Novel Study

Night by Elie Wiesel

Week 1

Objective(s):

 Work cooperatively with their partners

 Use context to figure out the meaning of unknown words
 Summarize/Reflect on the main events
 Analyze the elements including setting, characters, plot, and theme
 Engage in weekly discussions
 Organize, prepare, and present student-created writing samples

Agenda Initiating Activities:

 Anticipation Guide- rate and discuss the following:

o He who forgets the past is condemned to repeat it.
o We should stop talking so much about the Holocaust, What’s past is
past.
o No one knows he is fortunate until s(he) becomes unfortunate.
o There are no evil people, just misguided ones.
 Watch Video: Oprah and Elie Wiesel Interview at Auschwitz
 Compose Writing/Response Log
o Pages Summary Reactions Teacher Comments
 Read Preface and Forward pgs. vii-xxi
 Novel Study
Night by Elie Wiesel
Week 2
Agenda:

 Whole group read pgs. 1-12

 Whole group discussion questions:
o Who was “Moshe the Beadle”? Who do you suppose the author begins his story
with Moshe? What did Eliezer’s parents and the others in the community this of
him? Why did Eliezer spend a lot of time with him?
o What happened to Moshe that caused a great change in him? How did he
change? How did the rest of the community react when he told them?
 Complete Response Log
 Choose two of the three activates below to complete

Vocabulary Research Writing

cabbala (a) Wiesel and his father You are Moshe. Write an
passover disagreed about entry in your diary about
premonition whether he should be your deportation and how
Hasidic studying the cabbala. you feel now you are back
ghetto Find out more about in Sighet.
Talmud the cabbala.
Pentecost (b) “…people were
waiflike interested in Zionism
mysticism but not in their own
Zionism fate.” – pg 6. Research
anti-Semitic Zionism
(c) “…the Fascists were
Create a Word Map for each already in power” – pg
word listed. 8. Who were the
Fascists?
 Novel Study
Night by Elie Wiesel
Week 3

Agenda:

 Whole group read pgs. 12-20

 Whole group discussion questions:
o Could the Hews of Sighet escape from the Germans? How did they
prepare for the deportation? What was it like? Would you have been
frightened? Why was there “joy” (pg. 14) when the signal finally
came to leave?
o Who offered Eliezer’s family safe refuge? Why do you suppose the
father didn’t accept the offer? Do you think this was a mistake?
o If you had been a Jew of Sighet, how would you have prepared for
deportation? What would have been going on in your mind?
 Complete Response Log
 Choose one of the three activates below to complete. It cannot be something you chose
last week

Vocabulary Research
candelabra The image of the rabbi with his pack
convoy on his back reminded Wiesel of “some
phylacteries historical novel about the captivity of
cringing Babylon or the Spanish Inquisition” pg.
truncheons 14. What were these? Find an
guerillas illustration and recreate it.

Create and exchange crossword

puzzles based on the vocabulary
words. Use definitions as clues. You
can use graph paper to create this.
 Novel Study
Night by Elie Wiesel
Week 4

Agenda:

 Whole group read pgs. 21-43

 Whole group discussion questions:
o Who was Madame Schachter? Why was she so upset? How did the
others treat her? What was the first thing he prisoners saw when
they got to Birkanau? How does this make you feel?
o Who were the SS men? How did Eliezer and his father get separated
from Mother and Tzipora? What was Eliezer’s last view of them?
Why do you suppose he dedicated this book to them?
o Why did Eliezer and his father lie to Dr. Mengele? Why did his father
wish Eliezer had gone with is mother?
o Why did some of the younger men want to attempt to escape? Why
didn’t they go ahead?
 Complete Response Log
 Choose one of the three activates below to complete. It cannot be
something you chose last week

Vocabulary Research Writing

constraint wizened Research the Wiesel lied to Stein to
monocle pious allusion to Job on make him feel better.
Kaddish harangued page 42 (“How I Describe a time (real or
antechamber clout sympathized with imagined) that you lied –
convalescent lorry Job!”) or at least concealed the
blandishments leprous truth- to protect someone
hermetically congealing from getting hurt.
Using index cards, create and exchange
riddles based on the above vocabulary
words. (e.e., “I
 Novel Study
Night by Elie Wiesel
Week 5
Agenda:

 Whole group read pgs. 44-62

 Whole group discussion questions:
o How could Wiesel have bribed the assistant to arrange for him to go with his
father to a “good unit”? Why did he try the bribe? Should he have?
o Where was the music played in the camp? Why do you suppose the Germans
ordered this music? Why couldn’t the musicians play Beethoven?
o Why did Idek beat Eliezer’s father? Why do you suppose Eliezer was angry with
his father for getting beaten? Do this remind you of any other situations?
 Complete Response Log
 Choose one of the three activates below to complete. It cannot be something you chose
last week.

