ELA B10: Equity & Ethics, Night – Before Reading

Night by Elie Wiesel

We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented (Night)

 

Before Reading Lessons: Equity and Ethics Night Before Reading Activities

Memoir

•  Night is a memoir, sometimes called a survivor’s testimony. It is written by Elie Wiesel who is a Holocaust survivor.
• The memoir gives us access to a Jew’s experience during the Holocaust. This text can be difficult to read because it shows the indescribable horrors suffered by the Jews.
• It is important for us to study the Holocaust so that we never ever reproduce the same travesty.
• Elie Wiesel coined the term, the Holocaust. It was the systematic, bureaucratic annihilation of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and their collaborators as a central act of state during World War II.

Assignment #1: What is a memoir?

• Be able to explain what kind of prose it is and what some of the basic conventions are. (This will be on your test.)

Assignment #2: Historical Overview of the Holocaust

• Complete the K-W-L Chart

Know	Want to Know	Learned (complete after reading the book)
(at least four things)	(at least four questions)	(at least four things you’ve learned/questions answered)

Assignment #3: Viewing Activity

View the book trailer of Wiesel’s book.

1. While you are viewing it, write the timeline of events that are presented in the film.
2. What is effective about the cinematography (art/technique of making movies) of this film? Think about kinds of footage, amount of text, sounds, music, speed, lighting, etc. Identify at least three cinematographic features and explain how they are effective/ineffective?

 

Assignment #4: Research Activity

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

• Research one issue related to the Holocaust.
• You will go to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s website to research your topic. They have a site dedicated to educating students.
• You will be assigned one topic.
• You must complete a page (half to full page) of notes about that topic. Select only the most pertinent information. This is a lesson in summarizing and synthesizing. Read the entire entry and then write a summary in which you pull from information throughout the text.
• Then you will present your findings to the class in the chronological order of the events.

(See Word Document attached for assigned topics)

Refer only to the US Holocaust War Memorial Museum website or you will receive ZERO!!!

Assessment:

Summarizing

• Includes most important information /5
• Put in students’ own words (NO PLAGIARISM) /5
• Organized and understandable /5

Synthesizing

• Pulls ideas together from the entire text /10

Oral Presentation

• Prepared /2
• Speaks with clarity and articulation /3

Total                                                                                                   /30