Task
Grade Level - 5-8
Subject- Social Studies, Language Arts, History
Learning Outcomes:
* Describe relationships between and among significant events in history
* Identify significant events and people in major eras in world history.
* Summarize major issues associated with history and culture
* Identify and explain examples of bias, prejudice, and stereotyping and how it contributes to conflict in society.
* Write clear and pertinent responses to verbal or visual material.
The story of Anne Frank (Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank) (June 12, 1929 – February/March, 1945) was a German Jewish girl who wrote a diary while in hiding with her family and four friends in Amsterdam during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. Anne was born in Frankfurt, Germany, but her family moved to Amsterdam in 1933, after the Nazis gained power in Germany. However, she and her family were trapped when the Nazi occupation extended into The Netherlands. As persecutions against the Jewish population increased, the family went into hiding in July 1942 in hidden rooms in her father Otto Frank's office building. After two years in hiding the group was betrayed and transported to concentration camps. Seven months after her arrest, Anne died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp within days of her sister, Margot Frank. Her father, Otto, the only survivor of the group, returned to Amsterdam after the war ended, to find that her diary had been saved. Convinced that it was a unique record, he took action to have it published.
At the end of this lesson, there should be an increased empathy among the students. It should build on questions of identity and human dignity, bringing the lens closer to the learners themselves. The fact that Anne Frank wrote in a diary and was constantly seeking to better understand herself and her world sets an example for the students. What would they write about? How would they describe their place in the world? How do they learn to get along with, respect and care about each other in their communities, as part of a nation, between one country and another? This lesson will help students understand that we study the past in part to become aware of the terrible toll of discrimination, hatred and violence.
