Gifted English 10
Unit 2: Duality of Human Nature
Night Portfolio
Part 1: Double-Entry Journal (50 points)
For each section of the memoir, select six quotations that are significant to Elie Wiesel’s experience and the meaning of Night.
For each of the 24 total quotations, students explain how the quotation reveals qualities of memoir, coming-of-age story,
and/or human duality AND what it suggests about Wiesel’s personal journey and growth and/or the meaning of Night.
Part 2: Multiple-Choice (30 points)
(1) Working collaboratively at their own pace, students read ten passages from Night and answer pre-AP Exam multiplechoice questions in which they analyze textual detail, rhetorical strategies, literary devices, diction, tone, and
characterization.
(2) Working independently under time constraints, students read two passages from Night and answer pre-AP Exam
multiple-choice questions in which they analyze textual detail, rhetorical strategies, literary devices, diction, tone, and
characterization.
Part 3: Vocabulary (20 points)
Choose ten words from the list below (ones that are not currently part of your personal vocabulary), and compose sentences
about characters and events in Night. Your sentences must include a form of the vocabulary word and details that reveal your
close reading as well as your mastery of the word. For each sentence, you must provide clear and convincing context to reveal
the word’s meaning, including either a synonym or antonym for the vocabulary word.
abstraction
abyss
altruistic
annihilate
ascertain
automaton
benediction
billeted
compulsory
concur
conflagration
conscientiously
convalescent
convoy
copulate
credible
deluded
din
disengage
dissipate
elude
emaciated
emigrate
epidemic
famished
ghetto
harangue
hermetically
imperative
imprudent
infernal
inhibitions
interspersed
invective
irrevocably
jostling
liquidate
lull
manacle
meekly
muster
oblivion
parched
partisan
penury
petrify
pittance
prevailing
prostrate
quarantine
riveted
sabotage
surreal
surreptitiously
treatise
tumult
veritable
waiflike
withered
wizened
Part 4: Duality & Complex Character Analysis (50 points)
Working in groups of up to four, students create an inventive product that reveals the growth of Elie Wiesel as a complex
character and his growing awareness of the duality of human nature in Night.
The project must provide evidence that reveals mastery of the following standards:
ELACC9-10RL2: Determine a theme or central idea of text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text,
including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details.
ELACC9-10RL3: Analyze how complex characters develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the
plot or develop the theme.
ELACC9-10RI1: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inference
drawn from the text.
ELACC9-10RL4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative
meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of
time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone).
ELACC9-10RL5: Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g.,
parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.
ELACC9-10RL6: Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United
States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature.