Description
What our Biographies: Anne Frank lesson plan includes
Lesson Objectives and Overview: Biographies: Anne Frank teaches students about Anne Frank, including who she was, key events during her lifetime. The lesson includes excerpts from her famous diary. By the end of the lesson, your students will have a better understanding of not only who Anne Frank was but also the importance of her story. This lesson is for students in 3rd grade, 4th grade, and 5th grade.
Classroom Procedure
Every lesson plan provides you with a classroom procedure page that outlines a step-by-step guide to follow. You do not have to follow the guide exactly. The guide helps you organize the lesson and details when to hand out worksheets. It also lists information in the orange box that you might find useful. You will find the lesson objectives, state standards, and number of class sessions the lesson should take to complete in this area. In addition, it describes the supplies you will need as well as what and how you need to prepare beforehand.
Teacher Notes
The teacher notes page includes a paragraph with additional guidelines and things to think about as you begin to plan your lesson. This page also includes lines that you can use to add your own notes as you’re preparing for this lesson.
BIOGRAPHIES: ANNE FRANK LESSON PLAN CONTENT PAGES
Who is Anne Frank?
The Biographies: Anne Frank lesson plan includes three content pages. Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt, Germany. You may have heard her name associated with a book titled The Diary of Anne Frank. What makes her story so important that several biographies have been written about her? Her diary is one of the most widely read accounts of the Holocaust and what living under Hitler and Nazi occupation was like before and during World War II.
The Holocaust, which began in 1933, started with the spread of antisemitism across Europe. It led to the death of millions of Jews at the hands of Nazi Germany and its collaborators. Anne was born on June 12, 1929, to Jewish parents, Otto and Edith, and had an older sister named Margot. That means Anne was only about 4 years old when the Holocaust began. The Frank family fled to Amsterdam in 1934, hoping to relocate to a more tolerant country. Unfortunately, trouble followed the family when, in 1940, Germany invaded the Netherlands.
The Diary of Anne Frank
For her thirteenth birthday in 1942, she was presented with a red and white plaid diary. Anne wanted to be a novelist, and writing was something she enjoyed doing, so the gift was perfect for her. She began writing immediately. Scarcely a month later (July 6), she and her family had to go into hiding, shattering the everyday life of a 13-year-old girl. They hid in a secret annex behind Otto’s office, and there they remained for two years.
The entrance to the annex was cleverly concealed behind a bookshelf. Although it had two floors and an attic, the space was quite cramped. The first floor contained a small kitchen and a bathroom, while the upstairs area consisted of two tiny rooms. The attic served as a storage area. Heavy black curtains covered the windows, blocking out any light. Everyone inside had to move quietly and tread softly to avoid being discovered.
The Annex
The space was approximately 484 square feet, around the size of an average double-car garage. If the space had been occupied only by Otto and his family, it might have been fine. But they were not all who hid in the room behind the bookcase in Otto’s office. Hiding with the Franks were the van Pels family (Hermann, Auguste, and Peter) and Fritz Pfeffer, totaling eight people. For two years, they shared the modest space. Remaining absolutely quiet during the day and concealed from view was not an easy task. Anne was 13 years old when the family moved into the cramped quarters.
For those two years, Anne wrote about life in the secret annex. Her diary includes very personal information about herself, as well as her thoughts and feelings. She wrote about her tumultuous relationship with her parents, in particular her mother. There are also entries about Peter van Pels. She wrote about their intimate conversations and first kiss in her diary. When Peter van Pels kissed her, he was 16 years old, and she was 15 at the time.
Becoming a Novel
If the diary were only the personal musings of a teenage girl, Anne’s autobiography would not be of international and historical interest. But it became more than a means of helping her cope with the day-to-day life of hiding. Remember, just feet outside her door, the Nazis were rounding up Jews who eventually were put to death during the Holocaust. When the families thought it was safe, they turned on the radio to hear the newscasts about the war. Anne heard a request on the radio for people to keep war diaries, and she began to rewrite and edit her diary into a novel called The Secret Annex.
