The Assignment

The Freshmen English homework assignment was for Caz to read, out loud, to me: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.  I have been waiting with great anticipation for this, since it was announced in September during Open House.  There is a booklet of questions for Caz to answer.  Caz and I are also supposed to write a paragraph each on the book, the experience, and our holiday traditions.  Here is my work:

Mrs. C

English I

1 January 2014

A Christmas Carol Essay

            I think this class assignment is an excellent idea for several reasons.   The primary appeal of this assignment happens to be that A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is one of my all-time favorite stories.  I read it every December before Christmas.  I read it off and on through high school, but the consecutive annual streak started in college.

            I started reading to Caz every night before he was born.  I read to my wife’s stomach each night, once Caz’s ears started forming.  We continue this practice to this very day.  One of our family holiday traditions is for me to read ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore to both my sons, every Christmas Eve.  While we have experimented with taking turns who is the reader and who is the listener, I have become the primary reader.  This assignment provided a nice change of pace to our routine. 

            Caz read this story wonderfully.  His voice inflections and pronunciations were spot on.  I suspect that our years of reading out loud have provided Caz a solid foundation for his own ability to read out loud.  He did not mind be interrupting to ask if he understood the meaning of a word or phrase.  He generally had a good idea of the answer in each of these instances.  I recall stumping him only a few times. 

            In conclusion, I am very happy with assignment.  I had been looking forward to it, since I found out about it on Open House night.  The outcome far exceeded the expectation.