A Christmas Carol
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Introduction
Before Reading
Reading Context
During Reading
Reading Questions & Paired Texts
After Reading
Discussion/Analysis Prompt
Essay Questions
Exam Questions
Exam Answer Key
Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.
Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.
Scaffolded Essay Questions
Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serves as examples and support.
1. In literature, an allegory is a work that can be understood on many levels; characters often symbolize ideas and contain a clear moral lesson.
- Reflect on the levels of interpretation of A Christmas Carol . If viewed allegorically, what is the moral lesson Dickens proposes in the text? ( topic sentence )
- Analyze Ebeneezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Jacob Marley, and the three spirits as symbolic figures. What idea or quality does each character represent, and how is this demonstrated to readers? If viewed as allegorical characters, which character is conveyed most effectively and why?
- In your conclusion, evaluate the timelessness of Dickens’s message; what makes this allegory popular and lasting?
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A Christmas Carol
Keep an eye out for a christmas carol games, puzzles and quizzes throughout the site..., a christmas carol revision, below, you'll find everything you need to revise for a christmas carol - and if you need anything else, just let us know and we'll do our very best. it's what we ask of you, so it's the least we c ould offer in return....
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Perfect planning for an essay on 'A Christmas Carol'
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Lesson details
Key learning points.
- Single paragraph outlines are useful for organising your ideas into a coherent structure
- Single paragraph outlines contain a topic sentence, supporting detail and a closing sentence
- The supporting details should contain quotations you will use, along with methods, key vocabulary and context
- A single paragraph outline should be planned for each section of your response (it might be more than one paragraph)
- Context should be used as evidence for your argument and not as an afterthought.
Common misconception
Students do not take the time to plan properly before writing.
Not taking the time to plan a response properly makes your argument less concise and less coherent.
Dire - If a dire warning is delivered, it is incredibly serious and urgent.
Indifferent - Someone indifferent to other people would show little concern or interest in them.
Harbinger - A harbinger is a person or thing that signals the arrival of something.
Meagre - A meagre meal would contain very little food.
Content guidance
- Depiction or discussion of discriminatory behaviour
- Depiction or discussion of sensitive content
Supervision
Adult supervision recommended
This content is © Oak National Academy Limited ( 2024 ), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).
Starter quiz
6 questions.
How to Write a Perfect A Christmas Carol Essay ( OCR GCSE English Literature )
Revision note.
How to Write A Christmas Carol Essay
Paper 1 of your OCR GCSE will contain questions on a modern prose or drama text and a 19th-century prose work. Section B offers you a choice of two questions about a 19th-century prose text you have studied. You will have 50 minutes to write an essay on one of the following options:
Question 1 is based on an extract from the novel or novella you have studied
Question 2 is a “discursive” essay question and doesn’t contain an extract
Your OCR GCSE exam is “closed text”, which means you won’t have your copy of A Christmas Carol with you. Therefore, it is important you know the novella really well, so make sure you are confident about the plot, characters and themes, and that you have revised a range of quotes and references to use in your essay. The OCR examiners want to see a range of evidence from right across A Christmas Carol, even for the extract-based question: for a Grade 9 essay, your analysis should link the evidence from the extract with other parts of the novella. For some great suggestions of quotations to learn, check out our A Christmas Carol Quotations and Analysis page .
How Do I Start My A Christmas Carol Essay?
Writing a whole essay in 50 minutes is a considerable challenge, so this advice may sound strange, but instead of putting pen to paper, don’t start your essay yet . Spend at least 10 minutes making an essay plan.
The number one most effective way to get the highest marks is to plan your essay first. It is like making a map, so you know where you are going. Then, you can start writing with confidence about your overall argument and the evidence you are going to use to support it. For the highest marks in both the discursive and extract-based essays, OCR examiners look for writing that “focuses on the question”, contains a “coherent line of argument” and maintains a good “critical style”. Here is a breakdown of what those requirements mean and how you can achieve them:
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“Focus on the question” | |
“Coherent line of argument” | |
“Critical style” |
Creating a plan before you start writing means that you can be certain that your essay covers all these requirements.
