1. A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days
Ernst Schnabel
The Human Spirit
Unit

2. Objective(s) Today we will:
Analyze main ideas in factual reporting of “A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days”
Use prior knowledge to analyze factual reporting.

3. Bell Ringer
Using details from the play and the diary, as well as your own ideas, write an “I am” poem for Anne Frank, using this framework:
I am… I am… I hear…
I feel… I see… I try…
I say… I dream… I am…

4. Before you Read – pg
Literary Focus – Factual Reporting: What’s the Main Idea?
Reading Skills – Using Prior Knowledge
Let’s read A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days, pg

5. Independent Practice First Thoughts Thinking Critically
Did reading this article change your feelings about Anne Frank’s story or help you understand the events in the play? Explain.
Thinking Critically
Fill in the L column of your KWL chart. Then, choose one or two interesting facts that you learned, and discuss them with a partner.
Choose two quotations form the people Schnabel interviewed, and write the question you think he asked to get each response. Are any of these questions similar to ones you wrote in your Quickwrite notes?
This writer wanted to discover what happened to Anne Frank after her arrest. But he certainly had other purposes in writing this factual article. What do you think his purposes were? What would you say is the main idea of the article? Find at least one passage in the article that supports the main idea.
Now that you’ve read Schnabel’s article, how do you feel about Anne’s statement that “people are really good at heart”? Explain.
Extending Interpretations
In his factual article, Schnabel uses the names Anne made up for Mr. and Mrs. Van Pels (Mr. and Mrs. Van Daan) and Fritz Pfeffer (Albert Dussel). Why do you think he chose to do this? Do you think he should have used their real names? Why or why not?
Reading Check Box
This article contains a chronological account of what happened to Anne and the other residents of the Secret Annex after their arrest by the Gestapo. Draw a time line that shows what Ernst Schnabel discovered. Start with August 4, 1944, and end with March For a model timeline, see pages