Anne Frank’s Life in Her Secret Annex

Introduction

Born on June 12, 1929, Anne Frank was a German-Jewish teenager who was forced to go into hiding during World War II. She and her family, along with four others Jewish men and women, spent over two years in an annex of rooms above her father’s office in Amsterdam.

Nowadays it is very difficult to imagine how hard life was for those who lived: imprisoned in absolute silence -justify by the unceasing fear to be discovered-. Try to imagine yourself living and hiding with seven Jewish in Amsterdam during the time of Shoá.

Task

Imagine you have to hide in a secret annex for two years. What would be the most difficult thing to endure for you? By the end of this web quest, you will walk through Anne’s Annex as your discover who she was, and what things you might have in common.

Process

Task 1: Learning About the People How Lived There.

In her diary, Anne says:

“When I write, I can shake off all my cares.”

A-Open this link in a new tab:

http://www.annefrank.org/en/Subsites/Timeline/#!/en/Subsites/Timeline/

B- Individually go to the Anne Frank Timeline. On this page, you can find chronologically organized the information you need to complete this task.

C- Click Themes- upper center – then go to the blue section World War II: The Hiding Place and the Arrest 1941-1942, in pairs look up for the relevant information that will help you answer the following questions:

1- How many men and women lived inside the Secret Annex? What did they do every day? How did they spend their time?

2- With in their small indoors community, what were the roles of the Franks’, the Van Pels and Mr. Pfeffer?

Tips:

-Use the direction keys on your keyboards to navigate through the time line.

-Assign rolls to each person in your team. One member could transcribe the information. The other two of you can take turns to find answers quickly.

Task 1.1: Discovering How Was Life inside the Secret Annex.

A-Open this link in a new tab:

http://www.annefrank.org/en/Subsites/Home/Enter-the-3D-house/#/house/start/help/

Follow the instructions on the process screen to explore the virtual tour of the Anne Frank House.

General Instructions:

B- Use the "click and drag" method to navigate each page.

C- The first thing you should do when you enter each new area is look around!

D- Be sure to go STEP by STEP--don't skip ahead!

E- When you have finished write down and answer in your notebook. The following questions:

1- How many rooms did you explore? What did you learn in your favorite room?

2- To whom did that space belong? What was the purpose of that room?

Evaluation

As your final project, you will use the knowledge you gained from these activities and create power point presentation to teach us about what you believe is Anne Frank’s Diary legacy. Regarding these areas: world history, culture or literature.

A-To assess your learning effectively we will use the following rubrics:

This project will be part of your Class Work Evaluation (45%) of Q4. Remember that your presentation is 25% of your grade. When all groups have completed their presentation your will receive a (20%) pop quiz.

Along the process we will evaluate your Class Behavior and Working Habits (25%).

Conclusion

Congratulations, you have completed this webquest! If you fished early, feel free to explore the other additional areas of the Anne’s house. Most of the information the world has about Anne Frank’s life comes from her diaries.

Thousand people enjoy and continue to use as it as a window to that period. You can follow Anne’s footsteps and begin writing a diary or a blog. Maybe one day your words will inspire young writers through generations.

Send me an e-mail to dianarodz7@hotmail.com sharing your thoughts, suggestions so we can improve this web quest and design better web quests for you.

Credits

Resources

Anne Frank’s Timeline

http://www.annefrank.org/en/Subsites/Timeline/#!/en/Subsites/Timeline/

Anne Frank’s Quotes

http://izquotes.com/author/anne-frank

Create Web Quest

https://www.createwebquest.com/misshayes/anne-frank-virtual-tour

USA Holocaust Memorial Museum

http://www.ushmm.org/research/research-in-collections/search-the-collections/bibliography/anne-frank#h171

Virtual Tour

http://www.annefrank.org/en/Subsites/Home/Enter-the-3D-house/#/house/start/help/

Frances Goorich and Albert Hackett's play. Addapted by Holt Mc Dougal Literature (2012) Found: Interactive Readers Grade 8. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Teacher Page

This Web Quest was originally design as an assignment for my Teaching and Technologies Course, an addition to my Master in TESOL Professional Portfolio.

The class for whom I originally planned this Quest are 9th Graders, ESL Jewish students with Spanish as their L1. They will possess prior knowledge of Shoá (WII-Holocaust History) and some might have read already Anne Frank`s Diary in English. In advance they watched a documentary about Anne Frank’s, read some acts from France Goodrich and Albert Hackett’s play.

My main objective is for them to fell empathy and engage on a self-knowledge awareness voyage. As they gain a general understanding about how good writers transcend time and space to influence new generations.

As a follow up you could ask them to do a flip book about Anne Frank’s Diary. Or ask them to write a prologue for her book anniversary.