Teacher
Grade
Title
Subject Area(s)
Overview
Essential
Understanding
Essential Questions
CT Standards
TAH Lesson Plan
Jaime Ekstrand & Cyndi Goldberg
Fifth Grade
Puritan Beliefs and Punishments
Social Studies
The beliefs and values of the Puritan people caused them to turn on
their neighbors out of fears, intolerances, petty disagreements and
jealousies. Students will get a closer look at Puritan life in
Massachusetts in the 1690s, learn about the lives of some of the people
affected by persecutions within the Puritan community and defend
possible theories to solve the mystery of the Salem Witch trials.
 The students will understand that there are multiple perspectives
to historical events and they may be interpreted differently
based on evidence.
 What were the beliefs and values of the Puritan people?
 How did the Puritans’ beliefs and values lead them to create a
strict system of punishments for violating their laws?
 How did Anne Hutchinson violate the beliefs and values of the
Puritan community and what was the Puritans’ response to her
actions?
 What forces would drive the Puritans to accuse their
neighbors of witchcraft?
 Why would people in today's society think that the Salem
Witch Trials were unfair?
 Why did the witch hysteria occur?
 How did the possible theories behind the Salem Witch Trials
relate to the Puritan’s beliefs and values?
Social Studies:
1.1 – 1: Explain how specific individuals and their ideas and beliefs
influenced US history.
1.1 – 2: Compare and contrast the economic, political, and/or religious
differences that contributed to conflicts.
2.1 – 1: Locate and gather information from primary and secondary
sources.
2.3 – 6: Create written work (e.g. newspaper articles, poetry) using
primary sources.
2.3 – 7: Organize information in outlines and graphic organizers.
2.4 – 8: Debate conflicting points of view on historical issues or events
using evidence.
3.1 – 1: Identify and explain different points of view about a historical
event.
3.2 – 4: Describe views and feelings of people in the past using personal
experience and/or outside readings.
Objectives
Materials
 The students will be able to explain how the Puritan’s ideas and
beliefs shaped their community and led to of the banishment of
Anne Hutchinson and the Salem Witch Trials.
 The students will be able to use primary and secondary sources to
analyze the accusations that led to persecution, determine their
fairness and defend one of four major theories about the Salem
Witch Trials.
 The students will be able to utilize historical inquiry to make their
own decisions and form theories about historical people.
 The students will create their own theories/hypothesis and use
historical evidence to support them.
Websites:
 Video: “The Story of the Witchhunt”
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schooladventures/salemwitchtrials/story/
 Secondary and Primary Sources: “The People”
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schooladventures/salemwitchtrials/people/
 The Salem Witch Trials Maps
http://www.iath.virginia.edu/salem/maps.html
Books:
 The Salem Witch Trials: An Unsolved Mystery from History by
Jane Yolen
 Life Among the Puritans by Louise Chipley Slavicek
 Hands-On History: Colonial America by Michael Gravois
 5 copies of: You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Salem Witch! by Jim Pipe
 Mysteries in History: American History by Wendy Conklin
Handouts:
 Puritan Life Anticipatory Guide
 Note-taking handout – Massachusetts Bay
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Puritan Portrait handouts
Puritan beliefs and values YES response sheets
Note-taking handout – Punishments
Diamante Poem handout
Venn Diagram
Anne Hutchinson passage
Cause and Effect graphic organizers
Letter to Anne Hutchinson
Anne Hutchinson YES response sheets
Salem Witch Trials Graphic Organizer from: Mysteries in History:
American History.
Obituary and Tombstone handouts
The Salem Witch Trials: Rebecca Nurse’s Trial found in:
Mysteries in History: American History
The Salem Witchcraft Theories Overview – Homework
The Salem Witchcraft Theories handouts
The Salem Witch Trials Theories graphic organizer
Editorial Graphic Organizer
Materials:
 Highlighters
 Bulletin Board paper
 Bulletin Board letters
 Markers / Crayons / Colored Pencils
Equipment:
 Smartboard or overhead projector
 On-line computers for each cooperative learning group
Day 1
Puritan Way of Life
Details of the Activity
 The teacher will begin the unit by distributing the Puritan Life
Anticipatory Guide for each student to complete.
