A Christmas Carol (GCSE) Scrooge Vs Fred

GCSE English Teaching Resources: A Christmas Carol - Character - Scrooge and Fred

(15-slide PowerPoint presentation with 4 worksheets)

Fred’s nephew is often described as a foil character for Scrooge. This resource for GCSE enables students to use the Venn diagram method to compare and contrast the two characters.

Contents include:

A differentiated starter activity, in which pupils work through a series of tasks and questions in pairs to revise what they have discovered about Scrooge so far.

After this, learners will read from ‘Once upon a time…’ down to ‘…for he returned them cordially’, thinking about what they learn about Fred, Scrooge’s attitude towards his nephew and why Dickens chooses not to reveal Fred’s first name at this stage in the novella.

The main activity is for learners to use a Venn diagram and a bank of quotations to compare and contrast Fred and Scrooge. At higher levels, learners will also group the quotations into specific categories and write a comparative paragraph using a pair or set of related quotes as a basis.

To conclude, learners will read a definition of a foil character and suggest three ways in which Fred could be considered a foil character for Scrooge. If there is time left over, learners can also attempt an additional challenge task in which they suggests points for and against a statement about Scrooge and Fred.

NB. This resources assumes prior knowledge of the first few pages of ‘A Christmas Carol’ in which the protagonist Scrooge is introduced.