1
CURRICULUM UNIT OUTLINE FOR
THE CRUCIBLE John Brown, STHS 2011
GOALS
•Students will have better reading comprehension and vocabulary.
•Students will have better oral expression skills.
•Students will have better writing skills.
•Students will have better critical thinking skills.
•Students will have better research skills.
•Students will have better study skills.
•Students will experience the genre of drama.
•Students will better understand the history of the Salem Witch Trials and Modern American Literature.
•Students will learn to work in small groups.
•Students will learn to work independently.
•Students will learn to use the internet to gather source materials.
•Students will learn to take responsibility for their learning.
•Students will construct their own understanding out of the text.
•Students will connect their prior-knowledge with new concepts.
•The teacher will facilitate student-initiated questioning and discussion.
STATE FRAMEWORKS
Learning objectives from the curriculum frameworks are as follows:
Discussion 1.5
Questioning Listening and Contributing 2.5, 2.6
Oral Presentation 3.14, 3.15, 3.17
Vocabulary and Concept Development 4.23, 4.24, 4.25
Structure and History of the English language 5.29
Formal and Informal English 6.9
Understanding Text 8.11, 8.16, 8.17, 8.22, 8.23, 8.25, 8.33
Making Connections 9.6, 9.7
Genre 10.5, 10.6
Theme 11.5, 11.7
Fiction 12.5
Nonfiction 13.25. 13.26
Style and Language 15.4. 15.5, 15.6
Myth and Traditional Narrative 16.12
Dramatic Literature 17.8, 17.9
Dramatic Reading and Performance 18.5
Writing 19.24, 19.26 19.30
Considering Audience and Purpose
Revising and Editing 21.9
Standard English Conventions 22.10
Organizing Ideas for Writing 23.14
Research 24.6
Evaluating Writing and Presentations 25.6
Analysis of Media 26.6
Media Production 27.8
GUIDING QUESTIONS
•How is the genre drama structured?
•What is the relationship between nonfiction and fictional elements of the story?
•Why is hysteria?
•What causes hysteria?
•What are the differences between the film and the play?
•What are the differences between the play and history?
•Why did people get killed in Salem in 1692?
•Why did Miller write the play?
•What is McCarthyism?
•What is a theocracy?
•How has the language changes in 300 years?
•How has the American legal system changed over time?
•What is The Crucible about?
•Who is John Proctor and why does he decide to refuse to confess to crimes he did not commit?
•What would you do if you were in Proctor's position?
•How does the relationship between John and Elizabeth effect the play?
POSSIBLE WHOLE CLASS ACTIVITIES
•Students watch film on Witchcraft and ergotism.
•Students watch film on Miller and McCarthyism.
•Students watch Hytner's The Crucible.
•Students read along with the audio tape.
•Students perform one act of the play.
•Directed Reading Activity. DRA
•Teacher will lead class discussion on dialect, analyzing the language of the period in which the play is set.
•Students and teacher discuss the elements of drama as a genre.
•Teacher gives a mini-lesson on how to use the internet to do research.
•Students and teacher conduct peer evaluation and rubric creation workshop. Writing Workshop
•Students and teacher have class discussions focusing on questions from the study guide and the dialogue journals. DEJ
•Teacher will give a short lecture on anthropology and historiography and its relation to the causes of the witch hysteria.
•Students go on field trip to the Rebecca Nurse Homestead, the John Hale House, the Peabody Essex Museum, etc.
POSSIBLE SMALL-GROUP ACTIVITIES
•Students conduct short research projects (Group Investigation), using the internet on a variety of topics, including: McCarthyism, Arthur Miller, The Salem Witch Trials, 17th Century Religious beliefs, etc. The research project culminates in a powerpoint project to be given to the whole class by each group of students.
•Students create prediction maps (Semantic Mapping) to enhance comprehension.
POSSIBLE INDIVIDUAL ACTIVITIES
•Students create act by act vocabulary lists from their dialogue journals, index them and look them up. VSS.
•Students journal about: what it would be like to live in the 1690's, what it would be like to be blacklisted, what it would be like to be infected with ergot poisoning, and about some other historical hysterias.
•Students will journal on different aspects of the field trip.
•Students answer questions in a teacher generated study guide as they read the book silently.
•Students make regular entries into their double entry journals.
•Students read silently from the book as well as from synopsis materials, used as study guides.
•Students use SQ3R while reading the play.
RESOURCES
The Crucible by Arthur Miller. (Book)
In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692 by Mary Beth Norton
Witchcraft, Magic, and Religion in the 17th-Century Massachusetts by Richard Weisman
The Crucible by Nicholas Hytner (film)
Ergotism (video)
Witchcraft (video)
McCarthyism (video)
The Crucible (audio tape)
Curriculumunits.com (web site)
http://www.17thc.us/docs/fact-fiction.shtml (web site)
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SALEM.HTM (web site)
http://etext.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/texts/transcripts.html (web site)
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/previous_seasons/case_salem/clues.html (web site)
TIME PERIOD
Six-eight Weeks
GRADE LEVEL
Eleventh Grade
EVALUATIONS
•Students write a five-paragraph essay on one of many possible topics. This will include prewriting activities, drafting, revising and editing. It will include peer-evaluation, student-teacher conferences and track-change/exchanges.
•Students take a paper and pencil test on the structure of the genre of drama, including essay and short answer questions.
•Students take part in a graded discussion on the content and structure of the play.
•Students give Powerpoint projects as a result of their research.
•Students take part in an online forum about the differences between the film and the play.