Web Quest

BY

Christine Driscoll

South Bronx High School

Cdemarsico31469@cs.com

 

The Crucible

 

 

Introduction

Welcome to your WebQuest on The Crucible.  After reading the article in The New York Times, you discovered that if the Salem Witch Trials had occurred after the enactment of the U.S. Constitution, they would indeed be unconstitutional.  The lives of many men and women were brutally taken due to this mass hysteria.  They were publicity embarrassed as well as imprisoned and even sentenced to death.  These trials even today are haunting the American people.  Imagine discovering that you are related to one of the victims sentenced to death due to the public opinion on witch craft. How would you demonstrate your ancestor's rights under our Constitution and Supreme Court decisions were violated?

 

 

The Task

How could the Constitution and the Supreme Court have protected the innocent from being accused of witchcraft and sentenced to death?

1. You will analyze amendments 5 and 6 of the Bill of Rights in order to fully understand due process.

 

 2. Then, you will find a case to help prove your argument.

 

3.  You will be assigned a character from The Crucible and prove that your character’s due process rights under today’s constitutional safeguards were violated and should be given restitution.

 

4.  You will take a virtual tour of Salem and record their feelings about the time.

 5. You will create a timeline in order to fully comprehend the historical events.

 

6.  Finally, you create an essay explaining how your character’s due process rikghts were violated and present it to the class.

 

 

The Process and Resources:

1. You will take a virtual tour of Salem and record their thoughts and feelings about the tour in their journals.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/97/salem/

2. You will research actual events from the Salem witch Trials and create a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting actual events from The Crucible.  You will use:

  http://www. salemwitchtrials.com/salemwitchcraft.html

          Then they will take the quiz at the end of the class.

3. You will be put into groups, assigned a character, and then create a timeline using the notes from the previous day.

Group 1-Sarah Good

 

Group 2-Rebecca Nurse

 

Group 3-Giles Corey

 

Group 4-Martha Corey

 

Group 5-John Proctor

 

 

4. Members of each group will be assigned these parts:

A. Leader-Assigns tasks, assists all members, keeps group on task, and leads in the discussion with the class.

 

B. Researcher-Two students who have computer access will be

Responsible for all additional research and share the information with group members.

 

          C. Artist-Creates timeline, completes a master Venn diagram and must explain it in group discussion.

 

          D. Recorder-Takes notes throughout discussion. Prepares the final copy of the essay proving their character’s innocence.

 

All members must have rough copies or notes on the daily discussion and fully comprehend the details of the essay in case they are questioned during class discussion.

5.    Create an outline on the specific laws then apply these laws to the Salem witch trials and specific parts of The Crucible.

          A. What is Due Process?

          B. What phrase is contained in amendments 5 and 14?

          C. What other amendments were violated in the actual process of condemning these witches?  How do these amendments protect the persecution of innocent people?

 

          D. You will use CompuLEGAL to analyze the following cases involving due process violations and use that analysis in your essay.  Follow the directions to complete the online CompuLEGAL analysis for both cases and answer the follow-up questions at the end of CompuLEGAL in your journal:

                   1.  Miranda v. Arizona

 

                     2.  Mapp v. Ohio

                            

             

          E. You will submit an Ask-LEGAL-Eagle question about due process related to Miranda or Map. (All students must agree that the question will help in their paper.)

6. You will research an individual character and analyze how the character was not given a fair trial.  Take notes and compare your notes to the laws.

          http://www.earlyameric.com/review/summer97/carey.html

http://www.etext.lib.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/texts

          http://www.curriculumunits.com/cruciblebackground/frameline.html

          http://www.witchcraft.simplenet.com/hysteria.html

          http://discoveryschool.com/salem

 

7. Use evidence from the novel to express the characterization of your character.

 

8. The essay will be presented as follows:

          P1-Who is your character?

Why were they accused?

Why were they not given a fair trial?

          P2- What is due process?

           How your character was denied these rights? (Use compulegal here)

          P3- How did the mass hysteria of Salem infect the town?  Use                                 timeline here.

          P4-Using examples from the novel, explain how your character fit into the social structure of the town.

          P5- Why do you believe your character was innocent? (Find pictures to enhance your presentation.)

          P6-What specific evidence from the trial directly violated the Due Process of the law.

          P7-Closing arguments-why should your character by exonerated by the court.

9. Each group will present report to the class and share all graphic organizers.

10. Each student in their journal will discuss how their group functioned and hand in a self evaluation with the grade that you believe your group deserves with a reason.

 

Evaluation

          Outstanding

                   A well written essay without grammatical errors, typed and addressing all of the above mentioned criteria.

                   All members fully understand all points in the paper as they present the paper to the class.

                   Have a well-designed time-line and graphic organizer.

                   Completed the journals and has notes to explain the process.

                   Have an extensive self-evaluation                 

          Above Average-

                   A well written essay that has a few errors, addressing all of the above mentioned criteria.

                   Understand most of the concepts on your group essay.

                   Have a well-designed time-line and graphic organizer

                    Completed Self-evaluation

                   Completed all journals and notes        

           Average-

          A well written essay that has some errors, missing points from the above mentioned criteria.

                   Have a time-line and a graphic-organizer.

                   Completed some journals and has some notes

                   Completed a short self-evaluation.

          Below average

                   Absent many days

                   Did not cooperate with group

                   Has no idea what is in the group essay

                   Did few or no journals or notes

                   Did not complete a self-evaluation

 

Addresses these NYS Language Arts Requirements-

                     Part One-Listening and writing for understanding

                                     Presenting to a group    

                   Part Two-Examining documents

                   Part Three- Reading and writing for critical analysis                             

Conclusion

 

What should be done to keep the innocent from being accused and presumed guilty?

How did the Salem Witch Trials affect history?

Based on the facts, do you believe there have been other Witches tried since 1692?

                                   Works Cited

 

The Crucible by Arthur Miller

Project Legal by James Carroll

Pictures by discoverschool.com