1. Night Essay
For this unit, you will compose an essay instead of taking a test.
The essay will answer the following prompt:
What makes Elie Wiesel’s Night still relevant as an important educational tool for today’s classrooms?

2. With a partner, brainstorm some possible answers to the essay prompt.
What makes Elie Wiesel’s Night still relevant as an important educational tool for today’s classrooms?
With a partner, brainstorm some possible answers to the essay prompt.
statement of fact about Night
statement of fact about things relevant to modern classroom
connections
Ask “SO WHAT?”

3. Essay Writing What are the basic parts of an essay? introduction body
conclusion
What essential thing should the introduction contain?
the thesis
What does the thesis do?
states the topic of the essay

4. Essay Writing What are the basic parts of an essay? introduction body
conclusion
What essential thing should the introduction contain?
the thesis
What does the thesis do?
states the argument, answers the prompt
How does the body relate to the thesis?
the body provides evidence for the argument stated in the thesis

5. Essay Writing How does the body relate to the thesis?
the body provides evidence for the argument stated in the thesis
What qualifies as evidence?
facts, e.g. historical information
summary / quotes from a text
Given the essay prompt:
What texts can you use?
Night
excerpt from Extraordinary Evil: A Short Walk to Genocide
“The 8 Stages of Genocide” article
modern genocide articles from “World Without Genocide”
“We Are All Bystanders” article
What makes Elie Wiesel’s Night still relevant as an important educational tool for today’s classrooms?

6. Evidence and Argument
What makes Elie Wiesel’s Night still relevant as an important educational tool for today’s classrooms?
Without evidence, your argument is weak and unconvincing.
Take the possible answers to the prompt that you came up with in your brainstorming.
What evidence is available to support your argument?
Look through the various texts we’ve read in this unit and begin noting evidence that you can use.

7. What makes Ray Bradbury’s “The Veldt” still relevant as an important educational tool for today’s classrooms?
THESIS: Ray Bradbury’s “The Veldt” warns against becoming too dependent on technology, a valuable lesson for the technology-obsessed young people of today.
CONCLUSION: Therefore, reading and discussing “The Veldt” in class can help teens understand the dangers of overdependence and prevent them from suffering the consequences Bradbury’s characters did.
In his short story “The Veldt”, Ray Bradbury creates a world in which people have become dependent on technology for everything.
The characters over-dependence on technology eventually destroys them.
Teenagers today are starting to resemble Bradbury’s characters.
textual example
textual example
facts about teenage use of technology
textual examples

8. Essay Organization THESIS: BODY: What is your main argument?
How are you answering the prompt?
BODY:
What do you need to prove in order to make your reader believe your argument?
What sub-arguments can you make that when you bring them together they work like puzzle pieces that fit together to make your argument? (Each of these sub-arguments can then become the topic sentences of your paragraphs.)
Label your evidence as belonging to one of these sub-arguments (paragraphs).

9. PARAGRAPH STRUCTURE ARGUMENT, EVIDENCE, & EXPLANATION
BODY P. 1
Topic Sentence relating body paragraph’s topic to the thesis
Evidence + explanation of connection to topic sentence
Evidence + explanation
BODY P. 2
Topic Sentence relating body paragraph’s topic to the thesis
Evidence 1
Evidence 2
Explanation of evidence 1 & 2’s connection to topic sentence

10. What makes Ray Bradbury’s “The Veldt” still relevant as an important educational tool for today’s classrooms?
THESIS: Ray Bradbury’s “The Veldt” warns against becoming too dependent on technology, a valuable lesson for the technology-obsessed young people of today.
CONCLUSION: Therefore, reading and discussing “The Veldt” in class can help teens understand the dangers of overdependence and prevent them from suffering the consequences Bradbury’s characters did.
In his short story “The Veldt”, Ray Bradbury creates a world in which people have become dependent on technology for everything.
The characters over-dependence on technology eventually destroys them.
Teenagers today are starting to resemble Bradbury’s characters.
textual example
textual example
facts about teenage use of technology
textual examples

11. PARAGRAPH STRUCTURE ARGUMENT, EVIDENCE, & EXPLANATION
In his short story “The Veldt”, Ray Bradbury creates a world in which people have become dependent on technology for everything. The Hadleys’ Happylife Home “clothe[s] and [feeds] and rock[s] them to sleep.” Mrs. Hadley even describes the house as “wife and mother…and nursemaid”, as technology has taken on all the duties and chores of family life. Their machines have even taken over the task of imagination as the nursery, the star gadget of the story, does all the work of make-believe for the children: “the nursery caught the telepathic emanation of the children’s mind and created life to fill their every desire.”
BODY P. 1
Topic Sentence relating body paragraph’s topic to the thesis
Evidence + explanation of connection to topic sentence
Evidence + explanation

12. Using Quotes in Writing
Select specific parts of quotes - not entire sentences.
“Sorry,” said a small voice within the table, and ketchup appeared.
And although their beds tried very hard, the two adults couldn’t be rocked to sleep for another hour.
The house was full of dead bodies.

13. Using Quotes in Writing
Select specific parts of quotes - not entire sentences.
“Sorry,” said a small voice within the table, and ketchup appeared.
And although their beds tried very hard, the two adults couldn’t be rocked to sleep for another hour.
The house was full of dead bodies.
Bradbury dreams up a technologically advanced future populated with living machines. There are tables with “small voice[s]” and beds that “[try] very hard” to rock people to sleep. And when George begins to shut down the various devices, the house is described as being “full of dead bodies”.

14. Using Evidence Tags
Evidence should always be presented with the author’s name and the title of his/her work.
As Barbara Coloroso states in “Extraordinary Evil: A Short Walk to Genocide”…
According to Gregory Stanton’s “8 Stages of Genocide”…
In his novel Night, Elie Wiesel describes…
Once you’ve said the author/title once, you no longer have to refer to both again. You can just refer to the author by last name and not say the title of his/her work.