Sub-Navigation
Anne Frank's diary (key stage 3)
Respect for all: Anne Frank's diary
This activity was used with pupils in key stage 3, year 9.
Context
There are 910 pupils in this urban, mixed comprehensive school. Approximately 40 per cent of the pupils are from minority ethnic groups and 38 per cent have English as an additional language (most are Urdu speakers).
Curriculum planning in the school's English department has a strong anti-racist and multicultural thrust. This is seen as supporting the school's firm stand on equal opportunities issues, an important dimension of the ethos of this ethnically diverse school.
Currently, at least one of the units of work in each year group has a multicultural focus, but the long-term intention is to introduce these issues into all units. The school believes that it is essential for its scheme of work to address issues of similarity and difference between cultures, as well as to include materials that empathise with a wide range of viewpoints.
The pupils' sense of pride in their own culture, as well as their acceptance of other cultures, is clearly evident in lessons and around the school.
Aim
- To explore issues of persecution and conflict through an examination of Anne Frank's diary.
Activity objectives
- To empathise with the feelings of Anne Frank and her family.
- To understand the thoughts of historical figures through activities such as hot-seating.
- To make links between historical examples of genocide and the intentions of the author of Stone Cold.
The relevant English Framework objectives are:
- comment on the authorial perspectives offered in texts on individuals, community and society in texts from different cultures (year 9, text-reading 6);
- analyse how an author’s standpoint can affect meaning in non-literary texts (year 9, text-reading 11);
- use a range of dramatic techniques, including work in role, to explore issues, ideas and meanings (year 9, speaking and listening 12).
Activity description
Session 1
The teacher started the lesson by making links to the pupils' prior learning, their earlier discussions on genocide and the Holocaust, and their current class novel, Stone Cold, by Robert Swindells. He drew their attention to the learning objectives (see Activity objectives, above), which he listed on the board.
After reading a brief factual extract on the life of Anne Frank, the teacher asked the class what they already knew about her and whether any of the details had surprised them. One student wanted clarification about the difference between Germans and Nazis. Another student offered, 'The Germans live in Germany. The Nazis followed Hitler.'
At this point, the pupils were asked to describe briefly how they would feel if they had been locked up in a back room for two years, hiding from soldiers who would have taken them away to concentration camps if they were found. Banning the use of 'scared' ('Oh Sir!'), the teacher asked them to use a wide range of vocabulary to express their feelings. The pupils offered 'horrified', 'bored', 'angry', 'closed in', 'shut out', 'petrified' and 'as if the world is against me'. The teacher then asked them to explain, in role, why they felt this way.
Q: Why are you angry?
A: Because I don't deserve to be shut up in this place. I've done nothing wrong.
Q: Why do you feel closed in?
A: I feel trapped and I don't know whether I will die today or tomorrow.
Q: Why are you petrified?
A: I feel singled out and I don't know what is going to happen to me. I only hope I live through this to tell my story.
Session 2
Next, the class read a final extract from Anne's diary in which she talks about her dual personality (at this point in the lesson the pupils did not know that this was her last entry). A discussion took place that can be summarised as follows:
Q: Were they surprised about the content of this entry?
A: Yes
Q: Is this what they expected from a diary?
A: Yes
Q: Did the fact that it was the last entry affect their attitude to the text?
A: Yes
Q: Had they ever written anything that matched parts of the diary extract?
A: Very little
A hot-seating activity followed, with the class directing questions at each pupil who volunteered, in turn, to take on the role of Anne Frank (there were plenty of volunteers!). The pupils were clearly engaged with the task as they were keen to participate and posed thoughtful questions. For example:
How did you get through it?
Weren't you going crazy in the end in such a small place?
What did it feel like when they came and got you?
Why didn't you just say what you really felt to your family?
Why did you joke all the time?
The following question and answers were even more poignant:
Q: Did you ever wish not to be a Jew?
A1: No chance. My parents were Jewish so I was Jewish.
A2: Yes, because if I were a Nazi I would be free … although if I had the choice, I would prefer not to be a Nazi. Nazis have to live with seeing people killed. This is very difficult.
Session 3
In the final part of the lesson, the pupils were asked to evaluate what they had learnt about literary and historical characters through hot-seating and what parallels they could draw between the Holocaust and their class text, Stone Cold. They pointed out that the killing of homeless people in Stone Cold was a form of genocide. When a pupil asked how it could be that the Nazis were Christians, the teacher drew attention to the differences between moderate and extremist interpretations of religious faith, referring to the 11 September 2001 atrocities in the United States to highlight the sensitivity of the surrounding issues. He cited a question put to Muhammed Ali shortly after the attacks, together with his response:
Journalist: How do you feel that these people share your religion?
Ali: How do you feel that Adolf Hitler shared your religion?
This led to discussion among the pupils about differing opinions within any one group.
Commentary
This lesson engaged the pupils' full attention and interest. The objectives of the lesson were well met, especially in terms of the pupils' empathy with Anne Frank and her family, and in relation to some of the author's intentions in Stone Cold.
This lesson (one of four) was part of a mini-unit on genocide that was developed to sit alongside the study of Stone Cold. The other lessons in this scheme included work on the following issues:
- the Holocaust, racism and genocide (eg Adolf Hitler and groups such as Combat 18);
- Pastor Niemoeller's statement about the failure of Germans to speak out against the Nazis;
- features about ethnic cleansing and the war in Bosnia from newspapers and magazines.
The English department continues to develop its key stage 3 curriculum so that issues of race and cultural diversity feature throughout its work. The department is reviewing its resources in collaboration with the EMAG coordinator. For example, it is developing materials that will help pupils to consider the role of angels in both Christianity and Islam. This work will sit alongside the reading of David Almond's Skellig in year 8.
Extension materials to accompany Mildred D Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry are being piloted in key stage 4. The department has produced an information booklet to accompany the study. The contents, which include information on the Triangular Trade, Olaudah Equiano, slave life on the farms and plantations, and the Civil War, help pupils gain an understanding of events in history that are referred to in the book.
When this development work is completed, the department plans to rewrite its English policy to ensure that its statement of intent and scheme of work embrace these issues unambiguously, as well as providing advice for staff on successful teaching strategies in this complex area.
Points to note
Resources for the writing skills unit in the department's scheme of work include examples of work that reflect social and cultural diversity, and provide a positive image of race, gender and disability.
Resources
Almond, D, Skellig, Hodder Children's, UK, 1998
Frank, A, The Diary of Anne Frank, originally published in the Netherlands, 1947. Final diary extract available online from Bookrags.com: www.bookrags.com/notes/daf/QUO.htm (see quote 23)
Swindells, R, Stone Cold, Puffin, UK, 1995
Taylor, M D, Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, Puffin, UK, 1995
Martin Niemoeller's statement about the German's failure to speak up against Nazis (which begins 'First they came for the Communists') can be found in the Jewish Virtual Library at www.us-israel.org/jsource/Holocaust/Niemoller_quote.html
The online national curriculum can be found at www.nc.uk.net