Elie+Wiesel+Activity

Elie Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. He was awarded the prize for his efforts in improving the living conditions, and promoting the global acceptance of Jews. He is credited to be the first person to use the term “holocaust” in formal writing. It is this formal writing that Wiesel is probably most well known. Wiesel has authored many works, the majority of them to educate people on the life of Jews around the world. His most popular novel is //Night//, a novel about his time in the Nazi German concentration camps, Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Elie Wiesel grew up in Romania and was sixteen when he was taken to Auschwitz along with his mother, father, and three sisters. Only two of his sisters survived the Holocaust with Elie. //Night// describes Elie and his family being taken to a ghetto and then to the concentration camp. At Auschwitz, he is separated from the females of his family but remains with his father. This novel was one of the first works to detail the harshness and torture that the Jewish people endured at the concentration camps. Wiesel shed light on the cruelty of the Nazis and took stories of the Holocaust to a whole new, morbid level. This novel served as a catalyst for Wiesel's efforts in promoting the understanding of Jews and thus becoming a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. I want my students to learn about the concentration camps in Western Europe and to understand the cruelty that took place; what were the biggest camps, where and why were they started. After learning about //Night// and Elie Wiesel, I want them to be able to describe what life was like for a Jewish person in a concentration camp. My students should also know the history behind the concentration camps, they should be able to explain why World War II was started and who was behind the concentration camps. It is also important for the students to understand why //Night// was so revolutionary when it was published and why it caused such a national stir. I want the students to understand that this novel was different than anything that had been published about Jewish people in World War II before. Elie Wiesel's account was much more personal, vivid, and included harsh details throughout the novel. To get the students to learn this material, I want to read // Night // as a class. I really like the idea of having class novels in Social Studies and I think it is a great way to integrate contents. As they read, I want the students to keep journals of their reactions to the text. The journal entries can be freely written and will not be graded, I just want to encourage the students to think about the emotions that the novel stirs up while it is read. Because it is a Social Studies class, as they read and write in their journals, I also want the students to think about the location in the Novel and why that would be important When we are about half way through the novel, I will have the students read other first hand short stories about concentration camp survivors. The stories will be from survivors that are from different concentration camps and from various countries- not just Germany. Each of the students will be assigned a survivor and a concentration camp (some students will have the same camp). The students can use classroom laptops to research the concentration camp and then they will compile their findings. As a class, we will create a chart that gives an overview of the concentration camps researched: size, location, duration, time when it was closed, etc. This way, the students can compare the various camps and see how many there were throughout Germany and various countries during World War II. At the end of the novel, I would like for the students to write letters to Elie Wiesel. These letters should include information about their knowledge of the book, their understanding of why the book was important, and their overall comprehension of World War II and the concentration camps. I also want the students to understand, by writing these letters, why Elie Wiesel received the Nobel Peace Prize and the impact that he has made on the Jewish community. After I have reviewed the letters, I would love to send them to Mr. Wiesel. I will monitor the students reading throughout the process of reading // Night // and periodically check in with the students to make sure they are on track with reading and understanding the novel. I will read the journals that the students kept and as long as they met a minimum number and demonstrated that they maintained the journals throughout the novel, they will receive a check plus. I will sporadically check the journals and read them to provide feedback, if they want me to, but if they want me to just check for completion and keep their entries private, I will respect that. I will also evaluate the students' understanding based on the charts they create about the concentration camps. The assignment will be graded based on completion and participation but I will also check for accuracy and understanding when we compile the class chart of all the different concentration camps. The major assessment will come with the letters to Elie Wiesel. This will not only check to see if they read the novel but also their understanding of the plot and implications that it brings. This will also show me if they understand about the gravity of the concentration camps and the hurt that Wiesel survived. I will have a rubric for the letters that includes content, accuracy, relevance, and demonstration of comprehension.