Danielle Brescia
Writing Monologues From Pictures Lesson Plan
Overall ObjectiveStudents will learn what makes a good monologue and how to apply that by writing.
Materials Needed-Enough pictures for everyone in the class, picked out ahead of time.
-Worksheet
Warm UpAs the students are coming in, have a picture on the board. Ask them to look at the
picture. Go around the room and ask for one line that this character would say. Have
the students build on the previous lines, so it stays somewhat cohesive.
Activities1. After you have the lines of dialogue from the warm up, discuss what are the
key elements of a monologue (setting, character, conflict, who are they
talking to, stakes, relationships, etc.) Once you establish the elements of a
monologue, ask the students if they would add or change any of their lines of
dialogue.
2. Present the pictures to them. Let the students pick which one they want to
write about. Tell them “someone in these pictures has a story to tell.” Let
them look at the picture for a moment. If there’s more than one person, have
them decide (or you) which character to write about. As they’re looking at
the picture have them write on the back or in the margin 5-10 things they
immediately notice (ex. A broken window.)
3. Have a few students share one thing they noticed. For example, the broken
window is a great way to introduce conflict.
4. Give the handout with the following questions:
a. Character’s name
b. Age
c. Where they’re from
d. Do they have friends/family. If so, where are they
e. What do they want more than anything
f. What are they willing to do to get what they want
g. What is happening in their life
h. What are they doing right now
i. Who are they talking to
j. Why today. What makes today different from all other days
5. As they’re filling out the worksheet, walk around the room. Ask them to share
something that’s on their sheet. Maybe something you find really interesting,
etc.
6. On a separate hand out have 5-10 lines for their monologue. They should
place the previous sheet next to them so they can refer to it to guide them.
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7. Pair the students off. Have them share their monologues with each other. Tell
them “not to explain their monologues or what’s on their worksheets. Let’s
see if everything you want comes across.”
Wrap UpAfter everyone has finished reading and discussing their monologues with their
partners, have them return to their seats or turn their attention to you. If you’re in a
large classroom you could even have the students stand up or sit on their desks. Go
around the room and ask each of them to say one word about their experience
today.
This lesson is used as a segue into writing dialogue. You can let them know that next
time you will be taking it a step further and start to write dialogue that will lead to
them starting to write their play.
Danielle Brescia
Revising Works Lesson Plan
Overall ObjectiveTo get the students to understand how to begin working on revising their
monologues/plays. This lesson is designed as a ten minute one on one conversation
with a student.
Materials Needed- Revision worksheet
Warm UpDiscuss what revising means. Why do we do it? Is it more than just fixing the
commas and spelling? Why is it important that we revise? It’s important to look
critically at what you’ve written to see:
- if it’s really worth saying
- if it says what you want it to say
- will the audience/reader understand what you’re saying
- does the end justify the means
Revision is not necessarily rewriting your entire play. It could mean fixing one scene
so it flows better.
Activities1. You will sit down with one student, their play, and the revision worksheet.
You will read their play (or have already read it.) As you ask them the
following questions, write down comments, questions, thoughts on the
worksheet.
a. If you are reading the play for the first time in front of them ask “Is
there anything I should before reading your play?” Continue the
conversation from there.
b. Questions to ask after you’ve read the play:
a. What is your play about
b. How did you come up with the idea
c. Are there any questions you have
d. What will you work on next
It is very hard to guess what students will say. And how they will react to your
feedback. It’s always a good idea to throw in some words of praise. It will help bring
them out of their shell and be more open to feedback/criticism.
It’s very important that you write down your comments on the feedback sheet. Also,
write down what they say they will work on next. This sheet is for them to take with
them as a guide to help them revise.
It can be very daunting from a student’s perspective. If you have enough time, you
can always give specific revision feedback and help them change something right
then and there.
Danielle Brescia
The Crucible Arts Integration Lesson Plan
Character Research Paper and Project
You must pick on of the following characters from Arthur Miller’s The Crucible to
research:
Cotton Mather
Bridget Bishop
Rev. Samuel Parris
Betty Parris
Judge John Hathorne
Tituba
Abigail Williams
Mercy Lewis
Sarah Good
Rebecca Nurse
John Proctor
Elizabeth Proctor
Martha Corey
Giles Corey
Rev. John Hale
Judge Danforth
Thomas Putnam
Ann Putnam
-You will write a report, create a project, give an oral report/presentation and
participate in the character exhibit.
-Answer the questions on the hand out Researching the Salem Witch Trials, use
this to help further your understanding of your character.
