the diary of a young girl: The Definitive Edition  by anne frank    

In general, about 20 pages per day of The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition by Anne Frank are assigned daily, BUT, the classroom is "flipped"; reading or listening to the audiobook is completed in class, while vocabulary work, chapter questions and other assignments are completed at home. This ensures that all students have read the book and can participate in and understand class discussions as well as be successful with other classwork or homework. It is imperative that the Definitive Edition (edited by Otto Frank and Mirjam Pressler) is read; other versions of the diary are bowdlerized and not exemplars of a primary source or a young adult's writing.

PRE-READING/CHECK FOR PRIOR KNOWLEDGE: Dr. Seuss -- the Political Dr. Seuss, believe it or not, is the introductory content for this unit.  First, introduce students to the Rhetorical Devices and Advertising Techniques; Dr. Seuss, actually, began his career, integrating writing and drawing, in advertising. (The unit can begin with students writing a Consumer Product Review of something that they recently bought, and then students can create an ad for this product in order to see the difference between informative genres and persuasion.) Dr. Seuss actually wrote Green Eggs and Ham about the perseverance of advertisers.  Later, Dr. Seuss realized that he could use rhetorical techniques -- ethos, pathos and logos -- to promote Political Perspectives through Political Cartoons, especially during World War II. (Student should try to draw their own Political Cartoons, Using Literary Techniques!)  He also saw how Hitler used children's book to indoctrinate children, so, later in his career, he began writing children's books with th(Seir own implied messages, such as The Lorax, The Sneetches and The Butter Battle Book; The Sneetches has powerful connections to The Pearl and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. Rhetorical strategies are also used in speeches, so a re-reading and analysis of Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream Speech is very valuable. Analyze the speech using the Literary Analysis Web and/or 3 Rhetorical Devices; this reveals the greatness of the speech as a piece of literature! Unfortunately, this leads to Hitler's powerful use of rhetoric: the speech, propaganda/misinformation, political cartoons and posters, and children's books -- The Poisonous Mushroom. 

VOCABULARY: Before starting the diary, please introduce the students to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and this Introduction/CLOZ Activity. 

CHAPTER/ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS: Students should keep a reading log of passages from the diary in order to answer Level 3/Applied Questions in the form of PEAEAEAL/8-Sentence Paragraph Journals.

READING ACCOUNTABILITY: Key passages, especially the beginning of the book, should be listened to in class with the the audiobook; PEAEAEAL/Accordion Paragraph Essential Questions/Level 3 can be completed for further accountability.

SUMMARY: The Diary of a Girl: The Definitive Edition is a powerful piece of literature written by a 13-year-old girl during the Holocaust. It is an exemplar of a young person's ability to write! In addition, the historical content she included within its pages serve as a foundational primary resource for this time period. In fact, on the first pages of the diary, Frank carefully lists the anti-Jewish decrees that she and all Jewish citizens needed to follow in Germany and German-occupied territories; the similarities to the Jim Crow Laws cannot be denied, and, it is important to note that Hitler apparently studied America's Jim Crow Laws when enacting his own racist laws. Other Holocaust accounts and genres should also be explored, such as: I Never Saw Another Butterfly by Pavel Friedman, The Children of Terezin Poetry and Art, news stories, and feature articles on various topics including Lost Music of the Holocaust, and The Lady in Number 6, and A Century of Death Graph.

INTEGRATED WRITING PROJECT: The final assignment is a Multi-genre Writing Project, and should be introduced mid-way through the diary, so students can use the information within the diary as inspiration and as a resource; the key assignment is a Rhetorical Essay/Thesis Essay.

POST-READING SUGGESTIONS TO BRIDGE NOVELS: Watch Surviving Skokie and Analyze the Concept of "Hate Speech" and the Dangers of Extremism and Nationalism.