Authors, poets & big ideas
Charles Dickens
1812–1870
Massachusetts connection
Visited Boston and Perkins in 1842
Dickens was an English author who visited Massachusetts. In American Notes he described his travels, including a visit to Perkins School for the Blind and meeting Laura Bridgman. His account is a visitor’s perspective. Dickens was not a Massachusetts native or a Transcendentalist.
You can use your device’s reading tools or read with a partner.
Your turn, historian
Find a detail. Build an idea.
- What did this person or group do? Point to a detail in the reading.
- How could this person’s words change the way a reader thinks?
- What would you like to find out next? Which kind of source could help?
“Charles Dickens mattered because ___. A detail that supports my idea is ___.”
Follow the evidence.
This short reading is an original classroom summary. Open the source with your teacher to check details and learn more.
Read the source: perkins.org ↗Ask: Who made this source? What can it tell us? What might it leave out?