Elie Wiesel’s Night

The first time I read night was in my high school Honors 10th grade English class, and even then, I could see the many benefits of the novel in an English class and cross-curriculum.  Cross-content curriculum practices are becoming more and more common with the introduction of Common Core.  Night would be an excellent book to use these practices because it would work for English and History classes.  In English, students would be reading, discussing, and writing about the themes and key details in the book, while, in History, students would be looking at the timeline of events of WW2 and groups who were impacted by the Holocaust and camps.  Also, there is so much material that could be used alongside the novel for comparing of accounts, such as The Diary of Anne Frank.  Films, such as “The Schindler’s List,” could also be used in either an English or History class to provide a visual representation of a different account of the events of the Holocaust.  However, as with any time you introduce new materials to the classroom, be sure that the materials you wish to implement are 1. Approved by your administration and parents and 2. Any books or films used along with the book are culturally/historically accurate and appropriate for students to be learning.


Something teachers need to keep in mind when teaching this book is the emotional impact it might have on students; the book is autobiographical of Wiesel’s account of what happened to him in the concentration camps.  Depending on when the book was being taught to students, teachers might need to first address the emotional aspect of the book because Wiesel goes into detail, some more graphic than others, about how emaciated he became, some of the deaths he experienced, and the conditions he faced once he was captured and put into a camp.  Something else to be aware of the religious aspect of the book because Wiesel is very honest about questioning his faith, which is a main theme of the book.  While religion isn’t being advocated for in the novel, Judaism is probably going to need to be covered in either English or History (or both) so students have a basic knowledge of what Wiesel believes in and what he is questioning throughout the novel. 

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