Using A Visit from St. Nicholas to Compare and Contrast Perspectives
It’s no secret that we love “A Visit from St. Nicholas!” You can read all about our favorite group project using the beloved poem here. To add even more depth to this project, we like to present different versions of the poem to our students to compare and contrast perspectives from the original.
How do you present the different versions?
We like to partner up with the other teachers in our grade level for this project. Each teacher chooses the version they want to present, and then we rotate around to each other’s classrooms. This works well for a couple reasons! One, each teacher is only responsible for finding one version and mastering the dialect (if applicable) for one book. Two, the students get to hear multiple stories from multiple teachers rather than the same voice they hear each day.
Of course this year, given COVID, we would need to set this up differently since we can’t go into one another’s classrooms. One way you can do this is video. Have each teacher record a video presenting the version they choose. Then either email the videos to one another or upload them into a shared drive. Then each teacher can play the videos in their own classrooms, but the students still get to see and hear different readers presenting the stories.
Comparing and Contrasting
Once your students have listened to the different versions of the poem, you can have them compare and contrast two. You can have everyone choose just one alternative and compare it to Clement C. Moore’s original poem, or you can let the students choose any two versions they like. Today’s 12 Days of Christmas freebie allows for either option!
What are some of the alternative versions?
There are so many different versions out there! Having grown up in Mississippi, the version Renee always chose to present is Cajun Night Before Christmas by Troclair. Laura always read the original. This illustrated version doesn’t deviate from Clement C. Moore’s. Of course Jan Brett’s illustrations never disappoint, and her version stays true to the original as well. We’ll leave a list of other versions below. As with any book, make sure you preview it before reading it to your students. Some versions of “A Visit from St. Nicholas” are geared more for an adult audience while others are written for children.
- A Pirate’s Night Before Christmas
- The Knights Before Christmas
- A Soldier’s Night Before Christmas
- This list contains versions from a teacher, to a dog, to firefighter, and everything in between including regional versions like the Cajun Night Before Christmas
