Goals

 

Details

Duration: 90 minutes

Assessments: Student reflections/journals, Student discussions, Student writing

 

Description

1. DO NOW: Find and tally the number of times Elie Weisel has use the word "Night" so far in the novel. Mark this tally in your journal/scrapbook.
2. Discuss definitions of the word "Night"
* The period of darkness occurring each day in most parts of the world, or the entire period between sunset and sunrise.
* The time between somebody's going to sleep in the evening and waking the next morning.
* Any period after sunset devoted to a special activity, function, or observance.
* A dark or darkened state, or an absence of light, consciousness, or enlightenment (literary).
* A period marked by grief, gloom, ignorance, or obscurity.
* Question: How does Elie Weisel use the word 'night'? Choose at least one definition and describe how it matches Weisel's intention in his use of the word 'night'.
3. Finish Reading and Discussing 'Section Two' (pgs. 36-43)
4. Small Group Activity/Exploration:
a. Early in this reading section (pg 27) Eliezer tells the reader, "Eight words spoken quietly, indifferently, without emotion. Eight short, simple words." What are those words and why is Eliezer unable to forget them? How do they help explain why Eliezer and his father cling to one another in Auschwitz?
b. Consider how the Germans created terror at Auschwitz.
* How do the Germans orchestrate the arrival of newcomers to the camp?
* Why don't they tell the new arrivals what to expect?
* Why do you think the Germans take away the inmates' personal belongings? Their clothing? Why do they cut off their hair? Tattoo a number on each person's arm?
* Why does much of this section of the book seem to take place at night?
5. Using markers and colored pencils, add an image to your scrapbook that captures how Elie uses the word "night" or how the Germans created terror at Auschwitz.

HOMEWORK DUE NEXT CLASS:
1. Identify at least one more passages/quote from pages 36-43 and write a 2 paragraph response.
2. Choose one of the following writing prompts and write a 2 page response.
I: Primo Levi, who was also at Auschwitz-Birkenau, wrote:
"It is not possible to sink lower than this: no human condition is more miserable than this, nor could it conceivably be so. Nothing belongs to us any more; they have taken away our clothes, our shoes, even our hair; if we speak, they will not listen to us, and if they listen, they will not understand. They will even take away our name: and if we want to keep it, we will have to find ourselves the strength to do so, to manage so that behind the name something of us, of us, as we were, remains."
Question: How are Levi's responses to his initiation into Auschwitz similar to those of Eliezer? What differences seem most striking?

OR

II: Wiesel, in recounting the first night in the concentration camp says, "Never shall I forget that night, the first night in the camp, which has turned my life into one long night...."
Question: What does it mean for a life to be turned into "one long night"?

PPT of Activities
This is the accompanying powerpoint presentation that contains the student prompts and in class agenda activies....
Download (72K)

Author Reflections

Continuous in class reading together, solidified during this second week of the text really helped to group our classroom community's experience of the book; that sense of all of us bearing witness. Discussing the definitions of the word "night" became a great groundwork for looking at the notion of metaphor and symbolism as we moved through the text. Although in the moment it seems like a lot, having the students do such extensive reflective writing each night for HW really affecte their experience.