Diary Of Anne Frank Essay

The anchor text for this unit will be The Diary of Anne Frank. The goal for this unit is for students to connect with Anne Frank’s experience and through her writing gain a deeper understanding of the variety of diverse perspectives that inform the world. Students will also explore how the Holocaust experience, that individuals such as Anne endured, serves as reason of the need for equal human rights for all.

The primary text of the unit, The Diary of Anne Frank, along with excerpts from Ashes by Kathryn Lasky and The Thaw by Primo Levi will introduce students to the global competency of recognizing perspectives. Students will compare and contrast these different perspectives on The Holocaust. In Ashes, the protagonist is a gentile who is growing up during Hitler’s rise to power and the beginnings of World War II. Students will work in pairs to create open mind portraits of Anne Frank and Ashes protagonist, Gabriella. In comparing and contrasting these two individuals students will evaluate how these two individuals experience this historical

Stewart (2010) explains, “life in the United States increasingly involves interacting and working with individuals from vastly different backgrounds and cultures – a challenge and an opportunity that requires new skills and perspectives” (p. 100). For the 8th graders completing this unit, an opportunity is created for them to learn through the harrowing experiences of holocaust survivors and how people from different cultures share similar values and communicate similar ideals, in this case the necessity for global human rights. According to the NEA Global Competency Matrix for English Language Arts, in recognizing perspectives students “examine perspectives of other people, groups, or schools of thought within and about texts and media from around the world, and identify influences on those perspectives”