Name_________________________________________________________
Period____________
Salem Witch Trials Newspaper
THE YEAR is 1692. The setting is the town of Salem and the surrounding villages and
counties. The town and neighboring farms form a prosperous community of Puritans,
living together, working together, and worshipping together. But a storm is lurking on
the horizon . . . and before that storm passes, friendships will be broken, families torn
asunder, and over twenty people will have died. The specter of witchcraft hangs over all,
and it is your job to report the story.
YOUR JOB will be to provide your readers with as much factual information as possible
about the people, events, and ideas that made up this moment in colonial history. You
will cover the underlying causes of the trials, the key people involved in the hysteria, and
the aftermath of these events. You will uncover different interpretations of how and why
these events occurred and present them in an unbiased manner. And you will design the
layout of your articles so that you present this information in an engaging and informative
manner.
Above all, your task as a reporter is to be CURIOUS.
Ask questions. Find answers. Tell the story.
Responsibilities of Reporters and
Newspaper Staff
Everyone's Responsibilities:
* One individual article/column, minimum two pages (typed, doublespaced)
* Formatting and design for one individual article
First drafts of these individual articles are due on Monday, 11/12.
Everyone's Responsibilities who is NOT a Webmaster or an Editor
* ¼ of a longer, detailed group headliner article, minimum three pages
(typed, double-spaced)
* Formatting and design for group article
First drafts of these group articles are due on Tuesday, 11/13.
Webmasters' Responsibilities (2 students):
*
*
*
*
One individual article/column (as stated above)
Formatting and design for that individual article
Design of front page and links to other pages
NOT required to contribute to group articles
Editors' Responsibilities (2 to 3 students):
* One individual article/column (as stated above)
* Formatting and design for that individual article
* Proofread all final articles and the newspaper's final draft—this may need
to be done in the days after everyone else has finished his or her articles
* NOT required to contribute to group articles
Group Headliner Articles
Every student who is not a webmaster or an editor will contribute to a group article.
The groups will be determined by the newspaper staff and must include 3 or 4
people. The group articles must address one of the following topics. Topics will be
assigned by Editor-In-Chief Mr. Nekrosius on a first come, first served basis.
Group Headliner Topics:
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How the hysteria began
Indian Wars and their connection to Salem
Interview with a major figure in the trials: (Tituba, Samuel Parris, Elizabeth
and Abigail, John Proctor, Giles Corey, or a figure of your own choosing)
Report on the Interrogation of Rebecca Nurse
How the trials came to an end
How does the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a whole react, apologize, and
carry on as a community?
Online resources for your preliminary research:
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrails/salem/salem.htm
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schooladventures/salemwitchtrials/
http://www.salemweb.com/guide/witches.shtml
http://etext.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/salem/
http://gilderlehrman.org/wp/?p=44 (this is a podcast of historian Mary Beth Norton
discussing her recent book, which examines original court documents from the Salem
witch trials. The information she presents is fairly sophisticated; toward the end of the
podcast she explains her thesis regarding the central role that various Indian Wars played
in the lives of the Puritans and their contribution to the hysteria in Salem and surrounding
areas.)
The Middle School Library also has lots of excellent online and print resources that are
worth exploring—don't hesitate to poke around those resources or to talk to a librarian!