Goals

 

Details

Duration: 90 minutes

Assessments: Student discussions

Materials: Chairs set up in two concentric circles for the discussion.

 

Description

IN-CLASS:
Do Now:
When the young boy is hanged, a prisoner asks, "Where is God now?" Eliezer thinks to himself, "He is hanging here on this gallows...." What does this statement mean? Is it a statement of despair? Anger? Or hope?
OR
What situation made you start believing in God or made you disbelieve in God? Describe a situation/event that you witnessed or experienced that was so awful that it made you stop believing in God or doubt that God existed.

TWO-CIRCLES DISCUSSION SESSION
1. Divide the room into pairs. Each pair of students is given one page to work on (52/53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61/62)
2. Each pair of students will have 5 minutes to work together to:
a. Review their assigned page
b. Select a passage/quote that is important to the meaning of the novel
c. Prepare a question to ask another student about this section of the novel
3. Students are then put into concentric circles facing one another, with the pairs of students one away from the other. (52/53 sits facing 54, 54 sits facing 55, etc...build the circles clockwise in this manner.) Throughout the activity the inner circle will rotate clockwise every 4 minutes, share their passage and question, and record the response of the student opposite them in their scrapbook.


SMALL GROUP ACTIVITY: RESISTANCE IN NIGHT
* What does the word resistance mean to you?
* Some people insist that "armed resistance" is the only form of legitimate resistance. Others stress the idea that resistance requires organization. Still others argue that resistance is more about the will to live and the power of hope than it is about either weapons or organization. Which view is closest to your own?
* Use your ideas about and definitions of resistance to decide whether each of the following is an act of resistance (be prepared to defend your answers!):
—Eliezer's refusal to let the dentist remove his gold crown
—Eliezer's decision to give up the crown to protect his father
—The French girl's decision to speak in German to Eliezer after he is beaten
—The prisoner's choosing to die for soup
—The prisoners who attempted to stockpile weapons, for which they were later hanged
* In each act of resistance that you identified, who or what are the prisoners resisting?


HOMEWORK DUE NEXT CLASS:
In this section (pgs. 45-62) of the novel, what did you WITNESS? Select 3 Quotations that are events/situations from pages 45-62 of Night that help you to answer the following questions (Respond to all of the questions for each of the three quotations):
* Describe what you are 'witnessing' in this passage.
* How would you respond in similar situations?
* Based on what you have witnessed in this passage, what have you learned:

PPT of Activities
Powerpoint to help fascilitate the amount of 'movement' in class this period....
Download (58K)

Author Reflections

I really enjoy the 2 circles discussion activity. Although it seems complicated at first, once students engage it, they are all talking, whereas sometimes with a fishbowl, only a few students are asked to speak or respond.

Also, this was a lot to pack in, and we ran out of time for the small group activity, only being able to do a quick full class discussion around the idea of resistance.