Format
1. The author will introduce students to the poor of Victorian London and to the story of Charles Dickens.
2. The author will explain how, through his extremely popular novels, Dickens inspired improvements in education and health care for slum children, in cleaning up air and water pollution, in regulating child labor and instituting work safety laws, in decreasing child crime and child abandonment, and in reforming a decadent legal system that worked against the middle and lower classes.
3. The author will share photos from her book to illustrate Victorian London, the street children, Dickens, and scenes from his novels.
Objectives
--To introduce students to the author of such classics as "Oliver Twist" and "A Christmas Carol."
--To illustrate how Dickens softened the hearts of the upper classes toward the poor by portraying them in his novels as good people with real feelings, and in the process creating many working class characters who became both unforgettable and much loved.
--To highlight the social ills featured in Dickens' books and the reforms that were a direct result of his writing.
--To inspire students to believe that they, too, can use their talents, whatever they are, to help the less fortunate and bring about change in the world.
Standards Alignment
National Standards
Other Nations and World Affairs; U>S History/The History of Peoples of Many Cultures Around the World; English/Reading for Understanding.
State Standards
This program is appropriate for grades five and up.