Sandra Tang

Engl 112B

May 9, 2007

Unit Plan for Night

With the extensive variety of different genre books, it is easy for young adults to get overwhelmed by their selections. Young readers can get carried away by fire breathing dragons in fantasy books while another book will draw the reader into the true life of an inspirational soul. As important as it is for readers to venture into fiction, it is just as important to explore the nonfiction genre as well. When it comes to nonfiction, it is easy to jump to conclusions that nonfiction works is all about history, animals and boring books that they find in the classroom. But this is definitely not true. There are four major categories of nonfiction which include �information books, literary nonfiction, biographies, and self-help books.� (Donelson and Nilsen, 105). The canonical literary nonfiction chosen for this unit plan is Night by Elie Wiesel. This book, though considered nonfiction because it is based on actual accounts by the author, not only tells the tales of what happened during the Holocaust but is blended with the techniques of fiction.

In this book, Elie Wiesel retells his experiences that he endured when the Nazi�s took over his country. Because he is a Jew, he was sent to different concentration camps along with his father, mother, and younger sister. At these camps they suffered through many difficulties. Many of them being hunger and starvation, lack of medical care, and the separation of their families. This book focuses on Wiesel himself and his father and how they stuck together through this terrible time in history.

The purpose of this book is to have readers gain some sort of understanding about the Holocaust and Nazi concentration camps. Young adults tend to get wrapped up in their own problems and daily encounters that they do not know what other young adults their age had to experience during the 1930�s and 40�s. It is hard to avoid this terrible point in time where hundreds and thousands of people died because of their race and young adults should learn and be familiar with what happened and why it happened.

This unit plan will touch base on what this book is about and offer lessons that would be useful to implement while teaching the book.

Launching the Unit

Prior to reading Night students should begin to get familiar with what the Holocaust was really about. Launching this unit off with a poem would be a great way to start off and set the mood of this topic.

1) Make photocopies of the poem and hand it out to each student. This poem can be launched in different ways. It can be read by one person or each student can be assigned a part and can read a stanza. To set the mood for this the lights in the classroom could be dimmed.

A Funeral

The coffin – a crematorium furnace,

Lid – transparent, made of air,

Human body turned into smoke,

Blown through the smokestack of history.

How shall I honor your passing,

Walk in your funeral procession?

You, homeless handful of ashes

Between the earth and heaven.

How to cast a green garland

On the grave dug high in the air –

An ark of the world�s four corners

Under the invader�s fire.

Your coffin, which is not,

Will not slide from roaring cannons,

And only the column of air

Illumines your death with sunrays.

And here is such a great silence

On earth, like a trampled banner,

In the mourning smoke of corpses,

In the crucified outcry.

Poem by M.J., a Warsaw ghetto poet.

Translated from the Polish by Yala Korwin

http://www.thehypertexts.com/Yala_Korwin_Translations_of_Jewish_Polish_Ghetto_Poets.htm

After having read the poem, have the students discuss how they felt and what words struck them the most. On the same paper they received, have them write down their thoughts for a quick journal entry.

1) Activities that should be done while reading Night-

a. Map out locations that are of significance found in Night.

i. Concentration camps that Eliezer and his father were transferred to.

ii. Territory that Hitler invaded.

b. Keep a log what went on during his stay at the camps. This could be written down in chronological order and then can be compared to historical facts.

i. A timeline could also be incorporated in this activity by lining out the estimated time and dates of his stay from one camp to another.

Extending the Unit

After having read and done the activities following Night, the class as a whole should touch base on other books that have been written about the Holocaust. Many books have been written but some of the more popular and well known books are The Diary of Anne Frank and Number the Stars written by Lois Lowry. It is popular with the young adult readers because the characters in these books are young adults just like them but are facing different struggles that they as readers face today. After talking about these books and possibly even reading them outside of the classroom, show the movie The Diary of Anne Frank and have them compare it to the book. If the book was not an assigned reading, the movie could be shown anyway and students can discuss what they expected or did not expect after watching it. Discussions could be followed after the film by further analyzing how the Holocaust was depicted.

Closing up the unit

A great way to conclude the lesson is the movie Life is Beautiful. This movie is about a young Jewish boy and his father who has been sent to the concentration camps. Instead of having his son face the truth about what happens to Jews, he turns their circumstance into a game. The son believes that he will gain points by staying silent and away from the Nazi�s. In the end, if he wins the game, he will be awarded with a tank! This movie is comedic as well as horrific to see what goes on in the camps. After the movie, students should write up their own review of this movie and discuss what they liked and did not like about the movie.

Final note

Teaching about the Holocaust can be a touchy subject for some students to swallow so it should be introduced with caution and all photographs should be reviewed before launching the unit. Depending on the type of information, this subject is recommended to be taught later in middle school and during high school.

Works Cited

Frank, Anne. The Diary of Anne Frank. New York: Bantam Books, 1947. 1-304.

Life is Beautiful. Dir. Roberto Benigni. Perf. Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Giustino Durano. Miramax Films, 1997.

Lowry, Lois. Number the Stars. Houghton Mifflin, 1989.

Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Bantam Books, 1960. 1-109.