Mock+trial

=Mock Trial= This works as a great culminating activity with //The Crucible.//The setting is just after the witch trials and the people of Salem have revolted. Everyone has been released from jail and Abigail has been taken into custody and charged with attempted murder. The students will play various roles in the trial. The activity has three parts 

Part One – Research
 Assign the following roles to your students. It may be helpful to select volunteers for some roles. Each student is responsible for carefully reading the text and researching his or her role. They need to be able to answer questions and make statements as if they were the character. The expert witness will need to research historical beliefs of witchcraft. The judge should research basic courtroom procedure and the defense and prosecution teams must research their jobs and the facts of the case. It may be helpful to have each student write a journal entry or short narrative detailing their research results and preparation.  
 * Abigail (defendant)
 * John Proctor
 * Elizabeth Proctor
 * Reverend Parris
 * Mary Warren
 * Giles Corey
 * Thomas Putnam
 * Reverend Hale (expert witness)
 * <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Deputy Governor Danforth
 * <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">A Judge
 * <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Prosecution Team
 * <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Defense Team

<span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">Part Two – The Trial
<span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">Hold the mock trail, with each side calling witnesses, cross examinging and making opening and closing statements. Try to get off-duty teachers and administrators to be the jury. Consider grading students not on whether or not their side wins, but on how closely they stuck to their characters. A rubric would be helpful for this. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">

<span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">Part Three – Debrief
<span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">Have a whole class discussion where you go over the trial and discuss the outcome. Ask students why they made the choices they did and discuss the moral problems that the events in the play call into question. This would also be a great topic for a journal entry.

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