World Literature – Independent Study



Genocide Literature and Research Unit – Night Section

Essential Questions:

• How can we demonstrate cultural appreciation through the study of literature of real-world events?

• How can we use reading strategies to improve comprehension?

• How do we analyze an author’s purpose, audience, and context?

• How can we identify and analyze literary features within a text?

• How can we find relevant primary sources to compare literature?

• How can we produce writing that is engaging and grammatically correct?

Language Objectives:

• Use different types of sentences. Avoid boring writing.

• Format writing effectively.

• Edit for subject-verb agreement, tense, pronoun-antecedent agreement, misplaced modifiers, and complete sentences.

• Properly use spelling and punctuation.

|During Reading Assignments |Possible Points|Points Awarded |

|Section 1 reading questions |5 | |

|Characterization of Wiesel |10 | |

|Sections 2-3 reading questions |5 | |

|Biography Poems |10 | |

|Section 4 reading questions |5 | |

|Dehumanization Assignment |10 | |

|Section 5 reading questions |5 | |

|Visual Analysis and Explanation |10 | |

|Sections 6-9 reading questions |5 | |

|Characterization of Wiesel – part 2 |10 | |

|During Reading Total |75 | |

|After Reading Assignments |Possible Points|Points Awarded |

|Remember product |5 | |

|Understand Product |5 | |

|Apply product |10 | |

|Analyze product |10 | |

|Evaluate product (with Works Cited) |25 | |

|Create product |20 | |

|After Reading Total |75 | |

This should help you to keep track of your grades for this portion of the unit. If you have not been doing or turning in work, you need to start.

Section 1 reading questions

1. Characterization is the process by which an author reveals a character’s personality – can be determined by what the character thinks, says, does, looks like, or what other characters say about them. Using the information at the beginning of this chapter, characterize Moshe the Beadle.

2. At the beginning of the book, what is most important to young Elie?

3. Name the other children in Elie Wiesel’s family.

4. Describe the relationship between Elie and Moshe the Beadle.

5. What does Moshe’s story foreshadow?

6. Irony is the difference between what happens and what is expected to happen. What is ironic about the people’s refusal to believe Moshe?

7. If you were Moshe, would you have done as he did, telling others of what you saw? Why/why not?

8. What events gave the people of Sighet less reason to believe Moshe?

9. Describe the ghettos.

10. Why are the people in Sighet reacting as they did to being placed in the ghettos? Consider this quote: “We should no longer have before our eyes those hostile faces, those hate-laden stares. Our fear and anguish were at and end. We were living among Jews, among brothers…”

11. “Night fell.” This is used literally and figuratively throughout the story. What meanings could the word have?

12. How is “the shadows” used symbolically to refer to the people at the meeting before deportation?

13. Who tried to warn the Wiesels of danger? How does he do it?

14. Find two similes used in the chapter. Include the page numbers of where they are located.

15. Why does Wiesel use specific imagery to describe his little sister as they are leaving the ghetto?

16. How do the following members of Elie’s family react to the move to the little ghetto?

Father:

Mother:

Sister (Tzipora):

17. Describe how Elie and the others are loaded onto the train.

Section 1 Assignment: Describe Elie as he is characterized in this chapter. What is his personality? What does he value (what is most important to him)? Why? What relationship does he have with his father? (250 words)

Respond to the prompt: one word per box; hyphenates equal one word, not two; punctuation marks are not words.

| | | |

|Line 2: |Write three nouns about which you have strong feelings and which you feel represent | |

| |significant aspects of your personality. | |

|Line 3: |Write a complete sentence about two things that you like most. | |

|Line 4: |Begin with three nouns that describe attractive qualities you like to see in other | |

| |people; end the sentence with the words are important to me. | |

|Line 5: |Write a complete sentence containing a positive thought or feeling about something in| |

| |the world that you think shows the good of mankind. | |

|Lines 6-7: |Write a sentence in which you show something negative in yourself or in others that | |

| |you have observed; however, the sentence must finish by showing that out of something| |

| |bad can come good. Use the word but to link the bad and the good. | |

|Lines 8-10:|Each line is a short sentence relating to something about which you have strong | |

| |feelings – likes or dislikes. These lines do not have to relate to each other or to | |

| |the previous lines. | |

|Line 11: |End the poem with the line This is me. I am (your name – first and last). | |

|Character: |You: |

|__________________________________________________ |__________________________________________________ |

|__________________________________________________ |__________________________________________________ |

|__________________________________________________ |__________________________________________________ |

|__________________________________________________ |__________________________________________________ |

|__________________________________________________ |__________________________________________________ |

