Night,
by Elie Wiesel Taking Action Against Indifference Are Hitler
and the Nazis alone responsible for the deaths of so many
people? The photograph shows the rounding up of Jewish civilians by the Nazis. |
Teacher Page
Credits: Peggy Maslow, F. K. Lane High School, Brooklyn, NY 11208
Many thanks to Ed Osterman, Associate Director of the New York City Writing Project, for his valuable assistance and to the Writing Project Summer 2000 and 2001 Inquiry into Technology course leaders, Paul Allison, Dina Heisler, and John Miottel. Many thanks also to Kathy Morin of teachersnetwork.org for her many helpful suggestions leading to the improvement of these web pages. All photographs are from http://ushmm.org.
- Objectives for high school students: 1. to appreciate the literary style and literary devices of the author, Eli Wiesel, of Night, with special emphasis on one of the themes of the book, taking action against indifference. 2. to learn about the history of the Holocaust which is central to the book. 3. to practice writing the genre of Night which is a memoir.
- Evaluation strategies: tests and Student samples- web project for Night, by Elie Wiesel.
- Resources: Excellent printed material is available through the Facing History and Ourselves Foundation. The best publication, published jointly by this organization and Voices of Love and Freedom, is A Teacher's resource for Night . Another publication I used is Choosing to Participate, which is also from Facing History and Ourselves. . To obtain these books and other material contact the national office at 617 232 1595. There is an email address -info_boston@facing.org and there is an excellent web site- http://facing history.org. Also, for those close enough to New York City I recommend a class visit to the Museum of Jewish Heritage, A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. One of their museum tours is called Meeting Hate with Humanity. They also provide excellent printed material. Their phone number is 212 968 1800. Their web site is www.mjhnyc.org, and the address is One Battery Park Plaza, NY, NY 10004-1484. Sundance Publishers and Distributors and Center for Learning also have excellent teacher guides on Night. Two movies that I recommend are "Schindler's List" and a documentary about the concentration camps that is in two parts- one on Auschvitz and one on the other camps ("Memories of the Camps") each about an hour. I only showed the last documentary which is horrifying. You may need to prepare students ahead of time. Excellent speeches on taking action against indifference by Elie Wiesel can be found under the tests link above and on this site:http://bigchalk.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/WOPortal.woa/778/wa/HWCDA/file?flt=CAB&fileid=101074
- Click here for student page: http://teachersnetwork.org/teachnet-lab/fklane/pmaslow/night/night2.htm which includes the links below:
Home -student introductory page |
Taking Action-web page project to be created by students over several weeks to alert the world, 1933 to 1945, to the Nazi threat: In New York State students finish studying the Holocaust in their social studies classes by the middle of 10th grade. It is recommended that the book be read after students have studied the Holocaust in their social studies or history class. |
First motivations for reading the book, Night , which include a photo of a sign, an obituary and feature article from the NY Times, a graphic organizer on the word indifference, and a chapter from another book on the Holocaust. |
Reading Journals - assignments for students while reading the book at home where student reflect on what they have read and then share these reflections with each other on a discusion forum |
Group Assignments - class assignments for students in groups. to help students focus on the language and themes of the book |
Memoir -a project where students write their own short memoir or story about themselves |
Links- sources on the Internet to help students to complete their web page project called Taking Action |