Concluding A Christmas Carol

We're finishing A Christmas Carol this week, by viewing one of the newest film versions of Dicken's story.
We've gotten a lot of mileage out of this particular text, and have used it as the basis for working on comprehension and collaboration (Common Core State Standard SL.7.1), key ideas and details (Common Core State Standard RL.7.1) and integration of knowledge and ideas (Common Core State Standard RL.7.7)
Additionally, the students have read non-fiction "Achieve" articles which examine themes related to A Christmas Carol ("Can Money Buy Happiness?" and "Rich Man, Poor Country"). Incorporating more informational or non-fiction texts is one of the "instructional shifts" of the Common Core State Standards.