Project Exchange

ACTIVITY: "In the depths of my heart, I felt a great void." (week4 : day2)

Project: The Search for Meaning (A Holocaust Project)

SUMMARY

Goals

 

Details

Duration: 90 minutes

Assessments: Student reflections/journals

Materials: "Inside Dachau" by Sherman Alexie; "After we are free" template handout

 

Description

"In the depths of my heart, I felt a great void."
IN-CLASS:
1. Do Now: Describe what if would feel like to never know if today was your last day, or if you were eating your last meal, or if you were seeing your parent for the last time? How would your life change if you lived with those feelings each day?
2. Read/Discuss pages 63-72 of Night together. Students will identify metaphors and similes.
3. Small group questions: Consider how Eliezer struggles with his faith.
* On Rosh Hashanah, Eliezer says, "I was alone—terribly alone in a world without God and without man. Without love or mercy. I had ceased to be anything but ashes...." (page 65). Eliezer is describing himself at a religious service attended by ten thousand men, including his own father. What do you think he means when he says that he is alone? In what sense is he alone?
* Why does Eliezer direct his anger toward God rather than the Germans? What does his anger suggest about the depths of his faith?
4. Read "Inside Dachau" by Sherman Alexie together. Highlight/underline passages that seem important to you or that resonate with you.

HOMEWORK DUE NEXT CLASS:
1. Write your own poem modeled after the "after we are free" section of Sherman Alexie's poem Inside Dachau. (Use the format provided).
2. Read pages 72-80 of Night
3. Write a brief reflection that connects Nietzche's quote "He who has a why to live, can bear almost any how," to Elie's description of Akiba Drummer: "...as soon as he felt the first cracks forming in his faith, he had lost his reason for struggling and had begun to die."

ACTIVITY RESOURCES

(e.g. rubrics, examplars, websites, etc.)


"After We Are Free" HW Template
Students use this to write their own version of this section of Alexie's poem...
Download (52K)

"Inside Dachau" by Sherman Alexie
Poem for Class Activity and Discussion (2 days)...
Download (77K)

REFLECTIONS & COMMENTS

Author Reflections

The students very much enjoyed Alexie's poem, and the HW activity helped us all turn a corner.

ALL PROJECT ACTIVITIES

  1. The Launch
  2. The Initiation (Week1 Activities)
  3. Becoming a Witness: The Project (week2 : day1)
  4. The Word "Night" (week2 : day2)
  5. POV: Auschwitz/'There is no 'why' here' (Week3 : Day1)
  6. Metaphor and Night (Week3 : Day2)
  7. Where is God Now? (week3 : day3)
  8. Hateful Messages, Humanity & Choice (week4 : day1)
  9. "In the depths of my heart, I felt a great void." (week4 : day2)
  10. When We Are Free (week4 : day3)
  11. Not Feeling The Blows That Harm You (week5 : day1)
  12. From The Depths Of The Mirror... (week5 : day2)
  13. Night's Memorial (week5 : day3)
  14. Life is Beautiful (the film)
  15. 4 Corners Discussion Activity
  16. Elie Wiesel Accepts the Nobel Peace Prize