Digging Deep into The Scarlet Letter

Now that we have established Hawthorne's unique and detailed writing style, we will read the rest of the text independently (see schedule below) and discuss the chapters in class. Tomorrow, we will look into the main characters in the close reading style that we employed today.

 We will also be supplementing our understanding via the WGBH Boston mini-series interpretation. We will be completing ABC Charts within our Daily Composition Notebooks. Using the alphabet, we can identify lots of symbols and setting elements that set the tone and theme of The Scarlet Letter. These charts will help us identify the Dark Romantic style of Hawthorne's writing. Follow this link to watch a video about American Dark Romanticism.

Additionally, we will be doing pages from the Glencoe Activities Packet. Keep up with these papers in your Comp Notebooks and we'll work on them as we go!

For an online version of Hawthorne's original text, click here! For your reading of The Scarlet Letter, you can check out this audio recording. It also has a copy of the text below as it reads--a one-stop wonder!


Reading Schedule:
(Due in class on day mentioned)
Wed: Ch 1
Thurs: Ch 2-4
Fri: Ch 5-6

Scarlet Letter TEST!

The time has come to study for The Scarlet Letter test! The test will be Wednesday, Mar 19 (study after the ACT?). Focus on the characters, symbols, and overall meaning of the text by using these assignments to study:

• ABC Symbol Chart
• Glencoe Activities 1-8
• Glencoe Actiities 9-24
• Conflict Chart (ABC Chart Section)

If you have been paying attention in class, you should have no problem at all with this test!

NPR and Hester Prynne as the Pentultimate American Heroine?

Now that we have finished The Scarlet Letter, it is time to really dig deeply into the purposes and writing style of Hawthorne's text. First, we identified many different conflicts in the novel:

• man vs. self
• Dimmesdale vs. guilt
• Hester vs. guilt
• Hester vs. temptation
• Chillingworth vs. manhood (ugly/cheated on/outcast)
• man vs. society
• Hester vs. Puritan "gossip"
• Dimmesdale vs. "reputation"
• Pearl vs. "elf-child"
• man vs. man
• Dimmesdale vs. Chillingworth (revenge/truth/Hester)
• witch vs. Hester (soul/evil)
• Black Man vs. Chil/Hest/Dim
• Hester vs. Pearl (behavior/truth)

From our list, there are various antagonists and protagonists in the novel depending on which conflict a reader focuses on. Therefore, we charted the "good" vs. "bad" traits of each; our findings are listed below  (more points=more good):

-.5 Chillingworth        0 Pearl         1.5 Dimmesdale         2 Hester

Also, great job using higher thinking skills today, English 3 Honors! NPR's radio broadcast on Hester as the first female American archetype was of college-level thinking. Here is the transcript of the broadcast. Plan to do more with non-fiction literary analysis as you continue this year and through the rest of your educational career.

Episodes of the Scarlet Letter Return!

After a brief hiatus for outline writing, we now return to the tragedy of Hester's Bostonian drama. We will continue the Glencoe Activities packet and ABC charts that will be due on Thursday, March 13th. On that day, we will argue who indeed is the worst sinner of The Scarlet Letter.
As we continue, think:

• Who is the protagonist?
• Who is the antagonist?
• Who is good?
• Who is bad?
• What does "good" or "bad" or "evil" mean in The Scarlet Letter?
• What does The Scarlet Letter reveal about the human character?

Viewing The Scarlet Letter

Now that we have established Hawthorne's unique and detailed writing style, we will read the rest of the text via the WGBH Boston mini-series interpretation. We will be completing the ABC Charts that we folded today in class.  Using the alphabet, we can identify lots of symbols and setting elements that set the tone and theme of The Scarlet Letter. These charts will help us identify the Dark Romantic style of Hawthorne's writing. Follow this link to watch a video about American Dark Romanticism.

Additionally, we will be doing pages from the Glencoe Activities Packet. Keep up with these papers in your folders and we'll work on them as we go!

For an online version of Hawthorne's original text, click here!

REMEMBER: You should be using the time you are NOT reading in this unit to be WRITING your research paper due March 27 and reading your own Independent Reading Novel with your group.