|__________________________________________________ |__________________________________________________ |

|__________________________________________________ |__________________________________________________ |

|__________________________________________________ |__________________________________________________ |

|__________________________________________________ |__________________________________________________ |

|__________________________________________________ |__________________________________________________ |

|__________________________________________________ |__________________________________________________ |

|__________________________________________________ |__________________________________________________ |

|__________________________________________________ |__________________________________________________ |

|__________________________________________________ |__________________________________________________ |

|__________________________________________________ |__________________________________________________ |

|__________________________________________________ |__________________________________________________ |

|__________________________________________________ |__________________________________________________ |

|__________________________________________________ |__________________________________________________ |

|__________________________________________________ |__________________________________________________ |

|__________________________________________________ |__________________________________________________ |

|__________________________________________________ |__________________________________________________ |

Section 4 reading questions

1. Which labor unit was the best?

2. In what ways is Buna different from Auschwitz-Birkenau?

3. In order for Elie and his father to stay together what did he have to give up?

4. During medical examination, what was the doctor looking for?

5. How is Alphonse different from most of the other Kapos? Why do you think this was the case?

6. What was Elie’s camp number?

7. Why did the secretary of the block send for Elie?

8. Elie felt ill at ease when he noticed the dentist’s teeth. Why do you think this was the case?

9. What excuse did Elie give the dentist to delay his procedure?

10. What happened to the dentist? Why?

11. How might Elie’s gold crown be useful one day?

12. When Idek beats Elie’s father, with whom was Elie angry? Why?

13. Elie gave his father lessons on what?

14. Describe how the dentist from Warsaw extracted Elie’s gold crown.

15. What was Elie’s punishment for seeing Idek with the young Polish girl?

16. Why did the bombs exploding give the prisoners confidence in life?

17. Why did the Kapos force each prisoner to look at the man who was hanged?

18. What is a pipel?

19. Why did the Lagerkapo refuse to act as executioner?

20. When a man was hanged Elie said, “I found the soup excellent that evening,” but when a child was hanged he said “That night the soup tasted of corpses.” Explain the reasons or his different reactions. How does the death of the child differ from other prisoners? (didn’t die immediately; stayed alive for more than an hour)

Section 4 Assignment: Dehumanization

What is dehumanization? ___________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

|What did the Nazi’s do to dehumanize the Jews? |What effects did those acts have on the prisoners? |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

1. Many of the methods are external but lead to internal conflicts. How does that further Nazi propaganda? How can people survive?

2. What kept Elie and his father determined to survive?

Section 5 reading questions

1. At the beginning of the chapter, Elie writes, “Why do You still trouble their sick minds, their crippled bodies?” To whom is he talking? Why does He trouble the Jews in the concentration camps?

2. How many men attended the Rosh Hashanah service?

3. Why were the prisoners debating whether or not to fast for Yom Kippur?

4. Elie decides not to fast on Yom Kippur as a form of defiance against God. Yet he feels something at the same time even through his anger that disturbs him. What is it?

5. What was the gift from the SS soldiers to the prisoners?

6. Define musulman.

7. What was Elie’s inheritance?

8. How did Elie’s father escape the second selection?

9. It has been said that a person’s eyes are windows into the soul. How does Elie describe the eyes of Akiba Drumer?

10. What did Akiba Drumer ask Elie and his friends to do for him? Did they do it?

11. Why does Drumer lose his will to live? How about Elie? Is there a difference between the two?

12. Why was Elie placed in the hospital?

13. What effect does morphine have on the body? How would rumors of the approach of the Red Army act as morphine for the prisoners?

14. Explain the irony in following passage: “I’ve got more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He’s the only one who’s kept his promises, to the Jewish people.” What does this mean?

15. Why would the Germans go to all the trouble to move the prisoners away from the front lines into the heart of Germany? (look for two reasons, one of them practical)

16. During the evaluation, why were the patients to remain in the infirmary?

17. What is ironic about the patients who stayed behind in the hospital?

18. Why did the prisoners have to wash the wooden floor?

19. Why does Elie say that men are greater than God? (probably out of order)

Section 5 Assignment: Visual Analysis and Explanation

In the box, illustrate or make a collage in response to the reading; add words from the text (include edition and page numbers). Then, write a paragraph that explains your choices.

Section 6 reading questions

1. How far had the prisoners run during the night? What does this tell you about the capabilities of the human body?

2. What simile does Elie use to describe the snow? Is this an effective simile? Explain.

3. Characterize Rabbi Eliahou’s son and explain.

4. How long did the men stay at Gleiwitz? Were they fed or given water?

5. How did Elie save his father’s life?

6. Since the men were not allowed to sit down or bend over to eat snow, how did they get water while waiting for the train?

