The Child’s story – Charles Dickens

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 4

Objectives:

 -To achieve a better understanding of the short story by learning literary devices and terms (e.g., imagery, symbolism, protagonist, antagonist, setting) used for analyzing stories. 

-To learn how to analyze the relationship between characters, and events in the story using these literary devices. 

Reading strategies you will learn:

- Making predictions, drawing conclusions, making generalizations about what you have read. 

(utilizing background knowledge, looking for the main ideas, making notes, highlighting or underlining specific information, answering questions)

More reading strategies you will learn:

- Learning new vocabulary through inference (drawing evidence from the text), highlighting unknown words, and questions for reading comprehension.

Pre-reading activity K-W-L Chart: 

Directions: Have students use the KWL chart to list the information they already know about childhood and old age, want to know further about aging, and would like to still learn about aging.  

What do you KNOW about this already (childhood / old age)? Write your answers down.

What do you WANT to know about it? (childhood / old age)? Write your answers down.

What did you LEARN about this (childhood / old age)? Write your answers down.

Warm-up question:
What is the theme of The Child's Story?

While Reading- Listening + Reading Exercise:

Watch, read, and listen to the video "The Child's Story". After the video, there will be vocabulary and multiple-choice exercises. Make notes during the listening + reading video. 

Vocabulary Task #1 : Word inference activity (multiple choice)  

Directions: Read the sentence and make a choice using the word in bold taken from the short story. 

Example: 

It was a magic JOURNEY. 

Answer: and was to seem VERY LONG when he began it, and VERY SHORT when he got half way through. 

The sky was so blue, the sun was so bright, the water was so SPARKLING.

1. There were flashes of light.
2. The water was shining brightly.
3. Everything was so beautiful.
4. The sun was shining.

They loved to watch the falling drops, and to smell the fresh SCENTS.

1. flowers
2. perfume
3. smell
4. rain

The wind whistling and howling, driving the clouds before it, bending the trees, rumbling in the CHIMNEYS.

1. houses
2. roof
3. building
4. pipe

They were active afoot, and active on horseback; at CRICKET, and all games at ball.

1. insect
2. game
3. grass
4. noise

So the traveler sat down by the side of that old man, face to face with the SERENE sunshine.

1. tranquil
2. bright
3. troubled
4. closed

In this story the traveler's name was:

1. John
2. Maarten
3. Michael
4. unknown

Vocabulary Task #2 Exercise: Questions for Reading Comprehension

The multiple-choice questions pertain to situations in the short story. Give one answer. 

The first person he met was a beautiful ...

1. child
2. woman
3. dog
4. creature

The next person he met was...

1. a beautful girl
2. a handsome boy
3. a young man
4. a young boy

The young man was always ....

1. gaming
2. writing love letters
3. at play
4. in love

After the young man, the traveler met a ....

1. a young-aged gentleman
2. old-aged gentleman
3. a middle-aged gentleman
4. an old-aged woman

Literary terms

"The whole journey was through a wood, only it had been open and green at first, like a wood in spring; and now began to be thick and dark, like a wood in summer."

1. Imagery
2. Irony
3. Foreshadowing
4. Simile

Every person he meets gets older.

1. Foreshadowing
2. Flashback
3. Climax
4. Conflict

What conflict did you encounter in the story? Write in your own words.

In your own words, what does wood symbolize in the story?

In your own words, what is the moral of the story?