Using Technology to Analyze and Illustrate Symbolism in Night

Overview

Featured Resources

From Theory to Practice

 

OVERVIEW

What images symbolize hatred, peace, freedom, or confinement? What feelings do these images evoke in the viewer? What power do images have? These and many other questions provide the framework for students to use technology to explore symbolism in Elie Wiesel’s Night. Students begin with a discussion of everyday symbols, such as street signs and hand gestures, to help them come up with their own definition for symbolism. Students then choose and analyze passage from Night that uses darkness as a symbol, and then brainstorm how they might reinterpret their selected passage as an image. After learning about symbolism and discussing its use in the book, students create visual representations using an interactive tool. Students then express their response to the symbolism in the book by creating a photomontage using images from multiple websites about the Holocaust, text from survivor stories, articles about hate crimes, and Night.

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FEATURED RESOURCES

Literary Graffiti: Students can use this interactive tool to create their own photomontages in response to the symbolism used in Elie Wiesel’s Night.

 

 

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FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

Kinzer, C.K. (2003). The importance of recognizing the expanding boundaries of literacy. Reading Online, 6(10). Available: http://www.readingonline.org/electronic/elec_index.asp?HREF=/electronic/kinzer

• The boundaries of literacy are expanding to include skills in using software of various types; critical thinking about video, still images, audio, and text; as well as information gathering, retrieval, and its effective use in presentations.
  
  
• Technology offers teachers a way to engage students in authentic tasks involving meaningful communication through project-based learning. In a multimedia context, students can access and manipulate actual documents and data and can collaborate and communicate with peers and experts.
  
  
• Adolescents perceive a gap between the literacy they use daily and the literacy they are taught at school. For students to truly value learning and to see teachers as relevant in their lives, teachers must become knowledgeable about the uses of technology for teaching.

 

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