This complete unit on Arthur Miller's The Crucible promises to elicit engagement from all students without compromising on intellectual rigor. The daily discussion questions, vocabulary lists, literary devices quiz, and analytical writing assignment will challenge your students to dig beneath the surface of the text and generate profound interpretive insights!
Challenge students to analyze textual details using a wide range of interpretive lenses: historicist, psychoanalytic, feminist, etc. The abundance of materials will give you lots of options to play with, and will make the experience of teaching The Crucible not just easy but invigorating.
Here are some highlights from this 60-page editable curriculum:
• Unit & Pacing Guide: Suggestions for how to pace the reading homework and organize the classwork for Arthur Miller's The Crucible. (2 pages)
• Discussion Question Handouts: Sixteen pages of higher-order discussion questions guaranteed to inspire profoundly thoughtful class discussions! This unit features double-sided handouts with 8-10 discussion questions for each section of The Crucible. The discussion questions are the beating heart of these lesson plans. They challenge students to build interpretive arguments that require the support of carefully selected textual evidence — leading to keen interpretive insights! (16 pages)
• Vocabulary Lists: Lists of 10-12 vocabulary words to accompany every nightly reading assignment, complete with a definition and a sample sentence with the word as used in The Crucible. A total of over 55 SAT-caliber words. (5 pages)
• Vocabulary & Reading Quizzes: Quizzes with 10 questions per nightly reading assignment. Build students’ vocabularies while holding them accountable for the nightly reading homework. Each quiz contains 7 questions on vocabulary words plus another 3 questions on reading comprehension. Grading these quizzes is easy and quick. They’re a simple way to log 5 grades in your gradebook. (5 pages)
• Literary Devices Worksheet: This worksheet challenges students to identify the types of literary devices — metaphor, simile, metonymy, symbolism, personification, hyperbole, etc. — used in 33 quotations from The Crucible. The curriculum also includes a glossary with definitions of the literary devices as well as examples of how they're used in Miller's play — so you can review the devices with students before they tackle the worksheet. The worksheet can be used either as a quiz or as a fun exercise. Answer key included. (5 pages)
• Quotation Race: Students work in pairs to identify the speakers of 25 quotations. Introduce this fun activity when you need to mix things up — or to review for the AP Exam. Answer key included. (4 pages)
• Q3 Practice Essay: Designed for AP Lit teachers, this in-class practice essay will allow students to rehearse the "Q3" essay from the AP Literature and Composition Exam. The assignment asks students to choose from among three recent Q3 prompts that featured The Crucible as one of the recommended works of literary merit. (5 pages)
• Analytical Writing Assignment: Challenge students to take their interpretations one step further by writing an analytical paper on Miller's wonderfully complex play. Let students choose from one of three profoundly thought-provoking sample topics — or invite them to develop an original topic of their own. Rubric included. (4 pages)
This unit is filled with dozens of visual images that shed light on important scenes from Miller's play: lithographs representing the Salem Witch Trials, transcriptions of suspects being interrogated by John Hathorne, photographs of Arthur Miller testifying before HUAC, etc. But what really distinguishes this unit is how the discussion questions, close-reading exercises, and writing assignment are all designed to deepen students' thinking and help them arrive at profound interpretive insights!
The resource packet will come to you in two separate formats: Word docs and PDFs. Because the Word docs are fully editable, you'll be able to customize the materials to suit your teaching style and/or the needs of particular students — year after year! If you don't have Microsoft Word, you'll still be able to access the entire unit in PDF format, which is easy to navigate and quick to print.
In case you'd prefer to purchase this product via the TPT website, here is a link that will take you to the product page on TPT.
I'm eager to do everything I can to ensure that you have an amazing experience with teaching Arthur Miller's The Crucible. If you have any questions along the way, please don't hesitate to contact me via the email address below. I'm always delighted to hear from fellow teachers who share a passion for great literature!
Happy teaching,
Adam Jernigan
adamjernigan@gmail.com
