English teacher Shelby Burr’s sophomore American Literature class has begun reading “The Crucible.” They started the book on Nov. 15. “The Crucible” is one of the sophomore classes anchor books, which are the books that sophomores are required to read for the semester. 

Burr’s class commenced the unit with activities first on Nov. 7. The goal was to connect the book to both past and present events. 

“If you can make it more relevant and connect to things today, [then students] realize that it really was a dark, terrible part of human history,” Burr said. “Then they can connect and realize that some of those things are still ongoing.”

The play “The Crucible,” is a tragedy with themes surrounding good, evil, and the dangers of hysteria. It’s about Puritans living in early Massachusetts during the time when the first accusations of witchcraft arose.

“It’s about [the] Salem witch trials, and there’s specific characters like John Proctor and Elizabeth Proctor and there was just a bunch of drama with that,” sophomore Rese Elza said.

To read a summary of “The Crucible”, visit: https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/crucible/