Here is an idea of what your plan could look like:
How Do I Structure My A Christmas Carol Essay?
The highest marks go to students who produce a “coherent line of argument” in their essays. Making a plan is the best way to ensure your argument is logical and consistent, so use your plan to structure your essay and enable you to move from one point to the next smoothly and clearly. To get a Grade 9 in your OCR exam, you need to include an introduction , clearly focused paragraphs and a conclusion . Look again at the example plan above. It includes a “ thesis statement ” and “ topic sentences ” at the beginning of each paragraph. Here is how to include these in your essay:
Top tips for structuring your A Christmas Carol essay
Always set out a clear thesis statement in your introduction:
Your thesis statement should only be one or two sentences long
Begin every paragraph with a topic sentence:
This sentence should indicate the focus of the paragraph clearly
Your topic sentences should always link directly with your thesis statement
All the evidence (quotations or textual references) in the paragraph should focus on supporting the statement you make in your topic sentence
Finish your essay with a short conclusion:
Do not include any new evidence; just sum up how you have proved your thesis statement
How Much Should I Write?
Aim to develop your argument in two or three paragraphs of evidence and analysis. Any more than that can make your essay lose focus and wander away from the question. Remember: less is more — concise writing produces a clearer, more coherent essay.
You may have been taught a method for writing essay paragraphs. Perhaps you have been told to structure your paragraphs like this: Point, Evidence, Explanation (or something similar).
These days, OCR examiners advise against such strict structures, because they make it harder for students to be flexible and explore different interpretations and contexts or present their own opinions.
For an example of how to include elements like contextual analysis, differing interpretations and personal opinion in your essay, take a look at our model answers for the OCR A Christmas Carol discursive essay question and the A Christmas Carol extract essay question .
Exam Tips For A Grade 9 A Christmas Carol Essay
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Choose whichever question will enable them to best produce a coherent response supported by multiple pieces of evidence | Choose the extract-based question even when they do not understand the extract or the focus of the question |
Plan their essays before writing them, so their argument is clear and consistent | Do not plan their essays and produce rambling, unfocused writing |
Start with a clear thesis statement, setting out their overall argument | Write an essay they have memorised that is not directly relevant to the question |
Focus their writing on the question throughout, using clear topic sentences and relevant evidence | Do not use topic sentences to focus their response and use random evidence that does not address the question |
Include relevant evidence and quotations from the whole text that supports their argument | Include irrelevant quotations or descriptions of events in A Christmas Carol, just because they have learnt them |
Present some developed analysis of language, structure and form over more than one sentence | Present simple, one-sentence statements of analysis that aren’t developed or analysed |
Consider different interpretations and achieve some complexity in their analysis | Retell the story of A Christmas Carol without analysing Dickens’ choices |
Integrate relevant contextual knowledge and understanding into their argument | Include irrelevant contextual information and do not relate it to their analysis of Dickens’ language, structure or form |
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Author: Jen Davis
Jen studied a BA(Hons) in English Literature at the University of Chester, followed by an MA in 19th Century Literature and Culture. She taught English Literature at university for nine years as a visiting lecturer and doctoral researcher, and gained a Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education in 2014. She now works as a freelance writer, editor and tutor. While teaching English Literature at university, Jen also specialised in study skills development, with a focus on essay and examination writing.
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A Christmas Carol Exam questions. Revision activity: light the KEY focus (eg: the first one is 'family') Read the extract, highlig. t anything that you think is relevant to the KEY focus. Think about the writer's technique or methods- what has Dickens done with language to make us think abo. family, or whatever the K.
The Essay. The extract is from the end of stave 4 and explores Scrooge's final realisation of his fate as the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come points to his grave. Overall, death is a prevalent theme in the novella, one which haunts Scrooge at every turn, enough to finally transform him for the better.
The second question you'll answer on English Literature Paper 1 will be on by Charles Dickens. You have 1 hour 45 minutes for his paper, so you should spend around 50 minutes on this question. Like the question, you will be given an extract to analyse in your essay - you should use this to help you include detailed analysis of methods for AO2.
