What's in a Word? Vocabulary Lesson using Night

• The teacher should give students a list of vocabulary terms with the definitions related to the novel Night.
  • The vocabulary words are: Memoir, Prejudice, Discrimination, Antagonism, Superior, Inferior, Racism, Sentimental, Auschwitz, Fascism, Ghetto, Indifference, Holocaust
• The teacher should say the word and have students chorally repeat the word.
• After the teacher says the word, the teacher should say the definition and have the students chorally repeat saying the definition.
• After the teacher goes through all of the vocabulary words, the teacher will go back to the first word. The teacher says the word and definition and should ask the class what kind of picture or image comes to their mind for this word. The teacher should then draw an image on the board next to the word to demonstrate.
• The teacher should then ask the students if they have any real-life examples or experiences with the word and writes them down underneath the picture. For example, the first word is memoir; the teacher should draw an open book beside the word and write down the titles A Long Way Gone and Eat Pray Love. The teacher should do this again with the class for the second word. The teacher should have students finish creating images and real-life experiences and connections for each vocabulary word.
• The teacher should then review the words, having students come to the board and put their words and connections. 
• After the words are all shared, the teacher will discuss the term Racism. The teacher should draw a picture of an umbrella on the board and places the words prejudice, discrimination, and antagonism underneath the umbrella. The teacher should explain how racism is the umbrella in which the other terms hang, which means that prejudice, discrimination, and antagonism work together to create racism. 
• The teacher then should go back to the first vocabulary word and ask the students what gesture or acting they can do to help them remember the word. The teacher will demonstrate this to the class acting out the first vocabulary word. The teacher then should put students with partners and assign them a word to act.
• The students should then come up to present to the class their term. After they present, the other students with their pairs will mimic the groups acting/motions.
• Finally, the teacher again should say each word and definition and have the students chorally repeat.

The teacher should ask students to pick a word from the vocabulary list and write a short paragraph response explaining in detail an experience or connection the student has with one of the vocabulary terms.

As students are writing the teacher should give each student a sticky note. With five minutes to the end, the teacher will ask the student to answer the question for the exit ticket.

Exit ticket: How well do you think you know the vocabulary terms? Very well, I only need to review the terms to study. Need more time to study the terms. I am completely confused and do not know the terms at all.