7. What kind of train cars do the prisoners ride in as they are moved at the end of the chapter?

Section 7 reading questions

8. What simile does Elie use to describe the scene in the railroad car as dawn breaks? Is this an effective comparison? Explain.

9. How long do they travel in the railroad cars?

10. What other father and son horror does Elie witness on the train? What is the outcome of this? How old is Elie?

11. How many lived through the transport? Where did they eventually arrive?

Section 8 reading questions

12. What is personified as the person with whom Elie argues at the beginning of the chapter?

13. What horrible thought shames Elie when he wakes up from his deep sleep in the barracks?

14. How does Elie describe his father’s face just before all the prisoners went into the showers on their third day in Buchenwald?

15. Characterize Elie at this point in the book: What haunts him about his father’s last moments? Why was he unable to cry upon learning that his father was dead? What was the phrase that crept into his mind when he realized that his father was gone?

Section 9 reading questions

16. What had the Germans planned to do with the camp after the last prisoners had been evacuated? Why do you think that they planned to do this?

17. How long did Elie and his fellow block members go without food during the evacuation? What did they eat during these days?

18. What is ironic about the following: “Three days after the liberation of Buchenwald I became very ill with food poisoning. I was transferred to the hospital and spent two weeks between life and death.”

19. How does Elie describe his appearance in the mirror? How does this imagery convey his inner state?

Sections 6-9 Assignment: How have Wiesel’s ideas about religion and family changed by the end of the novel? Use examples to support. (250 words)

Respond to the prompt: one word per box; hyphenates equal one word, not two; punctuation marks are not words.

| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

Night - After Reading Assignments (English II Honors)

Final Due Date: March 27th

Grading Procedures:

I will only assess two products per person per day. If you wait until March 27th to bring me everything at once, I will ask you to choose your favorite two for assessment. I will not accept any submissions for assessment in the last five minutes of class. Be proactive! All finished products should be in ink and have a “finished” look.

Remember (Choose one.)

1. Learn the vocabulary words. You may want to make flash cards on paper or using: or . You will be orally assessed on these.

2. Create a comic strip of the 20 most important events in the story. If you are not an artist, this is not the assignment for you. Consider using .

Understand (Choose one.)

1. Write a NEW story using each of the vocabulary words correctly.

2. On your own paper, complete a character wheel graphic organizer for two different characters (not the one you wrote your journal entry about). Include traits and references that develop those traits. Then write a paragraph for each character, identifying their most important personality trait and giving details to support your choice.

[pic]

Apply (Choose one.)

1. Write three half-page diary entries from the perspective of one of the following: an SS officer, Stein of Antwerp, Juliek, the girl who helps Wiesel. If you’d like to do someone else, get approval first. You may not repeat a character done in your journal or one done for the Understand assignment.

2. Write a song or make a piece of art that you feel represents this novel. Defend your choices in writing.

Analyze

1. Create a character chart that compares the relationships between characters. You may use or create it by hand. See example below.

[pic]

The following assignments must be typed in MLA format and the document uploaded to Edmodo. If it is not correctly formatted, you will be asked to do it again (and receive a late penalty). We’ll be in the library lab for half days on Monday (26th) and Tuesday (27th). Be proactive about planning so you will have time to type and format.

Evaluate (Choose one.)

For each of these assignments, you must use at least two direct quotations (and include a Works Cited page)

1. Write a review of the book that includes an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. Consider these questions in your review:

a. What do you think was the author’s purpose for writing this book? Do you agree with the author’s message?

b. Which literary elements do you think the author handled best – writing style, setting, characters, plot, climax, or resolution? Why?

c. This book is a memoir. Do you think it’s valuable to read first-hand accounts of events that occurred during World War II? Why?

d. In what ways do you think the book was “less than perfect”? If you were the writer, how would you fix those flaws?

e. Do you like this book? Why or why not? What kind of person do you think would like this book most?

1. Research Wiesel’s life after he published his book. Is he still the person he was at the conclusion of Night? Explain in an essay that includes and introduction, a body, and a conclusion. Make sure you include your references.

Create

1. Write a letter to Elie Wiesel explaining to him how this book has made a difference in your life. Include at least four specific examples from the book and how these examples affected you. Finally, make sure you share with Wiesel specifically how you have changed, and the actions you have taken or will be taking to illustrate this change. As always, use specific examples. Your letter needs to be at least two pages, double spaced. (If you would like, we can mail the final letter to the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity in New York.)

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download