QUESTIONING STRATEGIES:
BLOOM’S TAXONOMY
Purpose: The series of questions below will be used with Act III of The Crucible. The
goal of these questions is to help the students begin to understand the motives of many of
the play’s characters. When the students understand some of the characters’ motives, it
will help the students evaluate the actions and situation, predict what will happen
throughout the rest of the play, and then find similar people and motives in their lives and
how it affects them. (To do this, the teacher should be familiar with Bloom’s Taxonomy
as well as the Socratic method of questioning, so as to help the students and yourself truly
understand what is being said.)
When: These questions will be used while reading the third act. The time spent will
depend of the length of the classroom. The important objective is to help the students
understand the characters’ motives to be able to explore the past and present situations
together; the purpose is not to get through all of the questions below.
Remember: Leave time after each question for the child to answer; this silence allows
for productive thinking time.
Questions:
Knowledge: Establish an understanding of the scene, characters, etc. Ask these
questions before reading and until page 205.
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Where does this scene take place? (An adjoining room to the court)
Where would you look to found this answer? (The setting in
italics.)
Why do the first few lines add the word ‘voice’ to the name of the
character? (To show that they are off stage; you can’t see them.)
Which characters interrupt the court?(Francis, Giles, John Proctor,
and Mary Warren)
Who is Danforth? (Deputy General, the head person in the trials)
Who is Hathorne? (A high ranking judge)
Who is Herrick (The Marshall)
With each answer, have the student also give a brief
description of the character; if they need help
remembering, remind them of the play structure and the
list of characters in the beginning. (John Proctor-main
character, husband to Elizabeth, affair with Abigail, etc.;
Giles Corey, husband of Martha, he suggested that she
was reading and was worried, loud, funny, etc.; Francis
Nurse, husband of Rebecca Nurse, older, etc.; Mary
Warren, helps around Proctor help, confesses the girls
are lying, etc.)
Comprehension: Read pages 203−207 (when John Proctor discovers his wife is
pregnant).
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Can someone summarize what is happening up to this point?
(Giles, Francis, John and Mary have come to help save their wives
and the others that are falsely accused.)
The judges and deputy general are there, but who can tell me why
Parris is there? (He is a high ranking member of the society; he is
protecting and defending himself and his land against Giles, etc.)
What does John Proctor mean when he says, “I have no love for
Mr. Parris. It is no secret. But God I surely love”? (He hasn’t
been going to church, not because he doesn’t believe in God, but
because he does not agree nor see Mr. Parris as a godly man.)
Why is the purpose of asking Proctor if he plows on the Sabbath
and if he reads the gospel? (Puritan society).
What are Parris’s motives in questioning and accusing? (To get
more land.)
Application: These questions can be spread throughout the remaining of the
readings as well (pages 207−211).
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Show why Proctor’s morality is or is not important to question in
this scene. (Remember, it is up to the students. Follow up with the
Socratic Method−what do you mean, rephrase, etc. Some
examples: Although Proctor is an adulterer and Giles nature seems
contrary to the Puritan way of life, they do have the truth to tell;
this truth does not shine because they cannot get past the past
transgressions of some.)
How does this apply to us today? (An example: Don’t judge a
book by its cover.)
Why does Mary Warren confess that she has been lying (Good
Proctor is condemned, guilty conscious, etc)?
In the end, she goes back to the other girls, why?
Show the Mary’s transition of motives and stances from what we
have read. (She is by herself and is comforted by John; the other
girls come in and accuse her; she is alone against the crowd; no
one is listening to her; she folds.)
Demonstrate the power of peer influence from this scene and your
own lives.
The answers to these higher level thinking depend wholly upon the thoughts, experiences,
and lives of her students.
Analysis:
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Synthesis:
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Compare and contrast Parris with John Proctor (hypocrite vs.
integrity; greedy and prideful vs. humble).
Let’s classify the characters in this scene from most moral to least
moral; you must support your answers. You must have a reason
for the classification (or you can group characters into ‘good guys’,
‘bad guys’ and ‘stander byes’.
What if you were in Mary Warren’s position?
How would you have acted?
Construct a present day scene similar to Mary Warren’s situation.
What would you have done in Goody Proctor’s shoes?
From what we have seen in the act, what are Danforth’s
motivations?
Evaluation:
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Why does Good Proctor lie? Was this the right thing to do? What
should she have done?
Is Danforth an evil man? Why or why not?
How would you have judged this court case?
Critique Parris.
Are there really any pure good guys and bad guys?
Evaluate the motives of the group of girls individually and as a
whole? Are they guilty for the deaths of the people killed? Where
does most of the blame fall for the deaths of the innocent people?