Night, Elie Wiesel

            Night is a book I haven’t read since middle school and in rereading it this week I was reminded how powerful it is. It is one thing to read or hear about the facts of the holocaust in a history class, but reading Wiesel’s account humanizes the experience in a way that blunt facts cannot. It brings his (and millions of others) experience to a level the reader can really connect with. Night is a book I would without a doubt teach someday. It is so important for students to read and know about historical atrocities such as the holocaust. I think the quote “history repeats itself because nobody was listening the first time” really applies here. Reading books like Night evokes empathy from us as readers and reminds us how stripped of humanity we become when we let things like religion, race, sexuality, or nationality divide us.

                Night is a short, easy read that students could easily read in-class or on their own in under a week. I think it could be used in any classroom from grades 6-12 given the ease of the text; the Lexile score is only 570 which roughly amounts to a 3^rd or 4^th- grade reading level. I would be most interested in teaching this book to high school students though, as they would have more maturity and hopefully more ability to connect with the text. I think students get the most value from this text when they can empathize with Wiesel and the other characters enduring the horror of concentration camps and certain death. An assignment I would ask juniors or seniors to complete is a character journal. They would take on the role of any character other than Elie and write a journal about one of their experiences during any portion of the novel, outlining their observations and feelings. Students could take on the role of either of Elie’s parents, his sisters, Moshe, a veteran in the concentration camps, etc. This assignment would force students to use evidence from the text to articulate an underdeveloped character in the story. It would also give them a chance to practice writing skills while trying to put themselves into the shoes of someone in a situation they will likely never have to endure. I can foresee things going wrong if an immature student jokingly takes on the role of a Nazi, so this is an assignment I would have to have a read on my class for or make very clear guidelines about what is inappropriate.

                Night is such a powerful text that has the ability to reach a broad audience, I think it’s important to teach it, or similar books, to our students. There is so much that can be done with it; not only can we use it to help our students work toward CCSS’, but we can also use it to help them better understand humanity and empathy.