December 19 reading ideas
Finding reading ideas for this date…
Finding reading ideas for this date…
Carter G. Woodson’s birthday invites a biography about preserving Black history. Evergreen adaptations and the 1843 publication of A Christmas Carol provide separate plant-science and literary-history readings.
Special date
Compare evergreen conifers with deciduous trees and discuss how needle-like leaves and other adaptations help many species cope with cold conditions.
6 reading resources
Explore this topic through Plant Reading Passages.
Open collectionUse Ask a Historian: How Did Christmas Trees Become a Tradition? as related background or for comparison.
Read passageUse The Second Life of Cut Trees as related background or for comparison.
Read passageThe science passage directly explains conifer forests and winter adaptations; its wording needs the evergreen-versus-conifer distinction.
Read passageCompare how a Christmas tree is grown with the adaptations described in the evergreen-science reading.
Read passageSpecial date
Explore how Dickens’s short book became a widely retold story, and discuss how fiction can invite readers to think about poverty, generosity, and change. This is an older-student reading option; introduce the historical setting and difficult themes with age-appropriate context.
5 reading resources
Explore this topic through Christmas Reading Passages.
Open collectionUse A Pen Against Injustice: Why Charles Dickens Wrote Oliver Twist as related background or for comparison.
Read passageUse How Christmas Became the Holiday We Know Today as related background or for comparison.
Read passageThe biography directly discusses Dickens and the writing and impact of A Christmas Carol; it is a Grade 8 text and needs age-aware framing.
Read passageOn this date in history · 1875
Carter G. Woodson was born on December 19, 1875. Read how he researched, preserved and shared Black history.
Explain how preserving and comparing evidence helps people write a fuller history.
Read passageMore reading for this time of year, alongside today’s special dates.
4 reading resources
Christmas reading for the December 1–25 teaching window, alongside the day’s own date-specific topics.
Open collectionChristmas reading for the December 1–25 teaching window, alongside the day’s own date-specific topics.
Open collectionChristmas reading for the December 1–25 teaching window, alongside the day’s own date-specific topics.
Open collectionChristmas reading for the December 1–25 teaching window, alongside the day’s own date-specific topics.
Open collectionYour topic. Your level.
Have another idea for today’s lesson? Let Pico create an AI-assisted passage with questions and an illustration. Choose the topic and reading level in the creator.
Use the conifer science reading to identify winter adaptations, and note that evergreen and conifer are related terms rather than exact synonyms. Compare it with how Christmas trees are grown by mapping natural adaptations beside human care practices.
A Christmas Carol was published in 1843; read the Dickens biography for an age-aware look at the writing and impact of A Christmas Carol. Students can compare an informational science explanation with a literary biography and support each text’s purpose using a detail.
December 19 is Carter G. Woodson’s birthday. Read Carter G. Woodson and the Work of History to examine why letters, newspapers and other records matter when people preserve history. Compare what different sources can reveal, and identify how Woodson built on histories already kept by Black communities.
