Julia Rodinec

Mrs. Storer
English 3H
September 19, 2019
Socratic Circle Reflection on The Crucible
In the Socratic circle done on the Crucible was very helpful for me to see different view
points and to understand the text more fully. I felt that preparing for the seminar was very helpful
because I was able to participate in the discussion with evidence to support my ideas and views. I
think I prepared well because I was able to contribute an idea with an example from the text. I
thought that my contribution to the discussion was well thought out and it furthered the idea of
another student to continue the topic. When I was not in the circle, I gave good feedback and
critical feedback to my partner. I also gave my partner ideas on what they should keep doing and
what they could change in the future. For the next Socratic seminar, I am going to try to have
more ideas to bring to the discussion and talk in the circle more. I am also going to try to bring
questions that could open up new ideas to the group. My goals for the next discussion is to try to
bring to new concepts and views to the group as well as participating more in the seminar.
In the Socratic seminar I felt that the group as a whole had good discussions and ideas.
We also answered questions that developed different view points to better understand the text.
Everyone in the group also contributed points with evidence helping the whole group to add to
each other’s ideas. This helped us to all to understand the story better and it allowed us to
understand the deeper meaning of the text. Also, the outside circle gave good feedback to help
the whole class improve for the next seminar. In our circle we worked together as a good team to
answer the questions with different types of evidence. We were also able to bring different view
points to continue the discussion and connect the views to a common idea.
In the Crucible, the meaning that was portrayed was to not conform to the ideas of others
and to not go along with the crowd. In the story the majority of the town was believing the lies
from Abigail, however those that did not believe her accusations of witchcraft went along with
the rest of the town so that they would not be punished. Also, some people would go along with
the accusations to either save themselves or a loved one. Even though Abigail was a huge
contributor to the events, also people who became influenced by the act was the Judge and
Reverend. They both believed her lies until the end of the story when they started to realize that
everything was fake. They were not done with the executions yet, however instead of
proclaiming the last few people as innocent they continued with the executions to prevent a riot
in the town. They went along with the crowd’s accusations to prevent fights as well as to pretend
to not be wrong about the convictions.
In today’s everyday life, we are constantly being approached with situations involving
two sides. Majority of the time people with go along with the side or argument that is most
popular or that will be liked, even if the person does agree with it. There have been studies
shown that the power of conformity can change the idea or view point that someone has because
it is the same as other people. This could happen because people don’t want to be judged by
others or be seen as an outcast, instead of sticking with what they think. This relates to the
crucible because the story talks about how people can be easily persuaded and how people with
agree with different things because it is whatever everyone else is doing.