1692 Salem Witch Trials

Experience the 1692 Witch Trials. Will you survive?

Happy Halloween!

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/salem/

The Crucible by Arthur Miller

Click on the link below and complete #1-2 Student Activities.

Do not do #3 activity. Instead, upon completion of the book, you are to create a podcast, iMovie, or slideshow about the Salem Witch Trials. Working with a partner or independently, choose one of the following topics or one of your own (pre approved):

-Faces and Places of the Salem Witch Trials

-Impact of the Spanish Inquisition to the Witch Trials

-Interrogation Methods Used

-Compare/Contrast the Witchcraft Terror to the 1950's Communist Scare

The Crucible Study Guide

http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/cruc/cructg.html

BOOK REVIEWS

Have you read a suggested reading for extra credit? Post your book review here! Be sure to list the following:

1. Title and Author

2. Plot

3. Targeted Audience

4. Opinions

5. Rate it!

THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS

Discuss the relationship between Bruno and Gretel. Why does Bruno
seem younger than nine? In a traditional fable, characters are usually
one-dimensional. How might Bruno and Gretel be considered onedimensional?
• At age 12, Gretel is the proper age for membership in the League of
Young Girls, a branch of Hitler’s Youth Organization. Why do you
think she is not a member, especially since her father is a high-ranking
officer in Hitler’s army?
• What is it about the house at Out-With that makes Bruno feel “cold
and unsafe”? (p. 20) How is this feeling perpetuated as he encounters
people like Pavel, Maria, Lt. Kotler, and Shmuel?
• Describe his reaction when he first sees the people in the striped
pajamas. What does Gretel mean when she says, “Something about the
way [Bruno] was watching made her feel suddenly nervous”? (p. 28)
How does this statement foreshadow Bruno’s ultimate demise?
• Bruno asks his father about the people outside their house at
Auschwitz. His father answers, “They’re not people at all, Bruno.”
(p. 53) Discuss the horror of this attitude. How does his father’s
statement make Bruno more curious about Out-With?
• Explain what Bruno’s mother means when she says, “We don’t have
the luxury of thinking.” (p. 13) Identify scenes from the novel that
Bruno’s mother isn’t happy about their life at Out-With. Debate
whether she is unhappy being away from Berlin, or whether she is
angry about her husband’s position. How does Bruno’s grandmother
react to her son’s military role?
• When Bruno and his family board the train for Auschwitz, he notices
an overcrowded train headed in the same direction. How does he later
make the connection between Shmuel and that train? How are both
trains symbolic of each boy’s final journey?
• Bruno issues a protest about leaving Berlin. His father responds, “Do
you think that I would have made such a success of my life if I hadn’t
learned when to argue and when to keep my mouth shut and follow
orders?” (p. 49) What question might Bruno’s father ask at the end of
the novel?
• A pun is most often seen as humorous. But, in this novel the narrator
uses dark or solemn puns like Out-With and Fury to convey certain
meanings. Bruno is simply mispronouncing the real words, but the
author is clearly asking the reader to consider a double meaning to
these words. Discuss the use of this wordplay as a literary device.
What is the narrator trying to convey to the reader? How do these
words further communicate the horror of the situation?
• When Bruno dresses in the filthy striped pajamas, he remembers
something his grandmother once said. “You wear the right outfit and
you feel like the person you’re pretending to be.” (p. 205) How is this
true for Bruno? What about his father? What does this statement
contribute to the overall meaning of the story?
• Discuss the moral or message of the novel. What new insights and
understandings does John Boyne want the reader to gain from reading
this story?
• Ask students to discuss the differences in a fable, an allegory, and a
proverb. How might this story fit into each genre?

VOCABULARY

CREATE YOUR OWN DICTIONARY. Identify unfamiliar words, and define them using hints from the context of the
story. Such words may include: greengrocers (p. 19), insolent (p. 51), reverberated (p. 62), jumper (p. 71),
sinister (p. 98), despair (p. 104), confirmation (p. 112), resolution (p. 113), disdain (p. 122), catastrophe (p. 142),
sarcasm (p. 157), sophistication (p. 158), medicinal (p. 167), inconsolable (p. 178), and misshapen (p. 184).

