With Covid, RSV and Flu hitting hard, there are lots of students and staff (including yours truly) absent. So to help you get through the last day and a half of term you might get some use out of my History of Christmas handout (in pdf and MS Word so you can edit it for your own needs) ‘History of Christmas Matching – Chronology – Article – Editorial – and poems (pdf) History of Christmas Matching – Chronology – Article – Editorial – and poems (MS Word) Not that I’m notoriously sneaky, or anything, but this has exercise that explore not only the actual history of the holidays, but link in with lots of key skills that students need:

·      Matching texts with photos and cartoons

·      Creating a chronology

·      Looking at editorials and creative writing

·      Concrete poetry

·      Academic historical writing (with comprehension and critical judgment questions attached).

It’s almost like I’m so used to trying to layer learning outcomes into everything I do, that I don’t even notice that I’m doing it any more… Anyway, it might get you through that 40-minute class with 40% of your students present (and still do something meaningful with those that are there). Happy Holidays. JD