Daily Log

Monday, April 18

We began a new three-week unit on Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, which is is about both the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and the anti-Communist "witch hunt" of the 1950's, of which Miller was a target.

We looked at various images of witches over the centuries and at part of a streaming video about the hysteria in Salem. Afterwards we identified other groups which have been demonized and scapegoated in more recent times (Jews, blacks, Japanese-Americans, homosexuals, Muslims, etc.) and looked at particularly vicious images attacking some of those groups.

HW due Wednesday:
Read Act I of The Crucible. Be certain to read carefully not only the dialogue but Miller's extensive commentary as well.