Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens
Lesson plans and teaching resources
| Biography, Criticism, and Background | | A Christmas Carol | | David Copperfield | | Oliver Twist | | A Tale of Two Cities |
Great Expectations
Reading strategies, including a directed reading-thinking activity, vocabulary strategies, and more.
Great Expectations
After working closely with the teacher for the first part of the novel, students work in small groups to teach a chapter themselves. This unit plan is designed for 9th grade and takes about 6 weeks.
Great Expectations
Audio text of the novel in MP3 format.
Great Expectations
Background information, map of the region, trivia, links to original illustrations, more.
Great Expectations
How might students use storyboards to demonstrate and to extend their learning? Check the resources here. Includes essential questions, plot diagram, themes, motifs and images, irony and other literary elements, vocabulary, more.
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Great Expectations
Vocabulary, focus questions, additional links, classroom activities. Video available from Discovery.com.
Great Expectations
Suggestions for post-reading activities.
Great Expectations
Complete text of the novel in multiple formats, including EPUB, Kindle, and plain text.
Great Expectations
3: Happily Ever After?
Video clip (1:42) of the final scene from the 2012 Masterpiece production. By watching this video excerpt, students view how the filmmakers have interpreted the final scene. To deepen their understanding of Dickens, and to explore his relevance today, students read two essays. They then explore Dickenss original and revised ending, and examine how writing in installments affected his work.
Great Expectations
Novel Idea
Students compare and contrast events in Pip's life with events from Dickens' biography.
Great Expectations
Reading Guide
Ten discussion questions from Oprah's Book Club. Scroll down for related links.
Love: The Art of Seeing, Knowing and Writing Today and in the Past
This unit plan links the novel with "Seeing" by Annie Dillard, "I Want A Wife" by Judy Brady, "The Breakups That Got Under My Skin" by Kerry Cohen. The objective is to enhance students' ability to see details, pay close attention to context, think, close-read, analyze, discuss, synthesize, and evaluate the theme expressed by an author. This unit also requires various writing activities and a final project, a documented essay or, for those students who have special needs, a simple documented visual.
Vocabulary from Great Expectations
- Volume I , 50 words
- Volume II , 50 words
- Volume III , 50 words
What Makes the Writer Write?
Students study the novel to gain insight into a classical piece of fiction and to understand how writers respond to social conditions. Students also consider how that response is important today.
Resources for teaching other books by Dickens >> | 1 | 2 |