Anne offered incredible insight into the horrors of war. She was aware of other families who did not hide and were sent to concentration camps; their fate was unknown, but she knew they probably suffered until death. Despite her situation, Anne maintained a positive outlook, believing there was good in people. She anxiously awaited news that the war had ended and that they could emerge from the shadows and resume their lives. Unfortunately, Anne did not live to see the end of the war. They were discovered on August 4, 1944, and sent to concentration camps, where all except Otto perished.
Publication of the Diary
If Anne’s autobiography ended there, then she would not have won international acclaim. When Otto returned to Amsterdam, the diary was given to him by Miep Gies, one of the family’s friends who assisted them during their hiding. After reading the diary, Otto decided to honor his daughter by publishing it. The diary was published in 1947 under the title Het Achterhuis (Dutch) or The Secret Annex (English). More modern translations are titled Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl or simply The Diary of Anne Frank.
Since its original publication, Anne Frank’s diary has sold millions of copies. It has been translated and shared into over 70 languages. Numerous movies, plays, and documentaries have been made of her life story. Many thousands of people have visited the Anne Frank House and Museum in Amsterdam. Her autobiography, as shared through her diaries, and biographies about her written by various authors, remind readers that even in the direst situations, good ultimately triumphs over evil. Anne Frank is a testament to the power of hope in overcoming the impact of hatred.
Biographies and Autobiographies
You have probably read or at least know what a biography is. The prefix bio- originates from a Greek word that means life or way of living. The suffix -graphy means to write. A biography is a written account of someone’s life, typically written by someone other than the person being written about. If a person writes about themselves, that is called an autobiography. The prefix auto- means self. So, an autobiography is a written account about oneself—a personal narrative, for example.
Autobiographies are generally considered primary sources. A primary source is an original document, object, or record that provides firsthand information about a specific event, person, or idea. They are personal accounts of someone’s life, written by that person, and therefore offer a direct perspective on events and experiences. Journals, diaries, photographs, video, or logs are all primary sources of information.
Importance of Biographies
Why is it important to know the difference between a biography and an autobiography? Great question! A person who writes about someone else may not always have access to all the important stuff that goes on in their life. Biographers have to use sources like interviews, journals, or other articles about a person to interpret what the person they write about was thinking. These are called secondary sources, or ones that were created later by someone who did not experience events firsthand or participate in the events about which they are writing. Secondary sources often summarize, interpret, analyze, or comment on information found in primary sources.
Why are biographies important? They give us insights into the lives of individuals. Readers can learn from the experience of others when reading them. We can gain a deeper understanding of the unseen forces that shape personal decision-making and sometimes the world. Biographies and autobiographies preserve the historical record of past events, allowing them to be shared with future readers. We see the historical context or background of the time a person lived. Biographies are one way humans can share personal insights and relate to others.
BIOGRAPHIES: ANNE FRANK LESSON PLAN WORKSHEETS
The Biographies: Anne Frank lesson plan includes two worksheets: an activity worksheet and a practice worksheet. You can refer to the guide on the classroom procedure page to determine when to hand out each worksheet. There is also a vocabulary page at the end of the lesson plan for your convenience.
YOUR AUTOBIOGRAPHY ACTIVITY WORKSHEET
Writing biographies and autobiographies is a way in which humans share personal experiences that are meaningful to themselves and others. For the activity, students will write a short autobiography, or choose a person they admire or know to write a brief biography about, sharing an experience that is meaningful to them.
PRACTICE WORKSHEET
The practice worksheet requires students to answer a series of 10 questions. These questions all relate to the content pages, so students will need to refer to them often for the answers. In addition, each question provides which reading tool the question corresponds to, such as text feature, vocabulary, or comprehension.
Worksheet Answer Keys
This lesson plan includes answer keys for the activity worksheet, the practice worksheet, and the homework assignment. If you choose to administer the lesson pages to your students via PDF, you will need to save a new file that omits these pages. Otherwise, you can simply print out the applicable pages and keep these as reference for yourself when grading assignments.
