This study guide is designed to enhance students' mastery of key content and skills in social studies, language arts, and other disciplines through examination of the Salem Witch Trials. It is intended to be used in conjunction with Witch-Hunt: Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials by Sibert Award-winning author Marc Aronson, along with other materials. The lessons will compliment curriculum in the social studies, particularly early colonial American history and McCarthyism, but also language arts, focusing on Arthur Miller's portrait of the psychology of witch-hunts, The Crucible. Each lesson is designed with multiple objectives in mind, to make the most efficient use of teacher's time. The guide consists of six lesson plans drawn from topics investigated in Witch-Hunt.

Although the study guide is designed so that the six lesson plans provide an integrated course of studies, it is not expected that students will complete all the listed activities. Teachers may assign selected activities to their classes, allow students to choose an activity for themselves, or set up independent learning centers with the material needed for suggested activities. Also, teachers may wish to give students the opportunity to earn extra credit by completing some activities as independent work. Recognizing the time and accountability constraints facing classroom teachers, we encourage you to select and adapt the Witch-Hunt activities that best meet your students' needs and abilities, curriculum requirements, and teaching style. This study guide was written by Jean M. West, an education consultant in Port Orange, Florida.

About Author:

Marc Aronson is an author, professor, speaker, editor and publisher who believes that young people, especially pre-teens and teenagers, are smart, passionate, and capable of engaging with interesting ideas in interesting ways.

Marc Aronson writes books, visits schools, teaches classes, and publishes books that affirm this belief. His mission is to inspire young people to ask questions, to look around, behind, inside of the stories the world tells us - whether that means being a detective, examining the clues history has left behind, or a reporter, telling the truth about the modern world.

Dr. Aronson's books are arranged in three age groups: Elementary/Middle; Middle/High School; Adult. He is currently engaged in a long-term project to figure out how to best understand and share a full history of the human world.

Aronson's love of nonfiction and his conviction that young people can read carefully, examine evidence, and engage with new and challenging ideas is reflected in his teaching at Rutgers University, where he trains future librarians in how to select and share materials with children and teenagers, and his active work as and educational consultant, working with librarians, teachers and administrators. He has addressed national ALA, IRA, NCTE, and NCSS conferences and has been asked to speak to statewide conventions in California, Florida, Hawaii, Kansas, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee as well as numberless schools throughout the country.

Dr. Aronson's Bibliography:

Books for Middle-Grade Readers:

- Ain't Nothing but a Man: My Quest to Find the Real John Henry, with Scott Reynolds Nelson, National Geographic Children's Books, 2007
- For Boys Only: The Biggest, Baddest Book Ever, with HP Newquist, Feiwel & Friends, 2007[5]
- The World Made New: Why the Age of Exploration Happened and How It Changed the World, with John W. Glenn, National Geographic Children's Books, 2007
- If Stones Could Speak: Unlocking the Secrets of Stonehenge, National Geographic Children's Books, 2010
- Sugar Changed the World, with Marina Budhos, Clarion Books, 2010
- Trapped: How the World Rescued 33 Miners from 2,000 Feet Below the Chilean Desert, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2011
- "The Skull in the Rock: How a Scientist a Scientist, A Boy, and Google Earth Opened a New Window Into Human Origins", with Dr. Lee R. Berger National Geographic Children's Books, 2012

Books for Young Adults:

- Art Attack: A Brief Cultural History of the Avant-Garde, Clarion Books, 1998
- Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado, Clarion Books, 2000
- John Winthrop, Oliver Cromwell, and the Land of Promise, Clarion Books, 2004
- The Real Revolution: The Global Story of American Independence, Clarion Books, 2005
- Witch-Hunt: Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2005
- Race: A History Beyond Black and White, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2007
- Robert F. Kennedy: Crusader, Viking Juvenile, 2007
- Bill Gates: Tycoon, Viking Juvenile, 2008
- Unsettled: The Problem of Loving Israel, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2008
- "Pick-Up-Game: A Full Day of Full Court" (co-editor) Candlewick Press, 2011
- Master of Deceit: J. Edgar Hoover and America in the Age of Lies, Candlewick Press, 2012

Books for adults:

- Exploding the Myths: The Truth About Teenagers and Reading, Scarecrow Press, 2001
- Beyond the Pale: New Essays for a New Era, Scarecrow Press, 2003

Source: wiki, marcaronson.com