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Encountering Evil: The Diary of Anne Frank & Night
Students explore human nature through the stories of two Jewish teenagers who experienced the Holocaust, both of which ask readers to grapple with what it means to encounter true evil and how doing so impacts human beings.
ELA
Unit 2
8th Grade
Unit Summary
Please Note: In March 2026, this unit and its lesson plans received a round of enhancements. This unit is now 31 instructional days (previously 29 days). The overall content, sequencing, and writing projects of the unit have been adjusted significantly. Teachers should pay close attention as they intellectually prepare to account for the updates.
The stories of Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel taught the world about the Holocaust. Their stories have profoundly changed the way that we understand one of the most terrible moments in human history—and the way we understand our own present and future.
Students begin this unit by reading the Pulitzer Prize-winning stage adaptation of Anne Frank's famous diary. The Diary of Anne Frank, written by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, tells the story of the two years that Anne spent in hiding with her family in a desperate attempt to avoid capture by the Nazis.
Students then read Night, often considered among the most important memoirs of the twentieth century. Written by Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel, the text recounts the author's experience as a teenager in a Nazi concentration camp.
While both stories speak to all readers, they are particularly evocative for young adults. Anne was thirteen when she entered the Secret Annex, and Eliezer was fifteen when he and his family were transported to Auschwitz. Both texts center the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of a young person living through unimaginable circumstances. Through their stories, students begin to make connections between individual lives, historical events, and larger truths about what it means to be human.
Throughout the unit, students learn to participate in class discussions by determining which evidence best supports a particular idea and how to interpret and analyze that evidence. By writing daily in response to the Target Task question, students build their writing fluency, learning to see the power of writing as a tool for understanding what they are reading. This unit also serves as the foundation for learning how to evaluate evidence and write strong argumentative paragraphs, focusing on drafting claims and topic sentences and on determining the strongest, most relevant supporting details. At the end of the unit, students engage with their first informational writing task for the year, conducting research and crafting an essay on an individual who resisted the Nazis and saved lives during the Holocaust. This culminating task gives students an opportunity to continue to explore and develop their understanding of an overarching theme of the unit: what individuals' responses to tragic situations can reveal about human nature more generally.
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Texts and Materials
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Core Texts
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Book: Night by Elie Wiesel (Hill and Wang)
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Play: The Diary of Anne Frank by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett (Snowball Publishing)
Supporting Texts
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Video: “Aftermath of World War I and the Rise of Nazism, 1918–1933” by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
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Video: “Building a National Community, 1933–1936” by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
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Video: “From Citizens to Outcasts, 1933–1938” by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
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Video: “World War II and the Holocaust, 1939–1945” by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
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Book: Terrible Things: An Allegory of the Holocaust by Eve Bunting (Jewish Publication Society)
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Transcript: “The Perils of Indifference” by Elie Wiesel
- Recommended Texts for Independent Reading
Rubrics
Assessment
The following assessments accompany Unit 2. For more guidance, see the Summative Assessments and Assessments Accommodations & Modifications Teacher Tools.
Warm Read Assessment
The Warm Read Assessment measures students' ability to apply the core reading standards and their knowledge from the unit to comprehend new, topically or thematically aligned texts. It includes both multiple choice and short written response questions and should serve as the primary assessment for the unit.
Vocabulary Assessment
The Vocabulary Assessment measures students' acquisition of text-based vocabulary words from the unit.
Fluency Assessment
The Fluency Assessment measures students' oral reading fluency with a passage drawn from one of the unit's core texts. See the Assessing Reading Fluency Teacher Tool for more guidance.
Unit Prep
Intellectual Prep
Before you teach this unit, unpack the texts, themes, and core standards through our guided intellectual preparation process. Each Unit Launch includes a series of short videos, targeted readings, and opportunities for action planning to ensure you're prepared to support every student.
Essential Questions
- Are human beings really good at heart?
- How do human beings respond when subjected to unthinkable horror? What do these responses reveal about human nature?
- Why is it important to tell and listen to stories about the Holocaust?
Enduring Understandings
- People are capable of tremendous violence and evil; to be indifferent to the suffering of others is a kind of violence.
- People can show remarkable generosity and kindness toward one another, even when it puts them at risk.
- The Holocaust is one of the most terrible chapters in human history. Fully understanding what happened during that time—through testimonies of those who lived through it—is a powerful way to learn from the past in order to try to improve the future.
