by Donelle Blubaugh
A new adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank will premiere this spring on MASTERPIECE Classic on PBS. The two-hour film will air on April 11, 2010, which is Holocaust Remembrance Day. And, of course, the MASTERPIECE Classic team at WGBH will be creating resources to help educators introduce this timeless and timely story to students. I’d like to invite you to lend them a hand.

Whether you have been teaching The Diary of Anne Frank as part of your curriculum for years or are bringing it to students for the first time, no one knows better that you what kinds of activities and tools will best invite readers and viewers to take this remarkable young woman into their hearts and minds. Would you take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us here at Media Infusion? Below are some questions to help start the conversation, but please don’t feel that you need to answer them verbatim. We want your wisdom, your ideas, and your wish-lists–and we need them soon in order to build them into the project. Thank you!

1. In which grade is The Diary of Anne Frank taught at your school? Is it taught in the English department or social studies department, or co-taught?
2. What is your focus when you teach The Diary? Do you teach it as a work of literature or as an historical document?
3. How do you make The Diary relevant for students today? Do students come to you with prior knowledge about the Holocaust?
4. How long do you spend teaching The Diary? And, if it’s part of a bigger unit, what is that unit?
5. What kinds of assignments do you typically give students relating to studying The Diary?
6. Do you use new media (digital storytelling tools, digital maps and images, blogs, etc.) to teach Anne Frank? What sort? What new media would you like to have to teach Anne Frank?
7. What resources do you currently use to teach The Diary and which work best? (Specific titles and URLS, would be enormously helpful, since we’d like to create an aggregate of “Best Resources” on pbs.org/masterpiece)
8. How would you use this new Masterpiece film version. Are you most likely to use short clips from the film or invite students to watch the complete film?