Scrooge is appalled by them: 'Scrooge started back, appalled.'. The Spirit says the boy is called Ignorance - 'This boy is Ignorance.'. The girl is called Want - 'This girl is Want.'. This will be because the boy had never been to school because there were no schools back then.
Thanks for exploring this SuperSummary Study Guide of "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student ...
A Christmas Carol Revision. Below, you'll find everything you need to revise for A Christmas Carol - and if you need anything else, just let us know and we'll do our very best. It's what we ask of you, so it's the least we c ould offer in return...
For a detailed analysis of each of these quotations, see our A Christmas Carol: Key Quotations page. Top tips for the highest grade. Please see our revision pages on the 19th-century texts for guides on: Structuring A Christmas Carol essay; A Christmas Carol methods and techniques; How to include context in A Christmas Carol essay
Grade 9 A Christmas Carol Essay Question Model Answer. Component 1, Section B of your OCR GCSE contains questions about a 19th-century prose work. You will write an essay responding to one of two options: Question 1 asks you to write an essay based on an extract from the novel or novella you have studied. Question 2 is a "discursive" essay ...
Keywords. Dire - If a dire warning is delivered, it is incredibly serious and urgent.. Indifferent - Someone indifferent to other people would show little concern or interest in them.. Harbinger - A harbinger is a person or thing that signals the arrival of something.. Meagre - A meagre meal would contain very little food.
A Christmas Carol - Practice 1 — SHSG English. The question itself is shown below or you can download it as a PDF. Starting with this extract, how does Dickens present the importance of Christmas in. how Dickens presents the importance of Christmas in the extract. how Dickens presents the importance of Christmas in the novel as a whole.
This free A Christmas Carol (AQA) English Literature essay explores how Charles Dickens presents the struggles of the poor in the novel. This GCSE A Christmas Carol essay is based upon the AQA English Literature exam format. This A Christmas Carol essay is a top band, Grade 9 response, linked to the June 2017 AQA exam.
A Christmas Carol Essay Questions. 1. Show how Dickens presents the hardships of life in 19th century London in A Christmas Carol. 2. How does Dickens present Scrooge's changing character in A Christmas Carol? 3. What is Dickens' moral message to the reader in A Christmas Carol? 4.
Make sure your argument answers the question directly. Only include evidence that relates to the question. "Coherent line of argument". Set out your argument clearly in your introduction. Make sure your argument is consistent and makes sense throughout your essay. Do not include analysis that does not contribute directly to your overall ...
SAMPLE FROM THE GUIDE Foreword. In your GCSE English Literature exam, you will be presented with an extract from Charles Dickens's A Christmas Caroland a question that asks you to offer both a close analysis of the extract plus a commentary of the novella as a whole.Of course, there are many methods one might use to tackle this style of question.. However, there is one particular technique ...
Select a question from the options below and read over the plan to help you revise, or try writing a practice essay based on the plan, using the Essay Wizard to help you. Print the plans for easy use. ... Your free preview of York Notes Plus+ 'A Christmas Carol: AQA GCSE 9-1 Practice Tests with Answers' has expired. Either purchase below, or ...
There was an earthy savour in the air, a chilly bareness in the place, which associated itself somehow with too much getting up by candle-light, and not too much to eat. They went, the Ghost and Scrooge, across the hall, to a door at the back of the house. It opened before them, and disclosed a long, bare, melancholy room, made barer still by ...
Analysis. In A Christmas Carol, an allegory of spiritual values versus material ones, Charles Dickens shows Scrooge having to learn the lesson of the spirit of Christmas, facing the reality of his ...
A Christmas Carol: AQA GCSE 9-1 Practice Tests with Answers Essay Wizard. ... AQA GCSE 9-1 Practice Tests with Answers essay to your desktop to edit it further or print it out for homework or revision. Your free preview of York Notes Plus+ 'A Christmas Carol: AQA GCSE 9-1 Practice Tests with Answers' has expired. Either purchase below, or click ...