Students will understand the following: 1. In 17th-century New England, people were persecuted for allegedly practicing witchcraft. Students of this period have looked into the allegations and offer alternatives to witchcraft to explain the people's behavior. Arthur Miller wrote the play The Crucible, using the 17th-century case of witch trials (and fictionalizing it) to comment on a 20th-century phenomenon—the hunting of communists as if they were witches. For this lesson, you will need: • Copies of Arthur Miller's The Crucible for all students 1.

The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings conducted in Colonial Massachusetts beginning in 1692 to prosecute people accused of witchcraft. Of the dozens convicted of witchcraft, 19 were.

In order to bring home the emotional power of the Salem witch trials, devote time to a whole-class dramatic reading of Arthur Miller's The Crucible. Assign your students to the roles, giving different students an opportunity to play each character if you like. Before you begin the play and during the reading, keep emphasizing two facts to students: • As many experts agree, Miller used the names of real 17th-century people, but he took many liberties in ascribing motivations to them. (You might refer those students who are interested to, part of a Web site put together by a student of 17th-century New England; the site enumerates historical inaccuracies and discrepancies in Miller's work.) • Miller was motivated to write The Crucible in the 1950s in order to criticize the activities of Senator Joseph McCarthy, who was leading a movement to find and prosecute suspected communists as if he were carrying out a witch trial. When the reading is complete, ask your students to discuss which scenes affected them most strongly and why.

Go on to lead a discussion on the value of literature—in this case, literature written in the 20th century about a period 300 years earlier—in trying to understand the historical period dramatized. There are no right and wrong answers to this question, but it is important for students to think about how a literary version of history can help them as well as how it might mislead them. Proceed to asking students to choose any scene from Miller's work and rewrite it from the perspective of today. The dirty picture free torrent download hd.

If students are stymied by this assignment, lead a class discussion that covers the following questions: • How would the characters be different in the modern-day United States? • Which events would change?

• How would the dialogue differ? • Might witchcraft—the issue for which the characters in Miller's play are being persecuted—be replaced by some other issue? Students can share their alternate versions with the class and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each other's work. Adaptation for Younger Students Provide a summary of The Crucible, and read only selected scenes from the play. Have students modernize only one of the scenes that you read to them.

Explain the economic and political causes underlying the Salem witch trials. Analyze the role that Reverend Parris played in the Salem witch trials. Evaluate the significance of who was accused of witchcraft and who the accusers were. Brainstorm and discuss more recent events that you might label as 'witch hunts.' Debate the use of spectral evidence and Tituba's confession in the trials.