-As we start to read the play, you will keep a journal as your character. This is a way
to help follow your character, but also really put you in the mindset of the times.
-In addition to the paper, you must create a project that will be on display at the
exhibit. Use the hand out The Crucible Project Ideas to pick your project.
-You must give an oral report/presentation before the exhibit. It will combine your
research paper, your creative project and your journal. This is a trial run for the
exhibit. What you say in class is what you will do at the exhibit.
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The Crucible Project Ideas
You must pick one of the following projects to create based on your character and
the Salem Witch Trials. Remember, this will be on display at the exhibit.
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Magazine Articles
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Obituary
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Video Recording
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The Crucible Unit
Objective- To examine the ways in which Miller interpreted the facts of the witch
trials and successfully dramatized them. Our inquiry into this matter will be guided
by aesthetic and dramatic concerns as we attempt to interpret history and examine
Miller's own interpretations of it. In this lesson, students will examine some of
Miller's historical sources: biographies of key players (the accused and the accusers)
and transcripts of the Salem Witch trials themselves. The students will also read a
summary of the historical events in Salem and study a timeline. The students will
then read The Crucible itself.
By closely reading historical documents and attempting to interpret them,
students will be able to put themselves in the place of playwrights; that is, they will
be able to look at historical events and the people involved with them and ask, what
makes these trials so compelling? What is it about this particular tragic segment of
American history that appeals to the creative imagination? How can history be
dramatic, and how can drama bring history to life? A reading of The Crucible will
reveal how one playwright not only "outdid the historians at their own game," but
also created an authentic American tragic hero.
As students examine historical materials with an eye to their dramatic
potential, they can also explore the central questions of psychology and society that
so fascinated Miller. Why were the leaders of Salem's clerical and civil community
ready to condemn to death 19 people, who refused to acknowledge being witches,
based on spectral evidence and the hysterical words of young girls? Why would the
church and government authorities continue to credit these wild and
unsubstantiated stories as respectable people from all walks of life—landowners,
women of independent means, neighbors, even clergy—were arrested and brought
to trial? What was it about the time period that made such hysteria, and ultimately
tragedy, possible?
Learning Objectives
After completing this lesson, students will be able to:
 Examine the historical context of a consciously historical work of literature
 Compare facts with the fictional or dramatic treatments of the facts
 Ponder the differences between history and literature
 Discuss what makes a drama or tragedy compelling
 Recognize the close ties between a nation's history and culture and the
literature it produces
 Consider the ways in which an historical event and a work of literature may
mean different things for different generations of citizen readers.
Subject Areas
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Literature and Language Arts > Place > American
History and Social Studies > U.S. > Colonization and Settlement (15851763)
Literature and Language Arts > Genre > Drama
Danielle Brescia
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Art and Culture > Subject Matter > Philosophy
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Critical analysis
Critical thinking
Discussion
Historical analysis
Internet skills
Interpretation
Literary analysis
Making inferences and drawing conclusions
Role-playing/Performance
Using primary sources
Writing skills
Skills
Guiding Questions
 How well does history lend itself to art? In what ways do historical events
lend themselves (or not) to dramatization?
 How does Arthur Miller use history to create a play that continues to speak to
audiences today
Preparation:
 Puritan Beliefs. Before assigning The Crucible to students, help them to
enter the mental world of Puritan New England. Contrary to their stereotype,
the Puritans were not killjoys when it came to appreciation of art and music;
nor did they disapprove of the enjoyment of sex within marriage. The
Puritans did, however, hold firmly to their faith and disapproved of other
avenues to knowing God's will (for example, the teachings of Anne
Hutchinson, Quakerism). Puritans believed in the depravity of man, and they
believed that only God's chosen elect would be saved. Moreover, they truly
believed that God and Satan were active presences in the natural world
around them; natural signs must be read to see God's will or to discover
Satan's tricks. The Salem Puritan community was keenly aware of its own
insecure position in regard to faith (who was saved? who wasn't? how could
you tell?), good health, financial position, social status, and geography. Old
England was a long way away, and the new world was fraught with peril, not
the least of which was the harsh terrain itself and the Native peoples.
Anything or anyone that attempted to undermine the church, civic authority,
or the cohesion of the community was viewed as a threat. Indeed, fear—of
isolation, of death, of chaos, of loss of faith—was very real. To the Puritans,
tragedy could occur in the blink of an eye.
