The Real Anne Frank/ Part 2

After teaching "Anne Frank" for 13 years, I finally feel like I'm getting into my groove.   What's that?   Slow learner?   Well, maybe.   In the case of teaching real life stories that are enveloped in so many complexities, there's always room for improvement.  

If you read the first edition of The Real Anne Frank, you will remember my frustration with the Goodrich/Hackett and Kesselman texts.   In short, that which makes Anne of the real diary so compelling never seems to surface.   You'll also remember my excitement over the BBC miniseries.

This year I decided to mesh the two and add in a bit from the 1959 play.   This should work for you in classes where students read at or above grade level.   You will need to simplify it further for students who are are struggling readers.

In short, I introduced Anne by way of the BBC.   We watched the miniseries up to the point of the bathing scene.   I chose 10 of Anne's early diary entries for students to read, focusing on identifying conflict.   Students wrote a friendly letter to Anne offering advice on navigating her personal relationships with her family and the VanPels.   10 more entries were selected for a vocabulary exercise.   Each entry also represented an important plot point.   Students then used our laptop lab to visit the Secret Annex.  

We read the play from the cake scene to the date scene, because it's middle school.   Kids love the big date.   Okay, maybe I love it more.   That awkward first kiss is exactly the type of romance that some teenagers need to see, so they can relax a little.   This is the moment in the play when students really see themselves and their friends.   After this scene, writers draft a journal entry that Peter could have created to sum up the evening's experiences.

You may have also read the two sentence journal blog entry.   That's what we did with the last 10 teacher-selected diary entries.   Again, I chose 10 diary entries with important plot points.   The students stepped into Anne's point of view, determined the most important topic of the entry and condensed it into two sentences, capturing Anne's voice.

We then returned to the end of the play.   Students read Anne's real last diary entry.   I read aloud from  Miep Gies's account of the capture and the return of Mr. Otto Frank to the Annex.

Students spent a second session with laptops to Google questions that still lingered.   I also provided a list of 20 names, places and events related to World War II and the Holocaust for additional research.

For the duration, I kept a variety of books on related topics in the room for students to peruse during independent reading time.   Sneetches, Yertle the Turtle, Maus, and this year I added Andrew Clements's A Million Dots.   No, it's not really about the Holocaust, but you've probably figured out where I'm going with this.   By the end of Clement's picture book, you will have seen, yes, a million dots.   Imagine that each dot is a person's life.   Multiply the dots by at least six.   It helps quantify the incomprehensible.

Throughout our Anne Frank unit, students read M.E. Kerr's Gentlehands independently.   When they were finished, they wrote a paper in which they argued whether Grandpa Trenker was a static or dynamic character using support from the text.  

 


Soon we will most likely watch Paper Clips for another perspective, but that's probably another blog entry.

Enter Writing Contests

Isn't it great when we can broaden our writers' audience?   If we want to nurture passionate writers, it's a good idea to send their writing outside of your classroom from time to time, with their permission.   Owl magazine sponsors a variety of creative contests.   If you are a Virginia high school teacher, check the Superintendent's Memos every Friday for occasional scholarship opportunities.   The local newspaper may run seasonal contests with categories based on age.   The public library may also do the same.

I am fortunate that the United Jewish Community of the Virginia Peninsula sponsors an annual Holocaust essay contest for school-age children.   In addition to recognizing winners with a certificate and check, the winners are honored at the annual Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance) ceremony.   The UJC even sends congratulatory letters to students who were picked as finalists.   AND they send the teacher who submits at least a class set of entries free books.   Yes, free books.   Teachers choose from a list of titles.   Those books then become part of your school's library.   If you talk other teachers into participating, with a little patience you can build up a set of Holocaust-themed levelled books.   If you don't see the title that you want, e-mail the sponsors.   They will seriously consider your request. http://www.ujcvp.org/holocaust_ed.php

One year, after we watched the Paper Clips documentary about Whitwell, Tennessee's 8th graders' ongoing Holocaust project, my students wanted to do something special for their school.   Using the Internet, we found out that they were moving into a new building with a new library.   We e-mailed the UJC to see if they would send us a "sampler" of all of the middle school titles instead of a class set for us, so we could donate them to Whitwell Middle School.   They enthusiastically agreed.    We packed them up, decorated the box with watercolor butterflies and paid it forward.   Find out about the paper clip project here http://www.oneclipatatime.org/

And let me tell you this.   After the tornado relocated my classroom to a new school, two members of the UJC stopped by the front office with the books my students earned this year, Han Nolan's If I Should Die Before I Wake.   On the box was a handwritten note wishing us well.   Writing creates communities.

If publication is something that you feel strongly about, get a copy of the latest Writer's Market.   The amount of information in that resource will be more than you could ever need.

Finally, if you ask your students to enter a contest that has an adult writers category, enter!   They will love to see you workshop your piece.   Take it from start to finish in front of them.   Let them give you feedback.  What a great opportunity!
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How about dusting off some of your writing skills and entering a current contest?

Here's a helpful site --->   http://www.pw.org/grants