Michael Lopez

Ms. Storer
The Crucible; Block 5
September 24, 2019
Socratic Circle Reflection on The Crucible
If I am being honest, I did not participate as much as I would have liked. The problem
was mainly that I did not fully understand one of the questions that was asked. Even though, I
did not participate a lot, I provided a good point that nobody had brought up. Going back to the
fact that I did not participate much, I was not able to be a “team-player” and I just sat there and
didn’t do much. I myself tend to get slightly too excited to speak and I start to yell and talk in a
tone that I usually don’t speak in so next time, I will try and speak normally. In the next socratic,
I plan on participating more and talking in a normal voice.
Compared to me, my groups participation was much better. They seemed to understand
the questions much better, so they were able to provide many more elaborate answers. The
conversation and direction of the circle for the most part, went along the lines of what the
question was asking, but towards the end, we started to turn away from the recommended
guidelines. Even though we moved away onto our own path, I believe it was much more helpful
in giving us an understanding to what everyone was thinking. I personally was able to
understand it much more when everybody was giving their own opinion because I was able to
join, and we were all able to elaborate on each other’s thoughts. I think that my group had
excellent teamwork. They were all able to expand on what others were saying without
sounding rude or interrupting anyone. It was much more enjoyable to see the whole entire
group to be involved and ready to share. The feedback I received was on point, in the sense
that I knew what I needed to fix or add.
Through the experiences of the characters, one can infer that people are easily
pressured to say what the other wants to know and fear sometimes controls the way one
thinks. – In this essay, I would bring up the fact that when someone is scared or feels nervous to
admit something, most of the time they would resort to lying since it is much easier to admit a
lie than the truth and they are able to give the interrogator the information that they want to
hear. Also, when someone is scared, they often don’t control what they say, or they simply just
don’t care about what they are saying as long as they are let off the hook. This also leads to
someone blaming another person for something that they didn’t do. They wouldn’t care about
blaming others even if it meant them being tortured or killed.
While reading this story, there are many instances where the text has connected to my
life or life experiences. Many of these experiences have happened recently in high school. The
main connection is that I was hiding something from my parents and was not able to admit the
truth so I kept giving lies thinking that it would help me. Little to my knowledge, those lies
would dig me in a deeper hole that at the time, seemed impossible to get out of. While I think
that I still would have done the same thing now, I was able to learn that giving them what they
wanted to hear was much worse than just admitting it because they lost a lot of trust and I had
to completely explain what happened. I also have felt obligated to give a false answer when
teachers would ask me why I didn’t submit an assignment on time since in a way, I felt
pressured to not look bad and give a bad impression.