Adultery, betrayal, hysteria—The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an excellent historical fiction play. Abigail, who retaliates after rejection, is reminiscent of Glenn Close's character in Fatal Attraction. In reality, though, Abigail was an 11-year-old during the Salem Witch Trials, so I encourage readers to do some background research beforehand. The kids have been researching Salem and its history for about three Halloween seasons now, so we decided it was a good time to read The Crucible and take a field trip to Salem, Massachusetts (post coming soon). We visited the graves of familiar names within our reading, including Giles Corey and John Proctor, not witches but persecuted because of the hysteria, nonetheless. The whole era is wrapped up in such tragedy and is well worth learning about, as unnecessary hysteria is still prominent today. This topic is full of relatable modern-day discussion.
In my Google Drive "packet," I provide pre-reading activities that we participated in, including a scavenger hunt and helpful videos. There are character charts that help the kids keep track of who is who as they read the play. Each act has discussion questions and vocabulary to help them better understand the language of the day, as well as an activity to complete for each.
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