Muse Machine 2022 Summer Institute-Inspired Lesson Plan
Developed by Austin Litteral
Tecumseh High School, New Carlisle, OH
English Language Arts
Grade Level: 11

Playwrights use dialogue and staging to illustrate conflict, but when reading scripts in a Language Arts classroom, the visual is lost. To help students better understand the characters and conflicts in The Crucible, Austin Litteral of Tecumseh High School used a tableau skill he learned through the 2022 Summer Institute Mythology and Metamorphosis: Enduring Transformational Journeys. In this lesson, student groups analyze how positioning, proximity and gestures can indicate power and relationships. Through each tableau, students better understand the nuances between the characters in Act I of The Crucible. Because these “snapshots” visually indicate accurate or inaccurate understanding of the scenes and the conflicts, this tableau technique offers a powerful check on understanding that can be adapted to any script or text.

The following link is a PDF which may also be printed: