Chapter 1 states that, according to the Principles of Critical Literacy, part of the purpose of viewing literature through a critical lens is "disrupting a common situation...to gain perspective" (pg. 17).
Taking this philosophy into the context of The Diary of Anne Frank, one would have to consider MORE than just the perspective of Anne and teenagers. We've thought of doing lit. circles with excerpts of books or articles to explore the other points of view that existed/exist.
The survivor's perspective (perhaps an excerpt from Wiesel's Night?) will most definitely be incorporated, but what others do you think would be important to include? Groups off the top of my head are children, rescuers, Christians, and followers of the Nazi party.
Thoughts?
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3 comments:
The lesson plan description for "Number the Stars" (in chapter three) has some good suggestions for other points of view. It's written for fifth grade but could easily be adapted for eighth.
I really like the MInd Portrait activity they did (page 80). Middle school kids would like the artistic element of it - feels less threatening than having to write a paragraph or constructed response; though, it could certainly be used as a pre-writing activity for either of those.
The teacher who did the activity with "Number the Stars" used a soldier as one of the points of view; I appreciated her using that term rather than Nazi. Knowing the lack of tact middle school kids sometimes exhibit, I would be concerned as to what they might write in a Mind Portrait labeled "Nazi".
The book also suggested bringing up the Japanese internment camps in the US, using the book "Baseball Saved Us" among others.
I was also wondering if there was an excerpt or two from "The Reader" that would be appropriate. I know most of the story is about an affair, but there is quite a chunk that is about the trial of the protagonist who was a former guard at a female concentration camp. She was trying to defend her decisions to a judge; that might be an interesting take on the subject.
Also, wasn't there some legislation that resulted from WWII? The Geneva convention maybe? I think there are laws outlining appropriate war time behavior and treatment of people. I hope I'm not speaking ignorantly...
You might consider two of my favorite books - both of which I believe to be compelling stories. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne is about a boy whose father runs one of the concentration camps and while the family lives outside of a camp, the son befriends a Jewish child in the camp through the fence.
The other book is Jerry Spinelli's Milkweed which is about an orphaned boy in Warsaw who at first wants to be a Jackboot and has no idea they would never take him. He befriends other orphans who take care of him and help him survive as Warsaw is systematically taken over. I have wanted to see these texts used in book clubs and the discussion about the differing perspectives.
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