In 2005, the Anne Frank House collected a number of chestnuts from the tree that Anne Frank wrote about in her diary. A while ago the saplings that grew from these were spread across a number of Anne Frank Schools in Europe. In November, ten of these saplings will be shipped to New York.
On Sunday 15 February 2009, Miep Gies reached the venerable age of one hundred. She celebrated her birthday quietly with family and friends. Miep is in reasonably good health, and remains deeply involved in keeping alive the memory of Anne Frank and spreading the message of her story. She still receives letters from all over the world with questions about her relationship with Anne Frank and her role as a helper.
Amsterdam has been designated as UNESCO World Book Capital, and will bear the title from 23 April 2008 to 22 April 2009. Three literary icons have been selected who tell a story of Amsterdam as a World Book Capital past and present: the philosopher Spinoza, internationally acclaimed children’s author Annie M.G. Schmidt, and the young Jewish diarist Anne Frank.
Emphasis on Anne Frank as an author
Throughout the year, the educational programmes in the Anne Frank House will have an extra emphasis on Anne as an author. Besides this, a simplified Dutch version of the life story of Anne Frank was published on 25 April. This book has been specially written for people with reading difficulties.
18-year old Nadya Gorodeskaya from Russia won the Anne Frank photo contest ‘Sources of Inspiration’. With her portrait of the Russian man Ivan she expressed the theme ‘happiness’.
About her photo Nadya says: “Ivan is a very kind and cheerful old man. His whole life he has lived in a small village and he is very happy about this. He has a nice wife and wonderful kids. Even though he has lost his teeth, his health and his hearing, he is not disappointed. He doesn’t complain about his life, he keeps on feeling happy every new day. This photo shows his happiness too. He feels happy because I gave him a little attention.”
During a symposium held in Amsterdam to the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the published diary of Anne Frank, the final debate addressed the magic of the book. What possible explanations can be found for its huge success?
Speakers pointed to the intimate character of the text, to Otto Frank’s role in spreading the book and to its literary quality. They had al read the diary when they were young, but it was only now - after rereading it for the symposium – that they were struck by its literary qualities. Together they pleaded for more attention for the writer Anne Frank.
One of the speakers was Arjan Peters, literary reviewer for the Dutch newspaper ‘De Volkskrant’ and former student of the R.C. Anne Frank School in Heemskerk
Even though decades and thousands of miles separated them from Anne Frank, my students were able to discover the commonalities in their lives. They found ways to not only unite themselves with Anne, but also to fuse together as a family.
The most remarkable thing about my students’ reaction to the project was their desire to write letters directly to Miep Gies, herself. They were so excited and wanted to share with her that they were much more similar to Anne Frank than they were different.
At www.annefrank.org/diarylessons you will find lessons and quizzes about Anne Frank and her diary. The diary lessons stimulate students to think about Anne Frank’s world and their own. The quizzes test their knowledge about Anne Frank and her diary.
The diary lessons are both suited to give as homework and to do in class. Students answer the question using source material. They can save, print and e-mail their answers. The quizzes each consist of 25 multiple choice questions. Students can take them independently, but the quizzes can also form part of a lesson.
In last month’s posting I talked about my holistic approach to the Freedom Writers project. There has been, however, another crucial element in my lessons, and that is history.
I believe that if you don’t learn from history, you are doomed to repeat it. That is why I deliberately infused historical lessons into my literature projects. We spent a lot of time talking about the Holocaust – but I deliberately chose to let them discover Anne’s fate on their own.
After I had decided to use the diary of Anne Frank, one question sprung to my mind: how could I bring Anne’s story to life? In my view, when approaching any text, teachers must engage, enlighten and empower their students to make literature relevant to their lives. They must activate their students’ prior knowledge, and find ways to link what they already know about their own lives with the lesson at hand.
I started teaching at Wilson High School in Long Beach, California in the fall of 1994. It was just after the Rodney King riots and racial tensions had spilled over into the school. After one of my student’s said, “I feel like I live in an undeclared war,” I decided to share Anne Frank’s diary with my class. I desperately wanted my teenage students to learn how to pick up a pen, rather than a gun or their fists to fight injustice in their community.
The diary had a profound impact on me
I originally read Anne Frank’s diary when I was in fourth grade, and I remember it having a profound impact on me – as I watched my students read her book (for many, it was the first book they had ever read from cover-to-cover) I was inspired all over again.
About this weblog
Are you looking for ideas to work with the diary of Anne Frank? In this weblog you will find projects of colleagues and example lessons created by the Anne Frank House. You can send in your own projects as well. In this weblog we will show a selection of the projects sent in.
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- Anne Frank Tree saplings to United States
- Miep Gies 100 years old
- Amsterdam World Book Capital: Anne Frank literary icon
- Photo contest around themes from the Diary
- The magic of ‘The Diary of a Young Girl’
- Erin Gruwell: “My students discovered their commonalities”
- Online lessons and quizzes about Anne Frank
- Erin Gruwell: “Learning from history”
- Erin Gruwell: “Engage, enlighten and empower your students”
- Erin Gruwell: “I was inspired all over again”
