Class+15

The Salem Witch Trials: Miranda, Karralynn, Betty Jane, Jacklyn, and Carly

Standards:

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 * SS-05-5.2.4, "students will describe significant historical events in each of the broad historical periods and eras in U.S. history (Colonization and Settlement, Revolution and a New Nation, Expansion and Conflict, Industrialization and Immigaration, Twentieth Century to Present) and explain cause and effect relationships." **=====

Teaching Activity: Students will read the story of Betty Parris and Abigail Willams as a class in the We Were There Too! text book. Then students will identify similarities and differences between the Puritan culture and Tituba's African culture using a Venn diagram.

Students will then identify how those cultures clashed when the girls took the stories of "animals that could talk with human voices and, perhaps, evil demons that preyed on children," and turned it into something bigger. We will discuss as a class how these stories and ideas helped fuel the idea of witchcraft within the Puritan community. Ideas of, "Satan being able to convince ordinary people to serve him."

We will then further our discussion of the Salem Witch trials (a historical event) by asking students, "what was the effect of all the 'witchcraft hype?'" E.g. false confessions, innocent deaths, false accusations. How big was the effect, not only for the nineteen people sentenced to death, but also for the one hundred people who were brought to trial as witches. How did the trials effect their families, jobs, social lives, etc.? Students will fill out a "cause and effect" graphic organizer after our class discussion.

Pocahontas by: Jocelyn Grimes, Blair Boden, Rosemary O'Brien, and Caitlin Valdez
media type="custom" key="24719884" Standards:


 * SS-05-5.1.1 **
 * Students will use a variety of primary and secondary sources (e.g., artifacts, diaries, maps, timelines) to describe significant events in the history of the U.S. and interpret different perspectives. **


 * SS-05-2.3.1 Students will describe various forms of interactions (compromise, cooperation, conflict) that occurred between diverse groups (e.g., Native Americans, European Explorers, English colonists, British Parliament) in the history of the United States. **

Teaching Activity: The class will be separated into 4 groups in which they will examine different images of Pocahontas and read letters along with other supporting primary sources from Constitution.org. They will determine if their image is a true portrayal of the Native American girl called Pocahontas based on the American versus the European perspective.

media type="custom" key="24725436"
SS-05-2.3.2: Cultures and Societies - Students will give examples of conflicts between individuals or groups and describe appropriate conflict resolution strategies.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.5.1: Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information.

Teaching Activity: Students will be broken into groups and given one of the four quotations from Carolyn McKinstry (below). They will break down the quotes, predicting what was happening at that time and where they think the quotes occurred according to the timeline presented through the documentary. Then, we will come back together as a class and discuss each quotation and make sense of what it means, paying special attention to the conflict resolution strategies used on those protesting. Finally, they will write an opinion piece agreeing or disagreeing with how American’s were treated during the rallies.
 * 1) “My elementary and high schools were all black. I never really even had a conversation with a white person until I went off to college. I knew that our textbooks had been to white schools first because they were full of obscenities that seemed written to us. It all seemed so wrong.”
 * 2) In 1963, we joined the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. The church was used as a place for mass meetings and rallies. “Those meetings were powerful. First there would be this wonderful music. Songs like, ‘Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around’ or ‘Woke Up This Morning With My Mind Stayed on Freedom.’ You were feeling good, really motivated.”
 * 3) “They had blasted a hole right through my sweater. And then for some reason, I reached up and touched my hair. It was gone, on the right side of my head. My hair, gone. I was furious and insulted. Why did they have to do that?”
 * 4) “We had come to Sunday School that morning. I dropped off a report downstairs and had just walked up to the second floor when I heard the phone ring in the church office. I picked it up and someone said, ‘Three minutes.’ I didn’t know what it meant. I hung up and I had taken 3 or 4 steps into the sanctuary when the bomb went off.”

__Works Cited__ [] [] [] [] [] []

Hoose, Phillip. "We Were There, Too!" (220-224) //Melanie Kroupa Books,// Farrar Straus Giroux. New York, NY.