 Defining Tragedy. For witnesses of the events and for readers and modern
audiences of The Crucible, the witch trials evoked the emotions of
Aristotelian tragedy, pity and fear: pity for the victims, and fear that such
accusations and death could happen to them. You can test, sharpen, and
extend students' understanding of the nature and purpose of tragedy by
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sharing with them the well-known passage from Aristotle's Poetics (from the
translation by Gerald Else): “Tragedy, then, is a process of imitating an action
which has serious implications, is complete, and possesses magnitude; by means
of language which has been made sensuously attractive, with each of its
varieties found separately in the parts; enacted by the persons themselves and
not presented through narrative; through a course of pity and fear completing
the purification of tragic acts which have those emotional characteristics.”
Activities- Activity 1. Historical Figures Research: Biography and Court Transcripts
Having learned a little about the mindset of a seventeenth-century Puritan, students
should choose one person from the following group of historical figures upon which
to do research:
Cotton Mather
Bridget Bishop
Rev. Samuel Parris
Betty Parris
Judge John Hathorne
Tituba
Abigail Williams
Mercy Lewis
Sarah Good
Rebecca Nurse
John Proctor
Elizabeth Proctor
Martha Corey
Giles Corey
Rev. John Hale
Judge Danforth
Thomas Putnam
Ann Putnam
Students will have in-class time to do Internet searches for their historical figure.
The research they do will manifest itself in first a written and then an oral report
presented to the whole class. Both written and oral reports should respond to the
questions: What about your character seems especially interesting or compelling?
How would you dramatize your character to make him or her come to life for a
contemporary audience?
For both the oral and written reports, biographical information may be found on
some of the following sites. In particular, students should visit Salem Witch Trials
Documentary Archive to see if their figure is included in the 3 lists of court room
transcripts available; if the answer is "yes," the student should print out the
transcript for his or her chosen figure's case. This transcript may give more insight
into the figure's life and will certainly be a helpful source of comparison when the
class begins to read The Crucible.
Danielle Brescia
Written Reports. To help guide student research for the written report, students
should complete the worksheet for this lesson, Researching the Salem Witch Trials:
Inference and Evidence Chart. Here are some of the questions (reproduced on the
chart provided on the worksheet) that can help guide students as they gather
information on their historical figure:
 What was your historical figure's social and economic status in the Salem
community? That is, what did your character do for a living? Was he or she
well off? Would he or she be considered educated, upper class, middle class,
lower class, poor?
 How old was your character at the time of the trials? Was your character
married or single?
 Was your character regarded as a good Christian?
 Was there any gossip swirling about your character?
 What was your character's reputation in the community?
 Did your character suffer from ill health or any other sort of hardship?
 Did your character bear a grudge against anyone in the community?
 Was your character accused of witchcraft? Or was he/she an accuser?
Oral Reports. The purpose of the oral report is to think like a dramatist: what
aspects of this character are most interesting or engaging? The oral reports may be
delivered straight or with a dramatic flair--by telling the audience what is
interesting about this character, or by showing. Those students inclined to high
drama should feel free to "become" their historical figure and address the class as
such. This is a trial run for the final exhibit.
Creative Project
Students will create a project that they pick off the following list:
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Collage
Letters
Magazine Articles
Mural
Newspaper
Pamphlet
Photographs
Scrapbook
Sculpture
Timeline
Obituary
Wikipedia Page
Interview
Public Service Announcement
Video Recording
Danielle Brescia
These projects will be on display at the exhibit. It is another creative way for
students to use the research they’ve obtained and apply it.
- Activity 2. Reading the play
As students read the 4 acts of The Crucible, they should keep a daily journal. In this
journal, students should focus on the portrayal of their historical figure. How is the
character similar to the person revealed in the court transcripts or biography? How
is the character different? Then they should ask the key question: Why has Miller
chosen to portray a historical figure in a certain way? How has he embellished the
figure to suit his own dramatic aims? And what are Miller's dramatic aims? Finally,
do you agree with how Miller has presented the figure? How would you have
presented the figure any differently? (Note: Make sure the students have carefully
read Miller's prefatory material, "A Note on the Historical Accuracy of the Play."
Also, make the students aware that Miller offers his own interpretations of the
historical figures in his digressions in Act I.) Students should be prepared to discuss
their findings in class.
