Using Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs with Wiesel's Night

This lesson plan is for the third chapter of Night by Elie Wiesel when Elie and his family are either killed or processed at Auschwitz.

Even if your class is not reading the entire text, Chapter three can stand on its own and show the horrors of the concentration camps.

**I suggest getting the audio version to play for your class. Honestly, some of the language is tricky and some of the words that are said in the book I don’t actually want to say even if I’m reading them from a book. Here’s a link to the audiobook if you want to listen to a sample and see for yourself.

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Here’s what’s included in the FREE lesson plan:

Introductory PowerPoint with link to Ted Ed video about the different levels of Maslow’s pyramid. Students take notes directly on the pyramid worksheet. Includes links to three clips from popular kids’ movies for students to practice identifying examples on Maslow’s pyramid.

Standard Worksheet Resource: This graphic organizer helps students understand the dehumanizing methods of the Nazis during the “processing” at the camps. Students will complete a psychological analysis of the text as they look at how different events from the chapter show different levels of needs being taken away from Elie and his father.

The final assessment is a response to a prompt:

At this point in the memoir, on which level would you place Elie? There is no right or wrong answer as long as you back it up with support from the text.

Basically, they are answering what motivates Elie most after he experiences the various forms of oppression during his first few days at the concentration camps. This helps students understand how oppression affects character development as we see all of the changes Elie and his father undergo in their experiences at the camps.

Perfect for meeting CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.3: Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.

Interactive Notebook Resource: Includes different quotes to glue/tape down the quotes on different levels of Maslow’s pyramid. A great hands-on and visual activity to help students understand the effects of oppression.