 The teacher will discuss the previous taught lesson on the Pilgrims
and the religious motivations of the colonization of Plymouth. The
teacher will then explain that we are studying the next colony of
Massachusetts Bay which was settled by a group of people called the
Puritans.
Day 2
Puritan Punishments
 The teacher and students will begin completing the note-taking
handout, Massachusetts Bay, in order to provide the students with a
quick overview of the settling of the colony, using the Smartboard
and graphic organizer.
 The students will work in cooperative learning groups to read pages 89 entitled, “The Puritans” found in the book, You Wouldn’t Want to Be
a Salem Witch!, and complete the notes by listing the strict Puritan
rules and laws.
 With selected students, the teacher(s) will role-play each rule and
the students will identify the rule being portrayed. The teacher will
add the rules to the notes on the Smartboard or overhead.
 The teacher(s) will distribute the handouts for the Puritan Portrait
assignment and explain the directions. The students will complete
the assignment in their cooperative learning groups.
 As an exit ticket, the students will complete the After Reading
section of the Puritan Life Anticipatory Guide.
Homework
 Respond to the open-ended question, “What was a belief or value of
the Puritan people?” (Modified with answer frames and tip boxes with
sentence starters for below-level learners).
Details of the Activity
 The teachers and self-selected students will role-play Puritans
violating a law learned in the previous day’s lesson. The teachers
will pose the question, “How did the Puritans punish these people
who were breaking their laws?”
 Students will break out into a quick Think-Pair-Share to list and
share the ways modern society punishes those who break their
laws and record them on the Punishments note-taking sheet.
 The teachers and students will complete the note-taking handout,
Punishments, as the teachers present the various consequences of
breaking the laws in the Puritan community, through non-linguistic
representations of the punishments (i.e., pictures of the dunking
stool, brandings, stocks, pillory, etc.) using the Smartboard or
overhead.
 The teachers will read the section entitled, “The Invisible World:
The Battle Between Good and Evil” found on pages 32-33 in the
book, Life Among the Puritans. The students will complete a
Venn diagram comparing and contrasting modern and Puritan
Day 3
Anne Hutchinson and
Her Trial and
Banishment
Day 4
Witchcraft
Accusations
punishments. The teachers and students will then discuss how the
Puritan punishments, designed to be quick, humiliating and severe,
reflected their beliefs in the common good and the battle
between good and evil. The teachers and students will complete
the note-taking sheet.
 The students will create a Diamante Poem to describe the Puritan
punishments.
Homework
 Using their Punishments notes, the students will identify the
similarities and differences (modified with labels and sentence
starters for below-level learners).
Details of the Activity
 The teachers and students will read the passage, “Anne
Hutchinson”.
 The students will perform a play entitled “Anne Hutchinson, An
Outspoken Woman” found in Hands-On History: Colonial America.
 The teachers will model the completion of a cause and effect
graphic organizer on the Smartboard or overhead to identify the
actions of Anne Hutchinson that violated the beliefs and values
of the Puritan community (causes) and led to her trial and
banishment (effect).
 The teachers will read the directions and letter from Anne
Hutchinson and model the student reply by identifying how
various beliefs and values would determine whether a person
would attend her meetings or not.
 The students will reply to the letter from Anne Hutchinson
(modified for below-level learners with answer frames completed
in small cooperative learning groups facilitated by an adult).
Homework
 Respond to the open-ended question, “What caused Anne Hutchinson
to be banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony?” (Modified with
answer frames and tip boxes with sentence starters for below-level
learners).
Details of the Activity
 The teacher(s) will dim the lights and use the Smartboard to play
the video, “The Story of the Witch Hunt”, found on the Discovery
Education website.
 Using the Smartboard, the teachers will go online to view the
Day 5
Causes of the
Witchcraft Hysteria
Salem witch trial maps. The class will examine the Ipswich map of
Salem and determine how the locations of the accused and the
accusers related to where they lived and the role the road played
in creating tensions between the people of Salem Village and
Salem Town.