At some point in your discussion of the play--perhaps as an anticipatory set prior to
reading the drama, or perhaps as a discussion arising naturally from your reading of
and response to Miller's play--consider as a class some general questions about the
nature and purposes of drama and tragedy. Students should think back to movies or
books they have seen and read and ponder what kept them watching or reading:
this brainstorming should lead into a discussion of what is effective drama. You
should also remind students that in The Crucible, Arthur Miller was writing a
tragedy. Discuss as a class the meanings of "tragedy" and "tragic hero." What
understanding do students have of these terms? What do students think is the
purpose of tragedy? That is, why would audiences willingly want to spend their time
witnessing painful and terrible events unfolding on the stage? What makes a tragedy
effective?
(For further ideas about how to help students think about Miller's dramatic
purposes in writing this tragedy, see the section "Defining Tragedy" in Preparing to
Teach.
-Activity 3. Acting out key scenes
Study of The Crucible will involve acting out 2 to 3 key scenes that bring to life what
the historical transcript cannot. Indeed, each of Miller's four acts has at least one
section that could be effectively acted out in class.
Possibilities include:
 Act I, Betty Parris's bedroom—the girls, led by Abigail, form a conspiracy to
save themselves from being punished for dancing naked in the woods.
 Act I, Conflict between Reverend Hale and Tituba. Tituba "confesses" and the
girls begin their chorus of hysterical accusations.
 Act II, Elizabeth and John Proctor talk around his adultery, and John accuses
Elizabeth of showing him no mercy or charity.
Danielle Brescia
Act II, Hale confronts Elizabeth and John over their Christian beliefs; John
cannot remember all of the 10 commandments—particularly the one against
adultery.
 Act III, Proctor calls Abigail a whore and declares that he himself is a lecher;
states that his wife will vouch for his guilt.
 Act III, Elizabeth unexpectedly and ironically lies for her husband; the girls
begin their hysteria against Mary Warren.
After acting out one, some, or all of the above scenes, the teacher and students
should discuss how effective these scenes are as drama and how they bring to life
history. Another question would be what, if anything, is Miller inventing to make
history more dramatic or enticing? Are you more likely to remember one of the
court transcripts or Arthur Miller's play?
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- Activity 4. Specific Analysis of Act IV—John Proctor as Tragic Hero
Students should focus on the following questions in their reading of this act. Their
responses should be written in their journal.
 What is John Proctor's dilemma in Act IV?
 What motivates Proctor's initial decision to lie?
 What does Proctor mean when he refuses to let Danforth take his signed
confession and explains, "Because it is my name! Because I cannot have
another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not
worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my
name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!" Pay especial attention
to Proctor's emphasis on his name and his distinction between it and his soul.
 How are Elizabeth Proctor's final lines—the final spoken lines of the play—
essential to our understanding of John Proctor? "He have his goodness now.
God forbid I take it from him!"
 Finally, how does this act illustrate the paradox that Arthur Miller highlights
in Act I: "for good purposes, even high purposes, the people of Salem
developed a theocracy, a combine of state and religious power whose
function was to keep the community together, and to prevent any kind of
disunity that might open it to destruction by material or ideological enemies.
It was forged for a necessary purpose and accomplished that purpose. But all
organization is and must be grounded on the idea of exclusion and
prohibition, just as two objects cannot occupy the same space. . . The witchhunt was a perverse manifestation of the panic which set in among all classes
when the balance began to turn toward greater individual freedom."
- Activity 5. Final Essay
The final project will be an essay that each student will write. Students who have
completed the character worksheet at the beginning, will find it a useful aid for
developing and supporting a thesis.
Possible topics include:
 Further exploration of the comparison between the student's historical
figure and its dramatic counterpart. In a well-argued analysis, show the
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reader how Miller works with a historical figure to make him or her a
compelling, dynamic, dramatic figure. Point to examples from history and
from the play text.
How or why does The Crucible still speak to audiences today? Students who
are particularly savvy about current events could begin with Miller's own
quotation in the introduction of this lesson plan and spin a paper off from it.
Analysis of The Crucible as an American tragedy with John Proctor as an
American tragic hero.
Pretend that you are a playwright who has a keen interest in history. Tonight
is the night that your writers' group meets to discuss individual projects.
Your goal is to present to your group your idea for dramatizing a past
event—it may be a recent current event. Describe, in writing, why you think
the event would make good drama and how you would dramatize it. Be sure
to think carefully about story, conflict, character, and resolution.
- Activity 6. Final Project
After students have completed all reports and projects, we will hold a character
exhibit. The other students, faculty and parents are invited. The students will be set
up so people can walk around, like a museum, and learn about the characters in The
Crucible as well as the Salem Witch Trials.