The Crucible Lesson Plan | Unit Objectives

1. Through reading Miller's The Crucible, students will gain a better understanding of the Salem witch trials and the Puritans.

2. Students will demonstrate their understanding of the text on four levels: factual, interpretive, critical and personal.

3. Students will consider the themes of crime and punishment, individual vs. authority, and revenge.

4. Students will be exposed to a different era of American life, showing many of today's conflicts are not new; they are rooted in our American past.

5. As they are exposed to the path of John Proctor's personal development, students will learn about a citizen's responsibility to become involved in his world.

6. Students will be given the opportunity to practice reading aloud to improve their oral reading skills.

7. Students will answer questions to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the main events and characters in The Crucible as they relate to the author's theme development.

8. Students will enrich their vocabularies and improve their understanding of the play through the vocabulary lessons prepared for use in conjunction with the play.

9. The writing assignments in this unit are geared to several purposes:

a. To have students demonstrate their abilities to inform, to persuade, or to express their own personal ideas Note: Students will demonstrate ability to write effectively to inform by developing and organizing facts to convey information. Students will demonstrate the ability to write effectively to persuade by selecting and organizing relevant information, establishing an argumentative purpose, and by designing an appropriate strategy for an identified audience. Students will demonstrate the ability to write effectively to express personal ideas by selecting a form and its appropriate elements.

b. To check the students' reading comprehension

c. To make students think about the ideas presented by the play

d. To encourage logical thinking

e. To provide an opportunity to practice good grammar and improve students' use of the English language.