The Diary of Anne Frank and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

This scheme of work is based on two compelling stories in which the protagonists are children during the Holocaust. Anne and Bruno are both fascinating characters from opposite sides of the fence and to some extent both are oblivious to the true horror that surrounds them. This scheme of work uses a variety of dramatic techniques with both on and off text work to explore the characters, their stories, their environment and their relationships as well as giving lots of opportunity for students to explore their own ideas about the stimulus material.

This scheme can be used with Year 9 , especially as they head towards Year 10 or it can be used as an introductory scheme for GCSE students, either forming the basis of preliminary work or as the beginning of a first devised project. Students do not need to have read the texts; plot summaries, character lists (see Appendix 1) and an introduction to each session will give sufficient information for them. There is a great deal of material available on YouTube so key scenes could be watched if and when necessary. The whole subject is vast so this scheme aims to select small sections of material to allow students to explore and eventually devise their own work.

The work moves between both stories focussing on different events or characters, but it would be easy to use just one of the stories as a focus.

Number of lessons: 6