Words from the Wise: Learning from the Writings of Anne Frank

Last week my class finished The Diary of Anne Frank. My goal throughout the unit was that my students not only learned her story but that they really captured the mindset of Anne--how she saw the world, what she valued--and I wanted them to be able to apply the wise words of such a young girl to present day life.

The activity I created to accomplish this was actually inspired by an #ALedchat on Twitter concerning that of MLK. Jennifer Hogan, one of the mediators, provided an MLK quote for each question and asked us how it applied to our school, classroom, students, etc. Well, this gave me a wonderful idea in terms of the words of Anne Frank.

I immediately began collecting quotes by Frank. I cut the quotes out, folded them, and placed them in a bag. I normally allow much choice in my classroom; however, for this assignment, I did not want my students choosing their quotes. Instead, my sister suggested that students draw their quote (Umm...why didn't I think of that?). So, each of my students received their own quote. On a piece of card stock, they had to write their quote, color it, and on the back write how they could apply Anne's quote to present day (whether it concerned society, war, political issues, etc).

Of course, my students blew me away and turned in some really awesome stuff (as seen in the picture below). This just goes to show that assessing student learning doesn't have to be monotonous. As teachers, we just have to think outside the box or participate in Twitter chats for a little inspiration :)