a blog about books written for teenagers and young adults. Reading is the best thing in the world. This summer I am reading a number of books that I hope to use in a course . How did I choose the books? I look for books everywhere- bookstores, online, secondhand, borrowed or I ask people what they like.
With lesson planning in mind, there are a number of pros and cons to introducing “Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl” in a classroom. The greatest advantage is that this book presents tremendous opportunity for critical thinking. Students are able to analyze what influence circumstances, age, and temperament of the heroine may have had on the narrative and suggest some alternate possibilities. For example, they might consider whether Anne’s negative relationship with her mother was exacerbated by her own immaturity. Similarly, studying the diary would encourage students to draw personal connections, comparing and contrasting their own experiences to Anne’s. The importance of context and setting in this text are also significant in that the diary offers a unique perspective on a momentous and horrifying event. One can certainly admire the general positive attitude and personal awareness Anne relates as she grows throughout the text.
An obstacle to using this text in an English course is that the very nature of a diary precludes certain literary features that a class might normally examine because the author does not intentionally develop character, plot, symbols, style, etc. but rather relates circumstances as she perceives them. For this same reason, teaching the diary to the class as a whole may be difficult as it does not fit neatly into one subject, but rather teeters on the divide between History and English Language Arts. However, involving this text in a theme or team taught curriculum about the Second World War would be ideal. Similarly, the ‘relateability’ and opportunity for research makes the text well suited to independent novel study.
I must admit that this is my first time reading Anne Frank. Looking at this book as a first time reader I believe this is a good book that many people will be able to feel connected to. It would be good for high school students to read as it is a book about a teenager discovering herself, going through the same stage in life as they are. The students are able to feel a stronger bond to this book because it is a diary and therefore the events described within it are personal events, this teenager's intimate thoughts and feelings. Because of the bond students can feel to these characters they may be more willing to participating in classroom discussions concerning the book. Due to the time period Anne lived through she is forced to grow up faster, having her issues with her parents and love quickly snowball together. The perfect scenario to read this book would be while the students are also studying the second world war to help them see a more personal view of the war. It would benifit the history class as they could understand how people felt during the war and the English class as they could better understand what Anne and the others in the secret annex were going through.
3 comments:
With lesson planning in mind, there are a number of pros and cons to introducing “Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl” in a classroom. The greatest advantage is that this book presents tremendous opportunity for critical thinking. Students are able to analyze what influence circumstances, age, and temperament of the heroine may have had on the narrative and suggest some alternate possibilities. For example, they might consider whether Anne’s negative relationship with her mother was exacerbated by her own immaturity. Similarly, studying the diary would encourage students to draw personal connections, comparing and contrasting their own experiences to Anne’s. The importance of context and setting in this text are also significant in that the diary offers a unique perspective on a momentous and horrifying event. One can certainly admire the general positive attitude and personal awareness Anne relates as she grows throughout the text.
An obstacle to using this text in an English course is that the very nature of a diary precludes certain literary features that a class might normally examine because the author does not intentionally develop character, plot, symbols, style, etc. but rather relates circumstances as she perceives them. For this same reason, teaching the diary to the class as a whole may be difficult as it does not fit neatly into one subject, but rather teeters on the divide between History and English Language Arts. However, involving this text in a theme or team taught curriculum about the Second World War would be ideal. Similarly, the ‘relateability’ and opportunity for research makes the text well suited to independent novel study.
I must admit that this is my first time reading Anne Frank. Looking at this book as a first time reader I believe this is a good book that many people will be able to feel connected to. It would be good for high school students to read as it is a book about a teenager discovering herself, going through the same stage in life as they are. The students are able to feel a stronger bond to this book because it is a diary and therefore the events described within it are personal events, this teenager's intimate thoughts and feelings. Because of the bond students can feel to these characters they may be more willing to participating in classroom discussions concerning the book. Due to the time period Anne lived through she is forced to grow up faster, having her issues with her parents and love quickly snowball together.
The perfect scenario to read this book would be while the students are also studying the second world war to help them see a more personal view of the war. It would benifit the history class as they could understand how people felt during the war and the English class as they could better understand what Anne and the others in the secret annex were going through.
This book is part of life education.People are always going to refer to it. RH
I agree with Ruth. HJR
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