 The students will be divided into four cooperative learning groups
and be assigned a member of the Puritan community who was
accused of witchcraft by the young girls of Salem (John Proctor,
Tituba, Mary Easty, Sarah Good). The teachers will model all
activities with the accused, Rebecca Nurse.
 The teachers will read a biographical paragraph about Rebecca
Nurse and use the Smartboard to model the completion of a Cause
and Effect graphic organizer to identify the reasons Nurse was
accused and the punishments she received as a result.
 Each group will then be given a laptop to access secondary and
primary sources found on “The People” section of the Discovery
Education website regarding their accused witch or wizard. Each
group will complete the Cause and Effect graphic organizer as
modeled.
 Each group will share their Cause and Effect graphic organizers
with the option of acting out the scenario that illustrates the
causes and effects of the accusations.
 Following each group’s presentation, teachers and students will
summarize the accusations, using The Salem Witch Trials graphic
organizer found on page 37 of the book, Mysteries in History:
American History.
 Teachers will model the writing of an obituary and tombstone of
Rebecca Nurse.
Homework
 Write an obituary or draw a tombstone with an epitaph that explains
who their person was, why they were accused, and what their
punishment was.
Details of the Activity
 Teachers will accuse each other and members of the class of
being witches, based on accusations learned the previous day (e.g.
you like cats, you have a mole, you can spell). Teachers will pose
the question, “Were the accusations fair? Can the evidence of
guilt be proven?”
Day 6
The Theories Behind
the Witchcraft
Hysteria
 Teachers will ask the cooperative group who was responsible for
the cause and effect graphic organizer for Rebecca Nurse to
share the details of her accusations. This group will then act out
the play, “The Salem Witch Trials: Rebecca Nurse’s Trial” found
on pages 41-43 in the Mysteries of Histories: American History
book.
 After the performance, the students will work in a Think-PairShare to highlight the evidence used against Rebecca Nurse and
judge whether this evidence is fair (Can it be proven?)
 Teachers will pose the question, “What would motivate the girls to
begin accusing people in Salem of witchcraft?”
 Students will work in a Think-Pair-Share to list ideas on why the
girls would accuse people of witchcraft.
 Teachers will present the students with the handout, “The Salem
Witchcraft Theories Overview”
Homework
Students will read “The Salem Witchcraft Theories Overview” handout
and choose a theory by checking it.
Details of the Activity
 Teachers will review the theories given in the handout, “The Salem
Witchcraft Theories Overview”.
 The students will be grouped according to their selected theory
completed for homework. Each group will receive a handout
pertaining to their chosen theory. They will read the questions
posed at the top of the handout, read the information below, and
highlight the answers to the questions found in the passage.
 The teachers will model the completion of an editorial to describe
the unfairness of the trial of Anne Hutchinson.
 The students will then independently complete an editorial to
describe the theory they believe caused the young girls of Salem
to accuse people of witchcraft.
 Teachers will show the primary source document found on “The
People” section of the Discovery Education website regarding Ann
Putnam’s apology that took place twelve years after the Salem
witch trials. The teachers will pose the question, “How is Ann’s
apology based on her Puritan beliefs and values?”
Homework
The students will draw an illustration with a caption to support their
editorial.
Suggested
Assessment/Evaluation
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Rubric
Possible
Extensions/Resources
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Assess the students on their daily assignments using the Puritan
Projects Rubric.
Culminating Assessment: Students will write a summary of the
Puritan way of life by answering the question, “How did the
Puritan’s beliefs and values lead to the persecutions of many
people in their community?”
View actual gravestones from the time period by visiting the
Farber Gravestone Collection at http://luna.davidrumsey.com to
compare and contrast modern and colonial gravestones.
Create an oversized newspaper bulletin board titled, “The Puritan
Paper” comprised of the Puritan Portraits, the obituaries, the
editorials and illustrations. Students can create advertisements,
word searches, crossword puzzles, and/or comic strips for the
Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Puritan way of life to add the
bulletin board.