When my Grade 12 (College) English students finished their Arthur Miller unit last week, they wrote a short test on The Crucible
- 1-2 pages of research on their assigned character
- a secret journal kept from their character’s perspective
- a chain of events of the trials
- a short opinion piece on John Proctor
- a letter to Massachusetts Governor William Phips
I had dropped the hint that I’m a sucker for creativity, and the students really rose to the occasion…
What worked well
Creativity! Given the freedom from writing a five-paragraph-essay, students spread their wings, and flew:
- the chains-of-events came in a variety of forms — one girl built a small gallows and had a noose hanging for each event, a small broom with labels, letters spelling out the town name (S-A-L-E-M) with events described on each letter, strings of crosses, strings of witch hats, and more
- many students stained the pages and burned the edges of their character-journals, with words written in fountain pen, and blotted pages, creating the illusion of documents that have survived since 1692
- an old book (discarded from the library) was refitted to look like a Bible and holes were cut out of the center pages to hold the pages of the secret journal
What needs work
- My briefcase smells like the coffee, tea, and smoke that was used to stain the pages.
- I need a way of transporting brooms, gallows, books, and posters from the classroom to my office without damaging student work.
- My rubric… I wasn’t expecting a gallows with noose.
Well done and will do again. Let the students delve in the past, let them dwell on it, and give them freedom to choose how to respond. No five-paragraph-essay with this unit.
And the result: much more fun for all.