Vocabulary
Text-based
annihilateapathycamaraderieconspicuousdelusiondeportdignifiedeludeforebodinggenocidehysteriaideologyimprudentindifferenceinsufferableindignantlyjubilationliberatedmagnitudeobligationpoignantresentveritable
Literary Terms
actanalogyauthor's purposecentral ideacharacterizationdialoguedynamic characterflash-forwardforeshadowingjuxtapositionmemoirmoodprimary sourceprefacerepetitionscenesettingsetsimilestage directionstructuresymbolvoice-over
Writing Terms
conclusioncohesioncredibledebatable languageintroductory sentenceirrelevantparaphraseparenthetical citationquotationrelevanttransitional language
Root/Affix
in-/im-
To see all the vocabulary for Unit 2, view our 8th Grade Vocabulary Glossary.
Notes to the Teacher
- There are references to sexuality, physical punishment, war, and genocide in both texts. Night is an intense, deeply troubling text. Some of Wiesel's descriptions of the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis are graphic and may be upsetting to students. While The Diary of Anne Frank does not include graphic depictions of violence, students may have strong emotions in response to Anne's ordeal. Guidance on how to intellectually prepare for lessons, including these topics, is included under the Notes to the Teacher sections within designated lessons. Be mindful of your students' experiences when planning.
- Be mindful that your students may have very different levels of knowledge and experience around the history of the Holocaust and Judaism more generally. As always, establish expectations around respectful conversations, especially when discussing cultures or religions different from one's own. Address stereotypes, bias, or prejudice directly.
- There are many resources available to support teachers in talking with their students about the Holocaust and anti-Semitism. As a part of intellectual preparation, consider the following:
- "Guidelines for Teaching About the Holocaust" by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- "Q&A: Teaching the Holocaust to Middle School and High School Students" by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
- "Addressing Antisemitic Hate With Students" by Learning for Justice (the Southern Poverty Law Center)
- "Teaching Night" by Facing History & Ourselves
- "Holocaust and Human Behavior" by Facing History & Ourselves
- Some of the resources in this unit use the phrase "the Jews" to refer to people who observe the religion of Judaism. This phrase is common in older resources, but has since fallen out of favor because it reduces a varied and vibrant group of people solely to their religion. The phrase "the Jewish people" is preferable and should be used when possible because it suggests that religion is just one aspect of identity that characterizes the group.
- In the genre of memoir, the author and narrator are the same person. However, for purposes of discussing the text, it can be useful to refer to the narrator as "Eliezer" and the author as "Wiesel" to distinguish more easily between aspects of the text, such as plot events vs. the author's craft, etc.
- A new pilot with the nonprofit Quill.org provides free, optional activities aligned to themes and ideas from this unit. In each fifteen-minute activity, students read a short text and complete three writing prompts. Immediate feedback from Quill's AI coaches them in their revisions. (Note: With the activity links below, students will complete these activities anonymously. If you want to create a Quill account and view student data on these activities, click here.)
Content Knowledge and Connections
Previous Fishtank ELA Connections
Future Fishtank ELA Connections
- 8th Grade ELA - Abusing Power: Animal Farm and Wicked History
- 8th Grade ELA - Surviving Repression: Persepolis
- 9th Grade ELA - ¡Viva Las Mariposas! Voice and Agency in In the Time of the Butterflies
- 10th Grade ELA - "If This Goes On..." Technology, Truth, and Happiness in Fahrenheit 451
- 10th Grade ELA - Reading as Resistance: Reading Lolita in Tehran
Lesson Map
Write a logically organized argument that contains a clear, debatable claim and distinct topic sentences that are supported by relevant evidence.
Gather evidence and synthesize trends to draft a clear claim and aligned topic sentences.
- Argumentative Brainstorming Page (G8, U2, L16)
Standards
W.8.1W.8.1.a
Draft two body paragraphs that develop the argument with strong topic sentences, relevant evidence, and clear explanations.
- Argumentative Brainstorming Page (G8, U2, L16)
Standards
W.8.1.aW.8.1.b
Write an informational essay that explains how a specific individual took significant action to save lives during the Holocaust.
Gather relevant evidence for a research-based writing task.
- List of Holocaust Resisters (G8, U2, L24)
- Informational Brainstorming Page (G8, U2, L24)
Standards
W.8.2W.8.2.aW.8.2.b
Identify and analyze credible sources to continue gathering relevant information for a research-based writing task.
- Informational Brainstorming Page (G8, U2, L24)
Standards
W.8.7W.8.8
Outline the body paragraphs of your informational essay about your resister.
- Informational Multi-Paragraph Outline (G6–8)
- Informational Brainstorming Page (G8, U2, L24)
Standards
W.8.2.aW.8.2.b
Draft the body paragraphs of an informational essay about the individual you researched.
Standards
W.8.2.bW.8.2.cW.8.2.d
Revise an informational essay to intentionally use active voice to increase clarity.
Standards
L.8.1.bW.8.2.bW.8.2.f
Projects
These projects are optional and serve as a great way to enrich students' experience and deepen their content knowledge in this unit. If teachers have flex days in their schedules, we strongly recommend any of the below options.