A Christmas Carol Novel Study

About this resource

Teaching A Christmas Carol in December and writing the questions the night before each stave? This novel study for 7th, 8th and 9th grade does that work: for each of Dickens's five staves, a vocabulary page that shows eight words where he used them and a question page with five questions on ruled lines, four short answers and one Think Deeper. Around the staves: a Scrooge tracker, a page for the people around him, four quotations to analyze, four themes, sentence starters, and an essay planner with three prompts and a lined draft page. Every question, quotation and word has an answer key.

EVERYTHING INSIDE (36 pages)

• 19 student pages, every one with a name line, one instruction, and ruled lines with room to write
• Before You Read: 5 statements to agree or disagree with, revisited after Stave Five
• 5 question pages, one per stave: 25 questions in all, 3 ruled lines under a short answer, 5 under each of the 5 Think Deeper questions
• 5 vocabulary pages: 40 words, each printed with the words around it in the text, with columns for the student's own meaning and sentence
• Scrooge, Stave by Stave: a character tracker with a row for each stave
• The People Around Scrooge: Marley, Bob Cratchit, Fred, Tiny Tim, Fan, Fezziwig and Belle (7 characters)
• Quote Analysis, 2 pages: 4 quotations (who says it and when, what it means, why it matters)
• Themes: 4 themes defined, the student chooses 2 and finds evidence for each
• Sentence Starters: 13 starters for claims, evidence, explanation, then-and-now and endings
• Essay Planner with 3 prompts (claim, three pieces of evidence, so what, ending) and an Essay Draft page
• 5 answer keys: every question (Staves One and Two; Three and Four; Five with the quotations), the 40 words, and what to look for on the character, theme and Before You Read pages
• A Reading Plan: one-line synopsis of each stave, its study pages, a blank for your dates, and pacing notes
• 1 reading log (one row per student page), 1 class grid (15 students), 1 filled example for an invented student
• 1 family page with a discussion question per stave, 1 phrase bank of 16 feedback and conference starters
• 1 binder cover and 6 divider tabs with a spine label to cut out
• Start Here and terms of use

Built For Grades 7 To 9

No mascots and no clip art. Clean pages, body text at 11 point or larger, a numbered question and ruled lines under it. The direction on every question page is the same: answer in complete sentences, with a detail or a quotation from the stave. The vocabulary is Dickens's own (covetous, forbearance, reclamation, odious, foreshadow, munificence), shown in the sentence it came from, so students meet the word in context before they define it.

Type In, Or Print

The name, date and period lines, every ruled line, the vocabulary and character tables, the reading log, class grid and family page are type-in fields in any PDF reader. Every page prints clean in black and white. This is a fillable PDF; it is not a Google Slides or PowerPoint file. You need your own copy of the book; any edition works, and the full text is in the public domain.

Who This Is For

Middle school and early high school ELA, resource rooms and co-taught classes, homeschool families and tutors reading A Christmas Carol in December or any month. One stave every two or three class periods fits in about three weeks with the essay.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

A complete novel study with the record-keeping around it. There is no rubric or point value printed on any student page; the log has a blank for your own wording. It is not a test, a reading-level screener or a clinical tool, and it makes no claim about any student's grade level or rate of progress.