Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic ‘The Scarlet Letter’ is set in the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony between the years 1642 to 1649. The novel tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an affair and then struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. This text contains a number of religious and historic allusions, significantly exploring the themes of legalism, sin, and guilt. I have taught this text many times in the last twenty years and have used these specific resources (revised in 2021) to: lead my teaching in class, as distance learning resources for SKYPE lessons, as homework assignments and even as tools of revision – all have worked well for the students.
These dynamically presented PowerPoint lessons (approximately 90 minutes teaching time per lesson) each include: a starter activity, summary and analysis questions, a set of recap questions, an academic writing task, a theme tracking exercise, an extension task connected to critical vocabulary, a homework assignment and a plenary. This bundle also includes, ‘An Introduction to the Text’ lesson, two ‘Assessment – Guided Essay Writing’ lessons and two ‘Characterisation’ lessons on Hester and Dimmesdale. These are complete resources with no additional work required from the teacher. Enjoy!
