TCS Middle Schoolers Visit Anne Frank Exhibit

Middle level students from The Children’s School recently visited “Anne Frank: The Exhibition” at the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry. The exhibition includes an immersive, full-scale recreation of the annex where Frank and her family lived in hiding during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. 

The students’ visit was connected to a literature study of historical fiction set during World War II. TCS middle schoolers in 6th through 8th grades belong to mixed-grade book clubs, with each group reading and discussing a different novel.

As 6th grade teacher Lisa Friedman explains, the book clubs continue and build on the success of a learning experience begun last school year. 

“Last year, in an effort to broaden students' social scene, but also their literary community, we started a 6th-7th grade Dystopian Fiction Book Club, including classics like The Giver by Lois Lowry and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, as well as more recent books like Scythe and Dry by Neal Shusterman,” she says. “It was incredibly popular!  Some students asked for more time to discuss books, while others jumped into reading not just their book club book, but all of the book club books! Students were invested and engaged in sophisticated discussion of the ideas and issues raised in the texts. The project was such a success that we knew we wanted to try it again this year.  

“When we learned that the Museum of Science and Industry was putting up the Anne Frank exhibit this fall, we thought it was a perfect opportunity to focus on historical fiction. In a sense, this is part of the beauty of an emergent curriculum, particularly an emergent curriculum in a big city with a wealth of resources. We've got students reading books about various aspects of WWII – the Holocaust, Japanese internment camps, European resistance movements, Navajo code talkers in the Pacific, and the Allied invasion of neutral Iran.”

In preparation for the visit to the Anne Frank exhibition, teachers led multiple whole-group lessons, bringing 6th, 7th, and 8th grades together to discuss the economic and political background to WWII, as well as the events leading up to and the events constituting the Holocaust.  

“While we had already explored some primary source material, the exhibit provided us the opportunity to explore the events leading up to the war and the Holocaust through the lens of one family, one girl,” shares Ms. Lisa.

One student commented after the visit, "I get it now. Anne Frank was one girl, just one person of all of the millions of people that this happened to.”

To wrap up the book clubs, members of each group will collaboratively prepare and give a presentation on the book they read. After that, all groups will come together for a Socratic seminar exploring overarching themes like courage, resistance, resilience, family, and identity.

“One of the great things about a small middle school is our ability to flexibly create groups across age and grade levels,” notes Academic Programs Coordinator Gloria Mitchell. “Right away, our 6th graders are being challenged to raise the level of their academic discourse in order to engage with the 7th and 8th graders. I look forward to hearing what they will have to say about their reading!”