Analyzing the Social Impact of The Scarlet Letter

Today we charted the "good" vs. "bad" traits of each of The Scarlet Letter's main characters. At the end of the day, here are the "Good Ratings" for each of the characters (more points=more good):

-.5 Chillingworth
0 Pearl
1.5 Dimmesdale
2 Hester

We also identified many different conflicts in the novel:

• man vs. self
• Dimmesdale vs. guilt
• Hester vs. guilt
• Hester vs. temptation
• Chillingworth vs. manhood (ugly/cheated on/outcast)
• man vs. society
• Hester vs. Puritan "gossip"
• Dimmesdale vs. "reputation"
• Pearl vs. "elf-child"
• man vs. man
• Dimmesdale vs. Chillingworth (revenge/truth/Hester)
• witch vs. Hester (soul/evil)
• Black Man vs. Chil/Hest/Dim
• Hester vs. Pearl (behavior/truth)

From our list, there are various antagonists and protagonists in the novel depending on which conflict a reader focuses on.

Also today, we watched a few clips from the recent film, Easy A. The ideas of Hester, Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, and Pearl have been present throughout ancient and modern history. We will continue to talk about Hester as an archetype tomorrow.

Lacan and The Scarlet Letter: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0ByVKpn2OdpFAMFhRNXB0dk5zM3M

The GREAT Scarlet Letter DEBATE!

Excellent work today, English 3s!

We will continue our discussion tomorrow of who is the greatest sinner of them all. We will then be writing a Bio Poem on the characters we think are the true antagonist or protagonist of the novel.

I was so glad to see you all excited today!
  vs.  vs. 

Finishing The Scarlet Letter

English 3s,

We will be finishing The Scarlet Letter this week. Read the following for homework:
16, 17, 18 for Tuesday
19, 20, 21 for Wednesday
22, 23, 24 for Thursday

Continue to work on your ABC Guide and Chs 12-24 Questions. We will completing those and turning them in on Friday.

BONUS: If you dress up like one of the characters from The Scarlet Letter on "Superhero Day" (Thursday), I will award you an extra 100 homework grade!

Scarlet Letter Resumes!

English 3s, we will continue with The Scarlet Letter on Monday. Be prepared to take the quiz on Chapters 12-15 then.

I will attempt to have all of your papers back to you by the end of the week so that you can turn in another rough draft before your final draft is due. Like I said before, I was extremely disappointed by your lack of attention and use of the resources I had given you to write the paper. I expect that between receiving this draft back and your final due date that those of you needing help will take the opportunities before school or on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays after school. I don't expect you to be perfect on try one. But you do need to correct errors and seek perfection for your final drafts due October 22.

Scarlet Letter Readings

For Tuesday: Chs 7, 8, & 9
For Thursday: Chs 10, 11, & 12
For Friday: Chs 13, 14, & 15

Friday Fun for 2nd Period

English 3s,

Remember to read Chapter 6 of The Scarlet Letter over the weekend. Our course from now on will be to read chapters at home, take a running-tally quiz first thing in your spiral notebooks, and then watching and discussing the 1979 television mini-series version of TSL. As long as we continue to learn and discuss the Dark Romantic ideals, symbols, and writing style along with the film's interpretations, you will have a wonderfully deep appreciation for TSL.

Also remember to finish your full rough draft for class on Wednesday. Bring it in on Wed. so that everyone can share their papers with each other to check off all the important information and formatting exists for the final draft of the paper. Remember to include the following things somewhere in your paper:

• brief biography
• influences on the writer
• lasting influences by the writer
• literary criticism (other people's review and comments on the writer's work)
• literary time period and style (his contemporaries, ie. "Dark Romantic" for Nathaniel Hawthorne)

If you do NOT have these pieces of information, RESEARCH MORE. Remember that if you add a new resource, you MUST CITE AND ANNOTATE that source. Good research takes a few tries to get all your information.

Best of luck and see you on Monday!

Scarlet Letter Questions: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0ByVKpn2OdpFAV3g3VU51U1k1WVE
Anne Bradstreet Poems: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0ByVKpn2OdpFAVnZUNnFNa3ZvaTA
Research Project Assignment: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0ByVKpn2OdpFAWjNZQVB6ZFY3aDQ

English 3 Mid-Week Update

English 3s:

Finish your rough draft outside of class by next Wednesday, Sept 28th. We will bring it in on that day to peer edit before I actually grade them.

Tomorrow we finally get to start our literature with Chapters 2 and 3 of the Scarlet Letter. Have these read and ready by tomorrow in class.

Scarlet Letter Resources

Comparison of Style, Convention, Literary Connections
http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/bassr/heath/syllabuild/iguide/hawthorn.html