: “How are systems created and defined? How do systems shape the world? What is the role of the individual in systems?” We have discussed the ideas of systems in history, and A Christmas Carol is a great intro into these systems when it comes to English Language Arts. 

First, we absolutely love using multiple perspectives when teaching this novella. Students analyze many viewpoints throughout the story to get a better understanding of those ideas of systems and how they shape the world. We have our students examine all facets of the society and learn about the poor laws and systems of oppression that create such a large schism between the rich and the poor in Victorian England.

Along with reading A Christmas Carol, we also tie in several diverse poems that center on the same themes. We got this idea from Ashley Bible’s blog, Building Book Love. She has a great post about “Diverse Christmas Short Story Pairings.” She recommends several poems to pair with A Christmas Carol. The ones we use are "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden and "Christmas at Melrose" by Leslie Pinkney Hill. 

Last, we tie in informational texts to our unit. We like to use a post by Matthew Caruchet written for the Economic Opportunity Institute. The text is a great addition to read after Stave Three.  Sadly, the same societal ills that Scrooge is faced with in the early 19th century are eerily similar to our society today. We have the students read the article, ‘A Christmas Carol’: Sending the Poor to Prison and on Parlay, they have a round table discussion. You can check out our round table discussion here. If you have not checked out Parlay yet, you are seriously missing out! This is an amazing website for both remote and hybrid instruction. We love that our students can have awesome conversations about any topic and that they can remain anonymous. Students are much more likely to take more risks and be more open with their thinking when they know that other students do not know who they are. 

If you are using A Christmas Carol in your classroom, definitely give these added texts and discussion prompts a try. They have definitely helped to open our students’ eyes to some of the injustices that many people faced in the past and are still facing today.

Until next time teacher friends.

Bottoms up!