Teaching about Anne Frank is essential as it provides a deeply personal and relatable perspective on the Holocaust, humanizing the immense tragedy and fostering empathy and tolerance.
I always start an Anne Frank unit with a brief overview of World War 2 by using this great timeline activity below. In the activity students need to work together to research key dates before sorting the key events in order. I then give my students more knowledge of the Holocaust by using the close reading activity below.
By this point students have a good knowledge of World War 2, so I start to introduce Anne Frank. I again use a timeline activity, but this time specific to the German-born diarist's life. This activity in particular is very popular with my students, and once finished I ask them to join the two timelines together.
In the next lesson, I use the Anne Frank Reading Comprehensions below to give my students more insight into the life of Anne and her family. These come with a host of extension activities for fast finishers or to set as home tasks.
Afterwards, we move on to writing her biography. The Anne Frank Biography Writing Units below allow students to read facts, sort them into specific paragraphs, and then write their individual biographies. These also come with a template for their finished biography which make great classroom displays.
When teaching about Anne Frank I always read aloud her diary, which can be bought in an abridged version perfect for the classroom. Her diary not only documents the harrowing realities of living under Nazi persecution but also highlights themes of resilience, hope, and the human spirit's capacity to endure. I also use the great BBC series which features Ben Kingsley as Otto Frank. This is available free on You Tube.
Obviously, Anne stops writing her diary once she is captured by the German forces, hence whilst watching the series we pause and discuss key events from her time in the horrific concentration camps, before writing the diary entries she was unable to write.
For one last task, my students complete the Anne Frank Escape Room Activity. This makes a great end of unit review - although most students fly through the activity as they have such a deep understanding of her life.
By studying her story, students gain a deeper understanding of the dangers of prejudice, the importance of human rights, and the value of diversity.
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