Teacher's guide for Voices of Salem

by Janice Cooper

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Introduction

Use this Knowledge Hunt to help 10 - 12 English, Social Studies, and, perhaps, Science students learn about the Salem Witchcraft Hysteria and Trials. The goal is to help students acquire defined background knowledge. An underlying goal is to model questioning skills and their implementation for students.

Students' research will focus on questions that emerge from and inform specific disciplines or perspectives. In groups, students will choose to research one of the question series. Each group will be asked to develop a list of the five most important, compelling reasons why their perspective offers a real answer to the mystery of what happened in Salem, Massachusettes so many years ago. After an in-class presentation and discussion, students will be asked individually to select the most interesting perspective in an Insight Reflector (as yet, unwritten, but stay tuned).

If class time for this project is constrained, teachers might wish to focus on those questions addressing the Salem and the Trials exclusively, and leave the 'Comparative Historical' questions for individual exploration. The links to support those questions appear at the end of the list.

Overview

Main Topic:	Salem Witchcraft Trials
Subtopics:	English, Social Studies, Science,
Grade Level:	10 - 12
Subject(s):	Interdisciplinary
Learning Goal:	acquiring defined knowledge

Vision and Reality

If the learning goal were achieved in the most ideal of perfect worlds it would look something like:

Students be learning new technologies: how to generate general questions to guide research and how to develop questions that reflect a specific academic discpline's mode of thought and inquiry.
Questions and questioning techniques will prompt student thinking & discussions?

Students will be researching: from suggested resources and, be directed to search online resources after setting search strategies.
Students will be thinking: conceptualizing and problem-solving.
Students will be writing: analytically and editing their work.
Students will be speaking: to the class

Students will be working collaboratively in small groups in class.

Teachers will be available to students frequently or daily.
Teachers will be presenting information and providing examples.

However, what I anticipate probably looks more like:

Based on the Vision set for this activity, the actual reality is more likely to be learning to develop and apply some new questioning techniques to guide their own research, but not necessarily being able to apply those techniques to new research problems.

The What - If Inventory

To give the activity its best chance at helping students learn, I assembled this list of possible resources:

Technology Resources

Teachers will need access to a computer lab or class collection of laptop computers. An academic Theater for multimedia presentations would be helpful for the introductory and presentation sessions.



Internet Potential

By choosing specific Web sites, we have provided a 'safety net' as well as a springboard. Not all of the 'perspectives' are, or can be, equally supported by Web sites. Students are encouraged to access their school and public libraries database subscriptions that offer the most reliable information on the Internet. However, each school, each student's resources are unique.



Possible Collaborations

This Knowledge Hunt provides an opportunity for collaboration with school library media specialists and public librarians who maintain collections of online database subscriptions. Both will welcome such an opportunity to share.



Special Events

Halloween is always such a spellbinding time to study witches. And, the curriculum seems to place 'The Crucible' in 10th grade American Literature classes in October, such an appropriate time!



General Resources

In addition to Web sites and online databases, most libraries maintain very healthy print collections on the Salem Witchcraft Hysteria and Trials. Also, please consider resources devoted to the specific 'perspectives:' Medical Dictionaries, Encyclopedias of Sociology or Psychology. The Reference Department in any library is a veritable 'witches' brew' of information!



Standards

New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards
Language Arts
3.1.12.G.5. Analyze how works of a given period reflect historical and social events and conditions.
3.1.12.H.1. Select appropriate electronic media for research and evaluate the quality of the information received.
3.1.12.H.3. Develop increased ability to critically select works to support a research topic.
3.1.12.H.4. Read and critically analyze a variety of works, including books and other print materials (e.g., periodicals, journals, manuals), about one issue or topic, or books by a single author or in one genre, and produce evidence of reading.
3.1.12.H.5. Apply information gained from several sources or books on a single topic or by a single author to foster an argument, draw conclusions, or advance a position.

5. Use the computer and word-processing software to compose, revise, edit, and publish a piece.

3.2.12.A.6. Use a scoring rubric to evaluate and improve own writing and the writing of others.
3.3.12.A.1. Support a position integrating multiple perspectives.
3.3.12.A.2. Support, modify, or refute a position in small or large-group discussions.

3.3.12.B.1. Ask prepared and follow-up questions in interviews and other discussions.
3.3.12.B.5. Question critically the position or viewpoint of an author.
3.3.12.B.6. Respond to audience questions by providing clarification, illustration, definition, and elaboration.
Social Studies
6.1.12.A.2. Formulate questions and hypotheses from multiple perspectives, using multiple sources.
6.1.12.A.3. Gather, analyze, and reconcile information from primary and secondary sources to support or reject hypotheses.
6.3.12.D. The Age of Global Encounters (1400-1750)

Conclusion

Credits:
The graphic of the gravestone is borrowed from:
http://www.hawthorneinsalem.org/Literature/Quakers&Witches/AliceDoane/Images.html. The image is: http://www.hawthorneinsalem.org/images/image.php?name=MMD710.

Thank you also to my 'resident scholar,' James McGuire, Teacher of History and Sociology. . . and bon-vivant of our family life. He always helps redirect my thinking into better channels.

created by Janice Cooper email: cooper_j@nvnet.org ; jj71688@optonline.net http://web-and-flow.com/members/jcooper/swt/hunt.htm