A Christmas Carol

What the unit covers

Every resource here was made by GoConqr users and is aimed at secondary students. The collection runs through the whole story, the characters, the context and the big themes, with plenty of quotation practice.

Where to start

Begin with the mind map A Christmas Carol, which sets out Scrooge, Marley, Bob Cratchit, the Cratchit family and the three spirits in one view. Then open A Christmas Carol - Characters for a closer look at each figure.

Next, follow the story in order:

1. Stave One - A Christmas Carol covers the atmosphere, pathetic fallacy, the counting-house and Marley's warning.
2. The mind maps for Stave 2, Stave 4 and Stave 5 take you through the Ghost of Christmas Past, the later visions and the ending.
3. The slide set A Christmas Carol - Staves Summary gives a quick overview of every stave.

Context and themes

The mind map A Christmas Carol - Context explains why Dickens sympathised with the poor: his father was jailed for debt and he spent time working in a factory. It also touches on the Poor Law and its workhouses. Use it alongside Redemption, Isolation and A Christmas Carol - Themes - FAMILY, which each pair key examples with quotes and background.

Quotes and quizzes

Quotations matter for GCSE English Literature, so there are many flashcard decks, including Christmas Carol Quotations and decks split by stave. The mind map A Christmas Carol (Key Quotes) links lines such as Marley's 'Mankind is my business' to what they show.

Use the maps first to learn the ideas, then take a quiz such as A Christmas Carol - Stave 4 or A Christmas Carol - Stave 5 to check what you remember. Go back to the map for any gaps, and repeat.

Where this fits

This unit sits in the Nineteenth-Century Prose strand of Literature. Teachers can pull in maps and slides for lessons, and students can start with one stave today.