Dear Diary

The Diary of Anne Frank is often found on eighth grade curriculum-- a nice cross-curricular unit typically nestled under Nonfiction or cozied next to Drama. The book [or play] simultaneously reminds us of the best and worst of humanity, represents a historical era, and dredges up a variety of themes about adolescence, among many other topics. Of course, this play is generally introduced with an important dose of background information on World War II and the Holocaust.

 In my previous classroom experiences in the United States it was not uncommon to receive a flood of facts, dates, and names spit out in quick succession to answer the question, "What do you already know/what have you already heard about WWII?" Here in Puerto Rico, aside from a few responses, what I heard was the sound of crickets.... or more accurately, coquí*. The students explained that they read briefly about it in Social Studies, but it was only a few paragraphs because they had to cover all of Western Europe. With several days to transition from Nonfiction to Drama already built in, I'd planned on delving into WWII and the Holocaust to connect units anyway, but I'd never before had the opportunity to introduce students to a historical period that was, until now, a big question mark for them.

It was fun to play History teacher and see their interest sparked a bit by John Green's Crash Course World History video about WWII and an article giving an overview of how the war began/how other countries became involved. When we read a primary source of German laws for Jewish citizens to follow, their interested transitioned to shock when they realized stripping people of their rights was only one check mark on the Nazi docket. After reading an article about children during the Holocaust that detailed the different types of concentration camps, their shock became disgust. And finally, when we read an article about the Holocaust denial movement, my students got angry. They were ready to meet Anne.

The play (by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett) was entertaining for them to read and I was surprised how much they got into it-- one student bringing a long wig to "help" him read his lines better as a female character, even.  Thanks to the popularity of the book and film "The Fault in Our Stars", many of my students were familiar with the fact that the secret annex is now a museum in Amsterdam. Naturally, I heard a chorus of:

"Miss! Let's go on a field trip to the museum!"
"It wouldn't be that hard to organize!"
"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease! But Miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiss!"

3D Secret Annex Tour.

While taking over 60 kids on a field trip to a foreign country from Puerto Rico was nowhere near within my power (not to mention budget!), I was pleased to find that the museum offers a 3D tour of the secret annex on their website. It's a mixture of computer graphics and recreated/computerized photos of the rooms, but you can navigate throughout the entire building and even meander around each room. Videos and sound clips are located throughout to give additional information about the characters and the building itself. My students certainly enjoyed pretending they were "walking" through the annex.

Another still from the 3D tour.

The next exciting internet find I came across is the Anne Frank Tree, a digital representation of the tree Anne could see from the annex window. The tree is now filled with virtual leaves containing the name, location, age, and message of those influenced and inspired by Anne's diary. A quick scroll through some of the leaves shows a wide variety of countries and people have written their messages in multiple languages. Which is pretty cool, considering Anne never knew her diary would be published and so widely read.

It was fun to play History teacher and then teach a play that made students say, "Miss, that hit me in the feels!" Hopefully you will be seeing some leaves from Puerto Rico added to Anne's tree soon.

*Coquí are very small tree frogs that live in Puerto Rico. Whenever it gets quiet at night you can hear them very clearly and it sounds like they are saying "coquí".

A coquí