English Club Devoted to Charles Dickens

In celebration of Charles Dickens's 200th birthday and unique writing style a special English club was presented to educate children about the importance of Charles Dickens's work. Charles Dickens is one of the most famous authors of English literature and his work has stood the test of time. Most students know his work already through popular films and translated works, but are unfamiliar about his themes.

English Club's goal was to educate students about the history of Charles Dickens and to show why he wrote about what he wrote about. The four stories used as examples were A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby and The Adventures of Oliver Twist. Numerous quotes were used from the stories to help students understand the themes Charles Dickens wrote about. The quotes from these stories showed how much of the author's stories revolved around the difference in class systems, which is still an important issue with the global environment changing. Students had to find titles of the stories then match the appropriate quotes to the corresponding story. Students then would read aloud the quotes and try to describe what they felt the quotes meant. For example, a quote from Great Expectations talked about Miss Havisham living uptown. We talked about what uptown means and if there is an uptown in their city. Students then talked about their feelings regarding different types of neighborhoods and class systems in their city.

After discussion of quotes and the themes of these stories a brief PowerPoint presentation was held informing the students of the history of Charles Dickens. The information focused with the beginning of his upbringing as a child, to his father being in debt, working in a factory at the age of twelve, falling in love, losing love and finally to his rise in the literature world. We even discussed Charles Dickens visit to America and his eventually disappointment with the country, because of America's lack of human rights to certain minorities.

Towards the end the students reenacted the play Nicholas Nickleby. Students worked on pronunciation, acting and general English knowledge of the Dickens's literature. The students learned of the evils of power and money. The students also had quite a bit of fun with the first 6 acts of Nicholas Nickleby and are looking forward to completing the rest of the play. In the end students had some fun, learned a little history and some important social issues revolving around Dickens's themes. Students will definitely delve further into the authors work and have a deeper understanding of the importance of this great author.

Sean Boshard,
a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine

Updated at 04.03.2012