Elie Wiesel
Lesson plans for Night

|Biography and Background| |Night|

Biography & Background

April 11, 1945
Background information regarding the liberation of Buchenwald concentration camp from History.com's "This Day in History" site.

Divine Impulses: Elie Wiesel
Video, about 4 1/2 minutes, of Wiesel's interview with Sally Quinn. He mentions "losing everything" to Bernard Madoff and the metaphor of Cain and Abel.

Elie Wiesel: First Person Singular
Biography, a teacher guide, and links to additional resources. This site supports the video/DVD available from PBS.

Elie Wiesel, Winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Peace
A collection of links from the Nobel Archives. Be sure to scroll to the bottom.

The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity
Biography, conferences, essay contest, humanitarian award.

A God who Remembers
Read and listen to Wiesel's essay, written for NPR's This I Believe.

Teaching Historical Background
More lesson plans and resources for teaching about the Holocaust.

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Night

Holocaust Project
This multigenre writing project asks students to investigate the Holocaust. It is designed to accompany Night and includes assessment.

Night
Overview, summary, and some character analysis. A good site for background information.

Night
Scroll down on the page to find a daily outline, vocabulary words, discussion questions, and a final project.

Night
The five activities in this SCORE CyberGuide encourage students to understand the causes of the Holocaust and to investigate Wiesel's life.

Night
These resources from Oprah's Book Club include a teacher's guide, still photos from the return to Auschwitz, and links to survivors' stories.

Night
This digital booktalk, a short video, can serve as a prereading activity.

The Night Trilogy
This PDF document includes study and discussion questions for Night, Dawn, and The Accident. Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Night: Google Lit Trips
This interactive unit will help students see the journey Wiesel makes both geographically (it uses Google Earth maps) and physically (it has a photo of him shortly before deportation and upon liberation). Follow the links to download the KMZ file for Night. Google Earth must be on your computer for this to work; the free version will do.

Peace Quest
Students research the impact of war on children. They produce a variety of products "to engage society in a dialogue to eliminate hatred and bigotry, to foster understanding and tolerance and to bring peace to our world."

The Power of Words
Ten lessons exploring the impact of language in a multicultural society. Click on Lesson 3, "Anti-Semitism and Hate Speech."

Putting a Face to the Numbers: Revealing First-Hand Accounts of Historical Genocide
From the New York Times: "In this lesson, students learn about how hearing about experiences of genocide can make an impact on students. Then, students create a text on the history of genocide, using first-hand accounts and other primary sources as the focus of the text."

Racial and Ethnic Stereotypes in Literature
Students explore stereotypes in Night and confront their own biases.

Remembering the Holocaust through Poetry
Students improve their comprehension of Night by composing a poem, hyperlinking the imagery, and publishing the results on a Web site.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
This site contains several exhibits about the Holocaust. Be sure to click on "For Teachers" for links to valuable, free resources to support teaching this subject.

Voices of the Holocaust
Designed for 9th graders who already have a working knowledge of the Holocaust, this site has 28 oral history testimonies gathered from men and women living in Britain today, together with associated background text, biographies, information, teacher resources, and student activities.

Who Should be Remembered?
This WebQuest asks students "to stand up for a group of people that no one stood up for when they needed it most."

Yes, Virginia, there was a Holocaust
An 8th grade interdisciplinary unit exploring persecution during World War II. This 19-page document requires Adobe Reader or compatible application for access.

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