I had never even heard of the book Night before taking this class. So far, this has certainly been one
of the best parts of this class. What a powerful and intense story. I can’t believe
that Night is taught in classrooms,
not because I think the content is too graphic, but because I sometimes can’t
even believe that the Holocaust really happened. I’m not sure if that even
makes sense, but my point in saying that was simply I was moved by this book
and I’m shocked I hadn't heard of it before a month ago.
Night is obviously
a great text in which to explore the pedagogy of social justice or rather in
the case of the Jewish people in the text, social injustice. I think this is
just the kind of book that would grab a student’s attention and have them mesmerized
by the text throughout the whole book. It is actually a book that students
might read all the way through. Because of its short chapters, intense subject
matter, and the way in which the writing is setup on the page I think it would
grip a lot of “non-reader” students, as well as die-hard readers of course. It’s a book you could teach a whole unit on
and pair with TONS of information text to supplement the unit as well as poetry
and literature. There are so many possibilities with this text!
As a teacher, I would be most interested in reading my
student’s responses through some sort of reflective essay with this text. I
would want my students to use the text to look deeper into their own personal
issues and relate it to struggle of a person in Night. A problem I foresee with this idea is that there are a limited
number of people we truly get to know throughout the book, but they all face a mired
of issues which gives the student options to choose from. I’m not sure exactly what I would want to do
with this piece as far as a writing assignment or project goes, but I would
want to see some sort of self-evaluation from my students in comparison to the
book. Of course, that could possibly create a situation of bringing a difficult
experience to the forefront for some students. Clearly, there is more research
to be done in using this book in class, but I support it.
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