Who is Arthur Miller and why are we reading something he wrote?
Before we read The Crucible, I’d like you to take some time to look into 
Arthur Miller. Who was he? What did he do that makes him so famous? When did he write and what about his world was his driving concern? Why is one of his plays in our literature book?
Stage 1: Reading
Please use the resources available to you on the website and in your textbook (p. 1230) and spend some time researching Miller. You may also look on your own at other sites - use the links at the bottom of the Wikipedia article, for example. The main goal for stage 1: read through a lot of stuff.
Stage 2: Writing
Then I’d like you to compile your general impression of Miller in a written summary. You may put this on your blog or you may work with a partner and put it on the wiki, or you may work with a partner and put it on both your blogs. Realize that if you work with a partner, I will expect it to look like two people’s work in quantity and quality.
At the end of your Introduction to Arthur Miller, please make a list of the resources you used (that is, a works cited). Format the list properly, using Easybib to make your citations (most likely you’ll need to select “web site” from the blue drop down menu of source types).
Tips for working well:
- If you’re working with a friend, you might want to use some good collaborative tools. Google Docs allows two people to write on the same document at the same time. It’s cool.
- Zinging emails or IM’s back and forth allows one person to type a part and give it to the other person without the “recorder” being burdened with all the typing. It would also prevent a situation where one person sits there and watches the other do all the work.
We’ll work on this in class for two half blocks before we begin reading the play. How long does it have to be? As long as it takes! Make your piece so good that students elsewhere who desperately google “Who is Arthur Miller?” will be thrilled to come to your page.
Filed under: Assignments, The Crucible and tagged Arthur Miller, crucible, sheehy
[...] and the Classroom | Tags: education, sheehy, teaching | This afternoon I was crafting the opening activity to my juniors’ unit on The Crucible - a process that in itself is always a bit amusing. I [...]