Lessons and activities focused on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Aimed for 9th grade students, but can be adapted for any secondary level.
I truly believe that students learn best when they are asked to relate content to their personal lives. That was my goal with this ending, fun activity–Modern-Day Scarlet Letters–applying the theme of hidden vs. exposed sin to students’ own lives. Continue reading
Every good unit ends with a paper (says every English teacher in the world!). And for The Scarlet Letter, I couldn’t agree more! Continue reading
As my American Seminar students read The Scarlet Letter, we had some great whole-class discussions–from characters and themes to what the heck is happening and why do people talk in Old English–and wrapping up the book was no different. Continue reading
Okay, I’ll admit it…sometimes reading The Scarlet Letter and its Old English can be difficult, and a little dry. I wanted my students to take a break for a minute and do something creative! Continue reading
My American Seminar students have read up through chapter 18 in The Scarlet Letter. This point in the novel is filled with important themes, changes, symbols, and relationships, and to make sure my students were noticing and understanding these, I made a group discussion activity for them. Continue reading
Tests and quizzes are great for making sure students have read and for assessing their comprehension. Across my classes, I’ve done plenty of formative assessments, but for my American Seminar class specifically, I needed to mix in a summative assessment to see how much the students had actually retained from reading and discussion and to see what parts of the book I needed to discuss. Continue reading
So how do you start teaching The Scarlet Letter? Where do you begin? Continue reading
