“Ms G – did you know Miep Gies was real?” My first thought was, yes, you know we are reading the play based on the Diary of Anne Frank … which is real. My second thought was that I was about to learn yet another lesson while teaching this reading. This was my second time teaching eighth grade curriculum which includes reading select portions of the play.
The first time, I was (trying to be) a curriculum-follower so, after exposing students to a variety of materials for background on the situation in Germany with the rise of Hitler and Nazism, the beginnings of WWII, and an overview of Anne’s family and situation, we began to read. I worked hard at conveying the elements of plot while exploring how story is brought to life with the structure of a play… the students were quickly engaged with the characters’ issues, struggles, and interpersonal interactions. So much so, that they quickly developed stronger comprehension in spite of the play format – I was very excited as this class of struggling readers seemed to be “getting it!”
Until I turned the page in the curriculum guide to read that after Act I we were ‘assigned’ to go on to another topic/reading/core strategy…. No need to finish the play since with Standard Level students there isn’t ‘time’ to read the whole play. The basic premise was to teach the key standards with excerpts from assorted reading. Truthfully, I did know the expected timeline but hadn’t thought about the impact on the students’ motivation until I was faced with it. My students were following the complexities of the multiple plot lines, they were excited to see “if they ever get caught,” (which the world knows did happen, sadly)… and so, I couldn’t do it. I adjusted my lessons to finish reading the play with greater reading support from me; we made a chart of the various characters’ travails on the overhead which was easy to update as we played a book on CD version and students read along… And the Director of the county Secondary Reading Office came walking into my class for a visit on a day I was supposed to be teaching something completely different.
With a sense of discomfort and yet a strong sense of doing the most right thing for the students in my classroom, I met with the Director, ready to explain/justify…. And instead was asked to participate on the summer team to revise 8th grade curriculum with greater flexibility… he understood the need to meet the needs of those whom you teach more than of those who might write the guide.
So, yes, I was a curriculum-follower… until my students taught me to follow them.
A few years and a different school later, I had a second chance to teach the Diary of Anne Frank again to a co-taught class of general education and special education 8th grade students. After developing the context for the collection of people in the Annex, we kept “looking out the attic window” every few lessons at the broader situation: Gestapo vehicles patrolling the streets below; cultures and countries overtaken; whispers of concentration camp atrocities – I wanted them to keep the characters’ conflicts contextualized with the world scene and conflicts … and I thought I had done it. Until Raque walked into class with his comment, “Ms. G – did you know Miep Gies was a real person? I saw on CNN she died…” Instead of being a play character – an office girl who helped hide the Frank family and others – she became very real.
Celebrate: Raque watched CNN… Dismay: I still didn’t make it real!… Use it: by grabbing a news article, the backstory on Miep Gies lent a whole new, exciting aspect to the final days of reading the play. And a reminder: always keep checking in on my students’ understanding!
