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Jennah Chu
Ms. Storer
English 3 Honors American Literature Block 5
September 24, 2019
Socratic Circle Reflection on The Crucible
Individual Performance:
I feel like my performance for this Socratic circle was okay because on the first day I was
not as prepared as I wanted to be, and I was unsure with a lot of my answers. Although, on the
night before round three of the circle, I took my time to revise and provide more solid answers
and clearer thoughts, but I had a lot of trouble with finding specific evidence from the text.
Personally, I would say that my contribution to the circle was pretty good because whenever it
was my turn to contribute to the Socratic circle, I was better prepared, and I was able to
confidently voice my opinions with a couple of evidences from the text. I usually liked being the
first to state my opinion which impacted my level of teamwork displayed within the inner circle
because that lead to a lot of conversation between everyone which made the topic of
conversation flow. When I was in the outer circle giving feedback to the other two in my group, I
tried to be as honest as possible, by keeping a look out of their strong points and what they might
need improvement on. Although despite how good of an experience the circle was, I could
improve what transpired during the Socratic circle by being careful not to interrupt anyone and
connecting my answers to the text more often. For the next circle performance, my goals are to
be more prepared, especially with finding more textual evidence because I might not be so lucky
all the time.
Group Performance:
My group’s preparation for this Socratic circle was better than mine because unlike me
they did not procrastinate, and they were ready to voice out their answers and opinions during
their turn. They also had several evidences from the text which I usually had trouble finding and
connecting my answers to. Overall, the quality of the conversation of my inner circle was pretty
good because every member provided solid evidence from the text and had ideas to share that
everyone could relate to and think about. I loved the display of teamwork within my inner circle
because everyone had something to say that added to the idea of the topic which made the
conversations flow and transition smoothly. I appreciated the quality of feedback that my group
within the outer provided for me because I like how honest they were by recording all my flaws
and listing some improvements.
Reflection on Content:
My thesis for an “imaginary” essay based on this text would be: Abigail Williams is not a
victim because her lies and accusations that has led to the victimization of innocents, fear within
the townspeople, the downfall of the town. Some of the main points for this “imaginary” essay
would be that Abigail Williams is not a victim, but a selfish compulsive liar. Abigail Williams
throughout the whole play tries to act as the victim by victimizing others for her actions and
wrong doings. In the play, the main conflict revolves around her, as she is the puppet master who
is controlling the whole situation. She is a compulsive liar whose actions are for her own
personal gain which is to coverup her crime of doing witchcraft.
A bit over a week ago, I was assigned to read an article about how some innocents
confess that thy are guilty due to some interrogations manipulating their minds into committing
the situation. The article reminded me of how some of the characters in the play kept on being
accused of crimes that they did not commit to the point that they started to believe that they may
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have did it. Personally, I can relate to this because sometimes when I dream of something so real,
I sometimes start to think that some of the events were real for a couple minutes after I wake up.
Overall, I really like the story of The Crucible because there was so much drama within the main
characters and it kind of reminds me of how some people in society are today.