Charles Dickens
Reading Desk
colourised images from #TechnicolourDickens
credits: @DickensMuseum
Charles Dickens would be 209 years on this day, the 7 January. He was born in 1812. Dickens was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.
His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are still widely read today.
Charles Dickens
Frith, William Powell RA
Portrait Daniel Maclise
National Portrait Gallery, London
In 2012, we celebrated the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Dickens, one of the greatest authors.
Dickens 2012 was a world celebration of life and work of Charles Dickens to mark the Bicentenary of his birth, which felt on 7 February 2012.
In 2005, the world celebrated the bicentenary of Hans Christian Andersen.
In 2005, the world celebrated the bicentenary of Hans Christian Andersen.
Institutions, schools, colleges and organisations from all over the world celebrated HCA2005 and in 2012 we celebrated Dickens 2012 in commemoration of his 200th birthday on February 7.
Together we worked to deliver a program of events and activities to commemorate into school curricula this very special anniversary like we did in 2005 about HCD.
Google Doodle:
Google joined the celebration with a Doodle, February 7, 2012 that reflects the world of Dickens' books.
"We have quite a number of characters who showed up today to help celebrate Charles Dickens' 200th birthday. Twelve recognizable ones at least. This naturally made for a pretty busy doodle, and while we managed to squeeze in a few extra pixels to make the logo slightly larger than usual, we thought it'd be kind of nice to show you a couple close-ups here".
Google Doodle Charles Dickens 200th Birthday
a close-up
Mike Dutton
As anyone who has read a Dickens novel can attest, they are full of memorable characters, realism, humor, lyricism, and social commentary. He is considered one of the greatest novelists of the Victorian era, and responsible for some of the most iconic stories in English literature. Contemplating Dickens’ diversity of characters and themes, we wondered how the artist who created the Dickens Doodle, Mike Dutton, handled the challenge.
Education:
Reading is one of the most important activities in Languages curriculum. Of course we are doing it all the time. However this kind of world celebrations are important because students love to interact in different situations with other students. They prefer a dynamic class.
“Although a writer from the Victorian era, Dickens’s work transcends his time, language and culture. He remains a massive contemporary influence throughout the world and his writings continue to inspire film, TV, art, literature, artists and academia,”
in Forbes, 2012
Charles Dickens is the kind of an author every teacher include into school curricula as well Hans Christian Andersen.
Both had a painful childhood that they describe in their books, some of them autobiographic.
Young Dickens experienced child labor in factories. Lack of money, Charles Dickens had experienced a chaotic school, and left school. Dickens's own father was sent to prison for debt, and the family struggled to survive. This became a common theme in many of his books.
David Copperfield
Charles Dickens
"He spoke later in life of his poignant memories of childhood and of his near-photographic memory of the people and events, which he used in his writing."
All authors might be said to incorporate autobiographical elements in their fiction. Hans Christian Andersen incorporated too, but in Dickens, this is very present, even though he took pains to mask what he considered his shameful, lowly past.
As his biographer demonstrates, this humiliating experience traumatized the young boy. It will nourish many of his works. David Copperfield is one of the most clearly autobiographical.
Curriculum: Languages & literature
Level: All levels (from primary to high education)
- Oliver Twist : book & film
He wrote 14 and a half novels. He died in the middle of the writing book The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
When you and your students are reading any book by Dickens, you will see his great sympathy for children, his angelic heroines, the way his serial composition lends itself so beautifully to television or cinema.
Oliver Twist or The Parish's Boy Progress (subtitle) is one of the best to explore into our lessons.
Poverty is the main theme in this book. Oliver is confronted with poor people and slums and he has no money himself.
Poverty is the main theme in this book. Oliver is confronted with poor people and slums and he has no money himself.
Oliver is a good child that’s put in very sad place. He lives as an orphan without friends. He is confronted with very vicious people like Fagin, Sikes and Noah Claypole, but he is also confronted with a lot of charity and love.
A typical thing in this book is that Dickens uses some speaking names. The names say something about the characters.
For example "Mr. Grimweg who seems to be very ‘grim’ or Mrs. Mann who isn’t a very womanly and motherly person. Mr. and Mrs Sowerberries are sour berries witch refers to the grouchy Mrs. Sowerberry and the profession as undertaker of Mr. Sowerberry. Rose Maylie says something about her association with flowers and springtime while Toby Crackit is a reference to his chosen profession: housebreaking.
A typical thing in this book is that Dickens uses some speaking names. The names say something about the characters.
For example "Mr. Grimweg who seems to be very ‘grim’ or Mrs. Mann who isn’t a very womanly and motherly person. Mr. and Mrs Sowerberries are sour berries witch refers to the grouchy Mrs. Sowerberry and the profession as undertaker of Mr. Sowerberry. Rose Maylie says something about her association with flowers and springtime while Toby Crackit is a reference to his chosen profession: housebreaking.
