The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

This teaching guide helps instructors use a specific primary source set, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, in the classroom. It offers discussion questions, classroom activities, and primary source analysis tools. It is intended to spark pedagogical creativity by giving a sample approach to the material. Please feel free to share, reuse, and adapt the resources in this guide for your teaching purposes.

Created By

Primary source analysis

For each source, ask students to indicate:

• the author's point of view
• the author's purpose
• historical context
• audience

For inquiry-based learning, ask students to:

• explain how a source tells its story and/or makes its argument
• explain the relationships between sources
• compare and contrast sources in terms of point of view and method
• support conclusions and interpretations with evidence
• identify questions for further investigation

Additional tools

• Document Analysis Worksheets from the National Archives
• Using Primary Sources from the Library of Congress

These sets were created and reviewed by teachers. Explore resources and ideas for Using DPLA's Primary Source Sets in your classroom.

To give feedback, contact us at info@dp.la. You can also view resources for National History Day.