First period had the big nightmare scene in The Diary of Anne Frank, then continued working with our character development graphic organizers. Today students began adding Anne to the chart. Through scaffolding, students have gone from class practice with this procedure to independent work, which is the current, “Anne” stage.

Second and fourth periods began working with sound devices in poetry, adding assonance and slant rhyme to their analytic arsenal. We looked at four poems today:

• “The Gift” (Li-Young Lee)
• “My Papa’s Waltz” (Theodore Roethke)
• “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” (Dylan Thomas)
• “[in Just-]” (e. e. cummings)

Dreidel

Fifth period headed into the home stretch of the first act of The Diary of Anne Frank but working with a couple of informational texts. One gave the background of Hanukkah, which plays an important role in scene five of the first act. Students learned about the Maccabean revolt, latkes, and the dreidel game, and they practiced manipulating elements characteristic of informational texts like bold text and headings as well as doing some more work with effective readers’ skills. We also did a critical thinking activity with a recipe for latkes, a traditional Hanukkah food.

Additionally, both first and fifth periods added to the diary we’ve been keeping during the Anne Frank unit.

Homework

• First period: study for vocabulary quiz on Monday.
• Second and fourth periods: play “Sound Device Millionaire“.
• Fifth period: complete latke work.