Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night is a powerful and harrowing account of his experiences during the Holocaust. As a high school English teacher, I teach this book at the sophomore level, so my students are roughly the same age as Elie in his memoir. If you are teaching Night this year, keep reading to learn about two powerful activities to incorporate into your unit!
Teaching Night in a high school English classroom provides an opportunity to explore themes of identity, dehumanization, morality, and the consequences of hatred. However, it is also crucial to provide students with historical context to help students can understand not only the longstanding antisemitism in Europe, but also the breakdown of Germany’s government, and its rise to fascism.
Facing History and Ourselves is a great resource for teachers who are teaching Night. The organization offers an extensive collection of resources that help educators teach Night with sensitivity and depth. Also, it is important to note that this is NOT a paid endorsement at all.
Below are two activities that integrate Facing History’s materials into your curriculum while fostering student engagement and critical thinking. You can access these materials for free by signing up for a free Facing History and Ourselves account!
Teaching Night: Introduce Students to Antisemitism from the Enlightenment to WWI
Before starting Night, it is important for students to understand the long-standing history or antisemitism. It helps to have students explore the historical context of antisemitism before World War I so they can understand that the anti-Jewish hatred wasn’t a new concept. I like to do this before students begin reading chapter 1.
Facing History and Ourselves has a great, 11-minute video that helps students see this!
- Activity: Have students create a KWL chart about what they know about antisemitism, especially before WWII and WWI.
- Play the VIDEO for students. As students watch the video, have them complete the KWL chart with information they learned from the video.
- Discussion Question: Why is understanding historical context important when reading memoirs like Night?
Teaching Night: Learning about the Breakdown of Democracy
Since sophomores are also concurrently enrolled in World History classes, teaching Night and its historical context go hand-in-hand with cross-curriculular learning. Students will easily see the value of what they read in English class in their social studies class and vice versa.
Once students start reading Night, I like to incorporate nonfiction reading top help supplement students’ understanding of pre-WWII Germany.
- Activity: To do this, I assign a jigsaw activity. I have students read one of the five below articles. They read the article, take notes, become experts in the subject.
- Then, after about 15 minutes of engaging independently with the article, students then move about the room to talk with other students about their articles. In total, they speak with three other students. While moving around, students use their notes to explain the article to their peers, and then their peers use the notes they took to explain their articles.
- For the notes, I encourage students to take bullet-point notes, jot down quotes, and even illustarte what they see in the articles.
- At the end of the activity, I have students evaluate whether Germany had a healthy democracy during the pre-WWII era.
- Discussion Question: What made it possible for the Nazis to transform Germany into a Dictatorship?
Jigsaw Readings:
- Law and Disorder
- Attitudes Toward Life and Death
- The Myth of a Jewish Conspiracy
- Youth and Belonging in a Weimar Republic
- A New Economic Crisis
- Hard Times Return (I assigned this reading to every student)
Teaching Night 5-Week Night Unit
My five-week Night teaching unit includes a variety of activities and resources to help you implement teaching Night into your curriculum. This unit is designed to help students deeply engage with the memoir while developing essential analytical and comprehension skills. This 5-week unit plan provides pre-reading, during-reading, and post-reading activities to ensure a well-rounded study of the text.
Key Features of the Night Unit
✔ Holocaust/Night Introductory Group Research Project – Establish historical and social context before reading.
✔ Bell Ringers – Thought-provoking prompts to spark discussions and critical thinking.
✔ Interactive Comprehension Bookmarks – Foldable bookmarks with comprehension questions, vocabulary, and space for notes.
✔ Comprehensive Assessments – Includes chapter quizzes, quick quizzes, and a final test (now available in Google Forms).
✔ 5-Week Pacing Guide – A structured plan to help guide instruction.
Teaching Night: End of Unit One-Pager Assignment
As my students wrap up their Night unit, I like to assign a Night One-Pager Assignment! This one-pager asks students to come up with big picture questions, identify and explain key quotes, include three illustrations and more! You can learn more about this assignment by reading this blog post: Night One Pager: Assigning a One-Pager Project as a Culminating Project.
