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Crucible Connections
Procedure
(Before Day One of this Learning Experience, the students were given the McCarthyism Pre-Test to take and hand in. After the Pre-Test, the teacher conducted a discussion on primary and secondary sources. Also, for homework 2 days before Day One of this Learning Experience, the students were given the McCarthyism research assignment; therefore, students had several days to complete the research assignment.)
Day One:
Lesson: McCarthyism- Crucible Connections
Time Frame: one 40-minute class period
Materials: students’ homework from the weekend, comparison chart handouts, pens, and the overhead projector
Alignments:
- Level: Commencement – Grade 11
- Learning Standard: ELA
- Key Idea: Speaking
- Standard: (3) – Students will read, write, listen, and speak for critical analysis and evaluation.
- Performance Indicators: (▪a) Express opinions or make judgments about ideas, information, experiences, and issues in literary, scientific, and historic articles, in public documents, and in advertisements
Objectives:
Upon completion of this lesson, TLWBAT:
- Express orally a solid understanding of how the witch hunts of the 1950s relate to the Salem Witch Trials of the 1600s
- Discuss orally an understanding of how The Crucible relates to contemporary society
Anticipatory Set:
- To start class, the teacher will lead the class in a discussion about McCarthyism based on the information they found from their internet research. The teacher will prompt student response by asking for information from each topic. (The topics are the fear of Communism in the 1950s, Senator Joe McCarthy, the House of Un-American Activities Committee, and the Hollywood Ten.) As the students offer information, the teacher will write down the main points on the overhead projector.
- After each topic has been addressed sufficiently, the teacher will collect the homework.
Procedure:
- Next the teacher will have the students (in their table groups) fill out a chart comparing the 1692 Salem witch-hunts as portrayed in The Crucible and the 1950s Communist investigations. (See Chart.) The students are to consider similarities among characters, events, and settings. The teacher will explain that the first column on the chart should contain information about The Crucible; the second column should have information about McCarthyism. The third column should be left blank for class.
- Before the groups begin working, the teacher will give an example to get the students started. (A simple example is the prevalence of fear. In the 1950s, Americans were afraid of communism; in Salem in the 1690s the Puritans were afraid of witchcraft.)
- As the students work, the teacher will walk around the room amongst the tables checking the students’ progress and offering assistance to any students who require it.
- Once the charts have been satisfactorily completed—a determination made by the teacher—the whole class will go over the charts together.
Closure:
- The teacher will inform the students that homework for this night is to think about where there are examples of “witch-hunts” today. Fill in the third column of your chart with information from today. (The teacher will point out that this information could be legal, political, or even personal.)
Assessment/Evaluation:
- The teacher will assess students’ knowledge and mastery of the material by walking around during the group analysis as well as by leading the class discussion of the analysis and listening/responding to their answers.
Day Two:
Lesson: McCarthyism Continued- Crucible Connections
Time Frame: one 40-minute class period
Materials: students’ completed charts, paper and pens
Alignments:
- Level: Commencement – Grade 11
- Learning Standard: ELA
- Key Idea: Reading
- Standard: (2) – Students will read, write, listen, and speak for literary response and expression.
- Performance Indicators: (▪g) Recognize and analyze the relevance of literature to contemporary and/or personal events and situations
- Key Idea: Speaking
- Standard: (3) – Students will read, write, listen, and speak for critical analysis and evaluation.
- Performance Indicators: (▪a) Express opinions or make judgments about ideas, information, experiences, and issues in literary, scientific, and historic articles, in public documents, and in advertisements
Objectives:
Upon completion of this lesson, TLWBAT:
- Express orally a solid understanding of how the witch hunts of the 1950s relate to the Salem Witch Trials of the 1600s
- Discuss orally an understanding of how The Crucible relates to contemporary society
Anticipatory Set:
- To start class, the teacher will collect the homework from last night, which was to complete the comparison chart.
- Then the teacher will lead the class in a discussion about what they wrote in the third column of their charts. The question they were supposed to consider was: where do we see examples of “witch-hunts” today?
Procedure:
- Next the teacher will have the students get out a piece of paper and a pen.
- Then the teacher will explain that today marks the end of the unit on The Crucible. She will also explain that each student should have a solid understanding of both The Crucible and McCarthyism, and in order to bring some closure to all they have learned, they are going to compose a short reflection essay.
- The teacher will explain that she will ask a series of questions. In between each question, students will have time to respond on paper. The teacher will also explain that they will receive grades for this assignment, but she will also point out that students’ grades will be determined by effort and involvement in the assignment rather than on the quality of their answers because a couple of the questions’ answers will be opinion-based.
- The first question is, “How does The Crucible relate to McCarthyism?” Students should develop their answer by showing what they now know about both topics. The teacher will ask the students to think back to the first day of the unit. What knowledge do they have now that they did not have then?
- The next question is, “What life lesson have you learned from our study of both The Crucible and McCarthyism?”
- The teacher will ask several other questions regarding the purpose and importance of education, and how education relates to The Crucible, McCarthyism, and life today.
Closure:
Assessment/Evaluation:
- The teacher will assess students’ knowledge and mastery of the material by reading and grading the reflective essays. (These reflective essays function as the summative assessment for this Learning Experience.)
*Go to Teacher Exemplar.
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