If you’ve been a human in the last several years, then you’re aware of the knockout, well-loved novel Wonder by R.J. Palacio. The book was first published in 2012, and I was in the second half of my M.Ed. program at that time. It just so happened that there were a few of us from my cohort all placed at the same middle school, with four of us actually on the same 6th grade team (and one more on the other 6th grade team). While I was in the social studies classroom on that team, one of my peers was in the ELA classroom, and she taught Wonder to our students that spring, when it was brand-spanking-new.
How I Taught the Diary of Anne Frank
I think that, as teachers, we can all agree that The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank is a classic and icon text to teach, not in the least because of Anne’s incredible and heart-wrenching story. I was able to choose the texts I taught in my first year of teaching, and The Diary of Anne Frank was one of the books I chose. Although I was teaching in a low-income charter school with students who were primarily non-native English speakers from other countries (mostly Somalia, but other countries, as well), most of my students found Anne’s story intriguing and got into the book.