Brenda Tamayo

Ms. Storer
English 3 Honors American Literature
September 20, 2019
Socratic Circle Reflection on The Crucible
During the Socratic circle I felt that my individual performance was satisfactory,
especially because I prepared a lot ahead of time the day before the Socratic circle. My
preparation for the Socratic circle was excellent, I found a lot of quotes in the book to support
my arguments and I even wrote down some explanations for my arguments. My contribution to
the conversion of the inner circle was very extensive, I spoke up when people were not sharing
ideas, so I would just share my own in an attempt to further to conversation. The level of
teamwork I displayed in the inner circle was adequate, I could have built off of other people’s
ideas more instead of just sharing my ideas and then ignoring other people’s opinions. The
quality if feedback I gave while in the outer circle was descent, I told my partner that she needed
to participate more and share her ideas. Also, I gave her tips on when they share her opinion and
how she should present her point of view. The way I could have personally improved what
transpired during the Socratic circle was that I could have spoken more thought-provoking ideas
to engage more people in the conversation. Also, I could have gone into more depth about my
opinions. The goals I have for the next Socratic circle performance is to engage more with other
people’s opinions and to go into more detail about my arguments.
My groups preparation for this Socratic circle was very poor. One could tell that not
many people prepared ahead of time and did not present well supported opinions. The quality of
the overall conversation of my inner circle was descent but it could have been a lot better. Not a
lot of people shared their ideas and only a few select people were the only ones having the
conversation, a lot of people were very quiet. The teamwork displayed by my inner circle was
not very good, not everyone participated, and I feel like we could have invited them to speak so
that they could share their ideas and contribute to the dialogue. The quality of feedback my
group gave me while in the outer circle was pretty good, we all shared what we did well and
ways we could improve ourselves to have a better discussion.
An imaginary thesis I might come up with to explain the importance of the ideas
expressed in the Crucible would be “The Crucible demonstrates the affects of mass hysteria, lies,
and revenge, which ultimately leads to the suffering of other people.”
The main points I would make in this imaginary essay is that the lies that Abigail told
lead to the ultimate death of 20 people in the town of Salem. Another thing I would mention is
how the mass hysteria of accusing others of witchcraft also greatly contributed to the suffering
and earths of many people in Salem. Lastly, I would also describe how Abigail need to
vengeance over John Proctor and his wife led to accusations, arrests, and interrogations which
ruined peoples lives.
A way I can connect with the events that took place in the crucible is the instinct to lie in
order to avoid punishment. When I was younger, I would lie to my parents to stay out of trouble,
but ultimately lying could make many situations worse. Just like how the lies of Abigail caused
the deaths of many innocent people in Salem. Many times, my lies have hurt and affected others,
so theses events in the Crucible remind me and how being deceitful could have unintended
consequences.