THE THINGS THEY CARRIED

1. There is an epigraph at the beginning of the text. What is an epigraph? How do writers use them?
2. Explain the idea of carrying in O’Brien’s book. What are things they carried (concrete and abstract) and by whom?
3. Compare the “things” the soldiers carried in Vietnam to the “things” soldiers are carrying in Iraq, both standard issue and personal objects. (You may want to post the question on the blog).
4. Discuss the use of third-person narration in the book. Since most of the book is personal and written from a first-person perspective, what purpose does third-person narration serve? Why is the title phrased in the third-person plural?
5. What is the role of women in The Things They Carried?
6. At the end of "On the Rainy River," the narrator makes a kind of confession: "The day was cloudy. I passed through towns with familiar names, through the pine forests and down to the prairie, and then to Vietnam, where I was a soldier, and then home again. I survived, but it's not a happy ending. I was a coward. I went to the war" (61). What does this mean?
7. Are there any clues about what O'Brien thinks of his narrator? What should the reader think of him?
8. One of the web sites treating O'Brien and his books leads to a site about magical realism. What is magical realism? Here's the site: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/4824/magreal.htm. Find other examples of magical realism in the novel.
9. Try taking any two chapters (or just Chapter 1 or just Chapter 3) and find all the metaphors and similes that O'Brien uses. List them and discuss how they work.
10. O'Brien talks about courage in a range of ways. Discuss.
11. Is the Vietnam War experience different from that of WWII?
12. "Stories are for joining the past to the future" (38). Is this statement true? Can "stories" affect the future?
13. "Love" is the title of an entire chapter. Are there other treatments of love in the work?
14. What do the following sentences mean? "I want you to know what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth" (179).
15. Using O'Brien's The Things They Carried as a model, what is the weight of the things students carry?
16. What is the legacy of Vietnam for America today?
17. Is it possible to "win" a war? Are there any victors?

ACTIVITIES: PICK ONE OF THE FOLLOWING. You may team up with a partner or do independently.

Discussion Questions: (In a large group or in small groups)

• Is this a book about making intelligent decisions? List three decisions that Melinda makes in the book. Tell why you think she made the decisions and consequences of the decisions. Were there any consequences of her decisions that she could not have reasonably expected?
• Is this a book about friendships? Cliques? Who are Melinda's friends? How do her friendships change? Why do they change?
• How would you describe Mr. Freeman? What qualities does he possess that make him a good teacher? Have you ever known any teacher similar to Mr. Freeman?
• Is this a book about life in a high school? In what ways is Merryweather High School similar to your school? In what ways is it different?
• How would you characterize Melinda's relationship with her family?
• In what ways do you conform to what is expected of you? In what ways do you rebel against what is expected of you?
• Melinda demonstrates many of the symptoms of clinical depression. What behaviors does she manifest that would cause you concern if you were her friend or teacher? What would you do to help her?

Journal Assignment
As you read the book, keep a journal of your responses to Melinda's story. Include in your journal ANY of the following:

• After you finish a chapter, try to predict what will happen next to Melinda.
• Choose one passage from a chapter and write about why that passage caught your attention. Did it surprise you? Puzzle you? Impress you?
• Have you ever been in a situation similar to Melinda's - - ostracized from the members of your school or neighborhood? If so, what did you do? Have you known anyone who was excluded from being a part of your school or community? What did you do in that situation?
• Have you ever been in a frightening situation similar to Melinda's where you no longer felt you had control of what was happening around you? Describe the event and how it was resolved.
• Draw a picutre of how you feel after you have finished reading SPEAK.

Choose one of the following essay topics.

Write an essay explaining how Melinda demonstrates any or all of the following effects of being sexually abused. Include page numbers from the book to support your claims.

• Psychological:

1. Fear of an authority figure
2. Fear of being threatened
3. Sense of not being believed
4. Being blamed for others' actions
5. Feeling of the pervasive reality of sex discrimination in the culture
6. Sense of helplessness
7. Depression

• Physical:

1. Sleep disruption
2. Eating disorders
3. Headaches
4. Stomach ailments
5. Listlessness
6. Inability to concentrate
7. Attempts to injure self
8. Suicide attempts

• Write an essay on a time in your life when you stood up for what was right. This essay may take the form of a personal narrative, an illustrated poem, or a two or three - act play.
• Write an article for your school newspaper on any issue related to SPEAK: date rape, teen-age parties, sexual harassment, alcohol abuse, cliques.
• Write a summary of any of the additional readings provided to the class. Include in your summary your personal response to the article: what you learned, why you disagreed with the author, how you connected the article to your personal experience.
• Do some research on teenage depression. Write a two-to-three page essay on your research.

There will be no exams for this unit. The students will be assessed by how well they complete the assignments: class participation, journal responses, essay, and problem solving.