Oliver Twist
Roman Polansky, 2005
Today, his popularity continues unabated, and his work remains not only widely read but widely adapted for stage and screen.
A beautiful digital resource is Roman Polansky's film based on Oliver Twist novel.
An adaptation of the classic Dickens tale, where an orphan meets a pickpocket on the streets of London. From there, he joins a household of boys who are trained to steal for their master.
Polansky narrated in a sensitive way the child labour and the recruitment of children as criminals. Very touching.
An adaptation of the classic Dickens tale, where an orphan meets a pickpocket on the streets of London. From there, he joins a household of boys who are trained to steal for their master.
Oliver Twist
Roman Polansky, 2005
Polansky narrated in a sensitive way the child labour and the recruitment of children as criminals. Very touching.
As I wrote in different posts about reading, movies based on children or youth books are an attractive and enjoyable digital resource to motivate students to read at school.
Oliver Twist
Roman Polansky (2005)
- Exploring the importance of names and characters in Dickens' books:
Many of his characters' names provide us with a hint as to the roles played in advancing the storyline, such as Mr. Murdstone in the novel David Copperfield, which is clearly a combination of "murder" and stony coldness.
"Dickensian characters, especially their typically whimsical names, are among the most memorable in English literature."
- Dickens going digital: Apps
There are great educational digital resources about Charles Dickens. Let your students discover Dickens 2012 or Charles Dickens Museum (different stages for different ages).
Teachers must help the young students to explore the resources online.
screenshot Celebrating Charles Dickens app
Last update: 2018
Good! Students can use their smartphones and tablets in the classroom to explore some of those digital resources. Don't miss that!
You must not underestimate the use of social media as Twitter or Facebook, or Instagram in the classroom.
Powerful resources to involve your students in national and international projects, checking for schools and projects on social media networks.
Exchanging experiences on social media enrich your students learning process and your own teaching.
Exchanging experiences on social media enrich your students learning process and your own teaching.
Dickens "would have been fascinated by Twitter, for example, He loved the telegraph, the railways, all sorts of modern communications technology, he was very 'on the button'."
Charles Dickens reading to his daughters at Gad's Hill Place
. National Portrait Gallery
Some thoughts:
Dickens literary style is a mixture of fantasy and realism.
Students are very curious about autobiographical books. They love to 'read' from the authors, the real story about their life on theirs books.
Books based on the gripping real-life stories of an author as Charles Dickens are true values to show to students how they can get out from a difficult youth or childhood and become well succeed adults as Dickens or Andersen.
"The marginalia, the backstory and the language - all the tiny touches that make his work entertaining and inventive and special, two centuries on."
Radhka Jones
Dickens literary style is a mixture of fantasy and realism.
Students are very curious about autobiographical books. They love to 'read' from the authors, the real story about their life on theirs books.
Books based on the gripping real-life stories of an author as Charles Dickens are true values to show to students how they can get out from a difficult youth or childhood and become well succeed adults as Dickens or Andersen.
Alfred Bryan (1852–1899)
Caricature of Charles Dickens, [18--]
Gift of Miss Caroline Newton, 1974.1974.7
Another point, reading aloud, bringing characters to life, is a crucial part of reading in the classroom.
Many chidren's literature classics have been adapted to movies. So, we can capture new young readers, presenting literary books trough movies. Gorgeous educational resource, movies!
Many chidren's literature classics have been adapted to movies. So, we can capture new young readers, presenting literary books trough movies. Gorgeous educational resource, movies!
Reading a book and after, in a comparative process of learning, displaying the movie in the classroom, even go to the movies with our students, are interesting strategies that educators can't throw way.
Charles Dickens dream
credits: Robert Buss
Other resources:
Technicolour Dickens:
The Living Image of Charles Dickens exhibition
Dickens Museum:
Marking the 150th anniversary of Charles Dickens’s death, this exhibition explores the power of the writer’s image. Starting in his own lifetime, we trace his image through artist interpretations, radical rethinking in popular culture and new digital technologies and re-imaginings. Read more here
Europeana: Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens at 200
Charles Dickens em Portugal/ BN Portugal, 2012
Students blogs (Languages curriculum):
Charles Dickens: 200 ans | French language
Bicentenário de Charles Dickens | Portuguese language
https://blogdoscaloiros.blogs.sapo.pt/98575.html
"Dickens really was a peculiarly modern writer, very attuned to what was new; he was writing at the beginning of the industrial revolution which, effectively, we are still in."
Clare Petitt, Dickens specialist at King's College, London
G-Souto
06.03.2012
update: 07.01.2021
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Teaching Charles Dickens in Languages curriculum by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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