Vocabulary Literary Analysis Writing

hooligan Imagery is the use of sensory What will happen to
cauldron details- sounds, scents, tastes, Eliezer’s father? Be sure
quarantine textures, and especially sights. to support your
interlude For example, the head of the prediction with logical
queue
block with his “fleshy lips, hands reasoning and examples
raucous
like a wolf’s paw” (pg. 45). Look of events in the text that
thrash
lividly for other animal imagery make you think this.
throughout the book. Why does
Pair-Define-Explain (Reiss, 2008) Wiesel compare both victims
 Pair the word or phrase with high- and victimizers to animals?
frequency synonym, definition, explanation
or visual depiction.
 Repeat them frequently always pairing with
the explanatory source.
o He committed an egregious error –
a very bad mistake.
o The liquid becomes effervescent –
bubbly, full of bubbles – when we
stir it.
o She was motivated by vengeance –
she wanted to punish him, sort of
get back or get even with him.
 Novel Study
Night by Elie Wiesel
Week 6
Agenda:

 Whole group read pgs. 63-80

 Whole group discussion questions:
o What is Rosh Hashanah? Who do you suppose even “Kapos, functionaries of
death” (pg. 63) came to the Rosh Hashanah service? What was going through
Eliezer’s mind? Was he is the minority when he “rebelled” inwardly? Why does
he call the place where the Jews met to pray a “mirage” (pg. 65)
o What dies Wiesel mean when he says of his father, “We had never understood
one another so clearly” (pg. 65) Have you ever felt this way?
 Complete Response Log
 Choose one of the three activates below to complete. It cannot be something you chose
last week.

Vocabulary Research Writing

functionaries Find out more about the Respond to the section of
tempest following: Joseph Mengele, Yom this book with a poem.
rations Kippur, hypothermia This might be: a
dysentery bitterness poem about
liberations the “fine New Year’s gift,”
buffoons a poem fashioned directly
officiant from one of Wiesel’s
implored prose passages, a pray
crucible poem, a list poem, an
monochrome elegy for the dead, etc.
benediction

From the words above, choose which 5 are

the most important to know and how these
contribute to understanding the story.
 Novel Study
Night by Elie Wiesel
Week 7
Agenda:

 Whole group read pgs. 81-92

 Whole group discussion questions:
 What does Weisel mean by the observation of the SS men, "the fingers on
the triggers, they did not deprive themselves of this pleasure" (pg. 81) Where
else have you seen evidence of sadism in the book? Are most of the Nazis
Weisel describes apparently enjoying their work? Following orders
mindlessly? Afraid to disobey orders?
 In what ways way were Weisel and the other Jews who kept rushing onward
"masters of nature" (pg. 83) - then, in the morning "without strength,
without illusions"?

· Complete Response Log

· Choose one of the three activates below to complete. It cannot be something you chose last
week.

Vocabulary Research Writing

automations Research the allusions on Write an interior monologue
bereaved page 64 to Adam and Eve, that reveals the thoughts on
indeterminate Noah, and Sodom. Rabbi Eliahou’s son (pg. 87)
encumbrance as he separated himself from
slacken his father.

Using index cards, create and

share word cards with the
words definition on the left
side and an illustration on
the right, a la Pictionary. Cut
the cards in half, and the two
resulting cards used for the
matching game
Concentration.
 Novel Study
Night by Elie Wiesel
Week 8
Agenda:

 Whole group read pgs. 93-103

 Whole group discussion questions:
 How does Wiesel convey a sense of hopelessness in this final section of the
book? What do you think would have happened to his if his father had died
much earlier?
 How did the prisoners in the wagon (pg. 95) act like animals? Why did the
German workmen take a “lively interest in the spectacle” when they had merely
stopped and stared at the marching prisoners, before? Can you think of other
examples of human beings enjoying the spectacle of other human beings in pain
and misery?
 What would have happened if the children had gone to the assemble place, as
ordered?

· Complete Response Log

· Vocabulary will be completed whole group. Once done choose either research or writing.

Vocabulary Research Writing

grimace tether inert
contagion riveted livid Research the allusions Write an interior
apathy spasmodically delirious on page 64 to Adam and monologue that reveals
robust vulnerable disengage Eve, Noah, and Sodom. the thoughts on Rabbi
visionary dregs Eliahou’s son (pg. 87) as
he separated himself
from his father.
Divide the class into three groups,
each responsible for a group
pantomime of one column of words
from the list above.
 Novel Study
Night by Elie Wiesel
Week 9 and 10

Working independently or in groups no larger than 3, choose one activity from

the below menu. Be prepared to share/act your choice out next week.
Listening and Speaking Drama Art Music
Suppose that you had Working as a team, act Discuss the cover Prepare a “books on
invited Elie Wiesel to out a key episode in illustration. Produce an tape” reading of one
appear on your radio Night. alternate one. section of Night.
program. Prepare a list or Include background
of questions (min 10) or Create a collage that music that captures the
and act out the conveys impressions of mood.
interview with a Rewrite a section of Night.
partner. the story for “Readers
Theatre.” There should
be lines for a narrator
plus a few speakers
who read their lines
while seated, using
gestures and simple
props.