School Activities Devoted to Charles Dickens’ Bicentenary
February is the shortest month in our calendar. But in our gymnasia February 2012 will go down into the history of our school as a special month. We marked Charles Dickens' bicentenary with a month long celebration. It was a very eventful time which will stand out vividly in the memory of teachers, students and their parents. February 7 was no doubt the highlight of the celebration. On this day all teachers of English began their lessons with a warming up devoted to this great genius in English literature. Students were involved with interesting discussions about the life and heritage of Charles Dickens. It doesn't matter whether the lessons were held in the basic or high school levels, all the students came to one and the same conclusion: one generation replaces another but one of the brightest stars in the 19th century British literature towers in the 21st century as the classic of the world literature.
On the same day the hall of the first floor of our gymnasia attracted the attention of teachers, students and their parents by two events: the exhibition of students' illustrations to the novels by Charles Dickens and the display of his books. His books were borrowed both from the school library and teachers' home libraries.
Students of the 10th-11th forms responded eagerly to the initiative of illustrating books by Charles Dickens. As a result about 40 students exhibited their works. They've chosen the following novels for illustrations: "David Copperfield", "Oliver Twist", "A Christmas Carol", "A Christmas Tree", "Dombey and Son", "A Tale of Two Cities". About 10 out of 40 have chosen "Oliver Twist" and it's no wonder because their acquaintance with Charles Dickens starts in the basic school at the lessons of World literature conducted in Ukrainian. Then the students of the 10th form in high school read the extracts from "Oliver Twist" in the original, discuss the life and literary heritage of the writer in English, discover his novel "Dombey and Son" and prepare the projects about other novels.
The display of the books included a ten-volume collection of Charles Dickens published in 1918. It is the present of our former student Ann Bilous (Vagramova) who now lives in Canada. The brightest book of the display was "A Christmas Carol" illustrated by an English illustrator C. Birmingham. This display included books in Russian, Ukrainian and English.
The next day the reading hall of our school library was turned into the cinema hall. Students watched films based on the novels by Charles Dickens.
Halyna Ivanova,
teacher-methodologist of English,
Cherkasy First City Gymnasia,
Associated UNESCO School
Updated at 04.03.2012
