Crucible Connections

Learning Context

Goals/Purpose:

• To have students understand McCarthyism.
• To have students understand the connections between McCarthyism and The Crucible.
• To have students be able to express the connection between their own experiences and those in The Crucible and McCarthyism through structured written response.

Enduring Understanding:

• Students’ understanding of both The Crucible and McCarthyism can be used as motivation to become an independent thinker, one who thinks for him/herself and is not easily influenced by those around them.

Essential Question:

• How does The Crucible relate to both McCarthyism and life today?

Guiding Questions:

• How can your new knowledge of McCarthyism help you to understand why Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible?
• What is the importance of making connections with literature?
• Why is it useful to reflect on literature and relate it to our own every day experiences?

Diagnostic/Summative Questions:

• What is McCarthyism?
• What did you learn from The Crucible?
• How does The Crucible relate to McCarthyism as well as to life today?

Objectives:
Upon completion of these lessons, TLWBAT:

• Explain both orally and compositionally an understanding of McCarthyism
• Explain orally a basic understanding of the purpose for Miller’s writing of The Crucible
• Express orally a solid understanding of how McCarthyism of the 1950s relates to The Crucible, set during the Salem Witch Trials of the 1600s
• Compose a short reflective essay, displaying what he/she has learned from both The Crucible and McCarthyism; thus showing personal reflection.

Grade Level/Ability:

This Learning Experience is designed for students in 11th grade. The students in this specific 11th grade ELA course are working at the Regents level. The students do their English work in their notes or on handouts provided by the teacher. All literature that students read is provided by the school in either individual paperback book form or in the 11th grade literature textbook. For this particular unit on The Crucible, students were given individual paperback copies of The Crucible.

Additional Student Information:

• Special Needs: No additional modifications were necessary other than those on the modification table.
• Number of Students: 3 sections of Regents English 11, 72 students total, 22 students in the class represented by the data in this Learning Experience

Overview of What Students Need To Know:

This Learning Experience came at the end of a five-week unit on The Crucible. At this point in the unit, students will have read the entire play, seen the film The Crucible, completed comprehension and analysis questions on each act in the play, and have written a character analysis essay on a character from the play. Needless to say, the students had a solid understanding of The Crucible at the time of this Learning Experience, which was necessary in order for them to be able to connect the information they researched about McCarthyism to The Crucible.

Classroom Rules, 72 KB

Classroom Layout, 65 KB

*Go to Learning Standards.