CHARLES DICKENS

CHARLES DICKENS

'Minds, like bodies, will often fall into a pimpled, ill-conditioned state from mere excess of comfort'

Charles Dickens

INTRODUCTION:

Perhaps you have seen 'Oliver Twist' or 'A Christmas Carol' on TV, but who is the creator of both stories? Do you know him? He is Charles Dickens, one of the most important British writers in Universal Literature. He was a hard worker and a very prolific novelist who knew quite well how to critisize his time. He lived in an age of continuous social changes, positive and negative at the same time, due to the advances in industry, technology, politics, sciences, etc.

However as we do not want our minds to fall into an ill-conditioned state as Dickens says in his quote. Let's enlarge our culture and, discover more details about Dickens; his life, his works, his time and film adaptations of his novels.

Your School Web Page has created a section for British and American Literature and the next writer in the list is Charles Dickens. It is important for you to participate because your work is going to be presented in a contest and you can be the winner.

You will work in groups of two students in order to create a web page about this famous writer with information about his time, life , works, and also films and plays based on his novels. The end-product will be in English and you will have to illustrate it with pictures of this international novelist.

You will have 9 class hours to do the task. One of you will be in charge of life aspects and film adaptations of his novels; and the other one will work on aspects of his works and time. You will have to decide who is going to do each part according to your preferences . Don't forget that agreement and collaboration are essential to obtain a good end-product.

If you want to see the way you are going to be evaluated go to the EVALUATION section below.

Here you have the steps you must follow as a kind of guide to help you in the elaboration of the web.

STUDENT -1-

You will work: Life and Film adaptations.

Date and place of birth.
Date and place of death.
His vocation
Details about his childhood.
The title of his first novel.
His two autobiographic novels.
Ways of publication.
His pseudonym.
His health and details of his death.
Place of burial.
Apart from writing books, he also was a very active person. What other things did he do?
Films and plays adaptations of his novels.

STUDENT-2-

You will work: His Time and Works.

Characteristics of his novels.
Name his novels in chronological order.
Main characteristics of the Victorian Age.

When you collect all the information and pictures, both of you must put in common all the details to start the writing and the design of the web page.

As English is the language you will use, pay attention to grammar and spelling, remember that your web is possible to be chosen to take part in your school web page and everybody is going to see it on the web, so mind the details.

Here you have the web pages where you will see the information you are asked above.

LIFE, WORKS AND FILM ADAPTATIONS

Biography from Artehistoria

Biografías y Vidas

Chronological biography of Charles Dickens

Biography from EPdLP

Zaragoza University Web Page about Dickens's Life and Works

Biography from Portalmundos

Biography from Mipunto

Web about Dickens's novels taken to cinema and theatre

VICTORIAN AGE

Victorian Age from Artehistoria

Victorian Age from Rincondelvago

These are the criteria your teacher is going to follow. Read them carefully before you start working on your web.

CRITERIA	5	3	1
Task	The tasks were well done and all of them were answered. The information about the different aspects was complete, and well selected. You haven't copied and pasted it. You have used your own words.	You did all the tasks, but there were some mistakes in your answers. You have just copied and pasted the information. You have forgotten some of the steps which are important.	You didn't complete all the tasks, and there were several mistakes in your answers. The information about the four aspects was poor and incomplete. You have copied and pasted most of it.
Lay - Out	The information is very well organized You have included some pictures that make your web more attractive. Links work very well.	You haven't organized the information very clearly. You have included some pictures, but they are not very well situated or selected.some of the links do not work.	The information is not at all well organized. You haven't included pictures. Links do not work at all.
Collaboration	Your work shows that you have collaborated very well with each other; it shows unity.	Your work shows that you have cooperated with each other, although one part is better than the other.	Your work shows that you haven't cooperated . It has not got unity in style.
Grammar Vocabulary Spelling	The final work is free of grammatical and spelling errors. The use of vocabulary is fluent.	The final work has a few grammatical and spelling errors and some of them are important.Your vocabulary is poor.	The final work has a lot of important grammatical and spelling errors.

Through the web page you have created, we all know more about Dickens and his time, you have learnt about someone who devoted his life to writing, to make people enjoy with his novels, now and then. Someone whose novels still inspire films and plays.

Congratulations on your web, you have enlarged your culture and ours. The next step can be the reading of one of Dickens's novels, what about 'Oliver Twist'?.

AUTHOR: Yolanda Gil

LEVEL: 4º E.S.O

DATE: August 2005

SUBJECT: English as a Foreign Language

TIME FOR ELABORATION: 9 Sessions