Censorship+in+Schools

Content: Censorship Event: Anne Frank Diary Controversy in Northville, Michigan Audience: 7th or 8th grade By: Lisa Eckardt lisa.c.eckardt@wmich.edu

To start, below is a great youtube video of authors responding to censorship in schools. I'd like to show this to my students at the beginning of the this unit to garner their responses about free speech and censorship and begin to evaluate their knowledge and experience with the topic:

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I chose censorship and the recent controversy over //The Diary of Anne Frank// because the situation immediately caught my attention when I read this article (related video also below):

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The parent of a seventh grade student was upset that an unedited version was being read and permission was not asked from the parents. The unedited version that was chosen was deemed to be “‘pornographic’ and too explicit for some middle school students” by that parent. The school chose not to change their policy or their curriculum. This is also not the first time this issue has come up. The link below is from 2010, in which a similar complaint resulted in the unedited version being taken out of the curriculum. Also below is a video of a young girl expressing her feelings after hearing about the banning of the book in 2010.

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I believe that using this controversy as a segue into the study of not only //The Diary of Anne Frank //, but of censorship in schools, free speech, and the historical effects of the holocaust, will allow the students to become more personally invested in the literature and help to establish a stronger link between the past and the present. I chose to focus on a group of 7th or 8th graders since this is the grade that normally incorporates //The Diary of Anne Frank// into the curriculum, however, I did have trouble deciding if it wouldn’t be more appropriate for an older audience. In a high school curriculum I believe students may have a stronger ability to reflect on the appropriateness of the text in question. They could look back on texts they have read before and since middle school and use that life experience to reflect on the benefits or consequences of reading such content at that age. In the end I chose to stay in the middle school realm. I believe that debating an issue that directly affects their peers will help them connect with the issue. I also think that allowing students to look at the version that is currently being read in their school (for the purposes of this exercise I chose the standard edited version) and the controversial version that is being read in the Northville, Michigan school district, will give them a voice in what version they believe should be used in their school.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The social and economic situations of the students I’m focusing on will be a mix. I decided to choose a class of mostly middle class students from a range of backgrounds. I had some trouble with this part of the assignment. Since the socio-economic makeup of a classroom is something that will be constantly changing one of my goals is to create an assignment that can be used in a variety of classrooms. I will attempt to use examples of how my assignments will be able to connect with students from various cultural backgrounds.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">I believe students will connect with the everyday issues Anne Frank writes about, as well as be interested in learning about the difficulties and tragedies she faced due to who she was and where she lived. I would like to start the unit by having the students write diary entries. I would have them focus on their own everyday activities. What are they thinking about? What do they do? What matters to them? What is going on in their lives? This will allow them to experience the same medium of writing that Anne used and get them used to thinking from that perspective. I would also like to utilize an anonymous sharing of these diary entries. I believe it would be useful for the students to view each other’s diary entries in a safe environment where they will not feel judged. It will also give the students an idea of how personal a diary is, to think more about what the diary meant to Anne and connect with her mode of expression. I would also like to have the students pick a couple diary entries to revise and edit as if it were going to published, as Anne Frank started to when she heard that some peoples accounts of their experiences might be published. I was thinking the class could put together a novel of sorts of their combined diary entries that would describe the life a middle schooler in the age they live in.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">My plan would be to have the students read an edited version of The Diary of Anne Frank in its entirety. I would also like to take sections from an unedited version throughout their reading in order for them to compare. I would like the students to respond to the differences and think about why the removed portions may be important to the text as a whole, the tone of the book, whether or not it takes away from what the reader may get out of the book and if it alters their perception of the author. Why were the controversial sections removed from the book, why are they important? Or do the sections not add to the overall experience of the book, why not? I would also like the students to think about the edits from Anne Frank’s point of view. Would she or would she not agree with the edits made to her diary?

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">While students are reading the book I would also like to assign some other accounts from holocaust survivors (excerpts from books, documentaries, etc.). I believe this would give the students the opportunity to read other forms of literature as well as get a better idea about what this time period was like and what other people went through. I think this will help them gain perspective on how precarious Anne’s situation was. It will also allow the class as a whole to study some of the historical aspects of World War II in order to give more background to the text. I believe this will allow a deeper understanding that will be helpful in the activities described below.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Following our reading of the text I would like to have an open discussion to ask the students what they think about the parents request to have students read the edited version of the book or to require students to get permission prior to reading the unedited version, and what they think should be read in their school. I would then like the students to run a mock school board meeting about what version of the book should be utilized. The roles would consist of parents (both for and against), teachers (both for and against), students, an author, a holocaust survivor, a psychologist, and a reporter. To facilitate the discussion I would act as an advisor, asking questions as needed. The roles would be assigned through a blind drawing. I would like the students to do some research into their roles prior to this exercise, to gather facts and evidence to support their role. My thought was to have the students try to prepare at least a paragraph or so to present to the class. Their presentation would be from the perspective of the role they are playing. This forum would allow the students to ask questions, bring up issues that might come up depending on the outcome, and allow them to explore alternate points of view. Following the role play exercise, I would like the students to write an essay explaining their feelings, using the discussion from class, the role play experience, and using at least two other sources (articles about other banned or edited versions). Another question I would like the students to discuss is whether or not the role play exercise changed their opinion? Why or why not? I would like to use these essays as a step towards having the students write letters to the newspaper expressing their opinions on the situation. I think it would be beneficial to have to students collaborate in small groups to write these letters based on the content they wrote about in their essays. I think that working in groups would allow them to create a broader perspective with in the letter. Another potential outcome of this exercise would be to actually try and affect change in the school. If the general consensus of the class is to desire to make a change in the curriculum than I think that should be addressed through contacting other teachers and students in the school district and proceeding down that path as desired by the students.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">I would also like the students to choose another book that has been challenged in schools. I would give them a list of suggestions for examples but also give them other resources to explore if they wanted to branch out and choose another kind of text. I found the following websites that would be useful to give the students some ideas:

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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This would give them the freedom to look at a multitude of different forms of literature. I would then give them the opportunity to choose what they would like to use to explore the reasons behind the censorship of what they chose and to research the historical context. I am hoping this will encourage the students to pick something that they have a connection with. I think this is a good way to allow students to have a choice in what kind of literature they’re reading. They also have some power in choosing what topic they can focus their research on depending on what text they choose. I would like them to use this research in combination with the ideas from the role play activity and write a research paper about the effects of censorship on society. It’s a purposely broad topic in order for the students to choose from a range of approaches. I believe with a little guidance as well as in class discussion and peer review, the students will be able to focus in on an appropriate topic for themselves.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> I feel that the assignments I have chosen are open enough that the unit can appeal to a diverse group of students. I believe that the idea of censorship is one that most people have experienced in one way or another by the time they’re in middle school. Whether it’s on a small scale or a grander one, I think it’s an idea that students this age will relate to and be motivated by. I think that having the ability to have a choice in some of the secondary texts they are reading will give the students the ability to explore an issue that might connect to them personally because of their individual backgrounds. I also want to incorporate the idea that there is not a specific format of writing the students need to follow for each assignment. For instance if a student wanted to write a letter to the Northville, Michigan school district to express their thoughts on why the edited text would be of more value to middle school students, that could be incorporated into their response following the role play exercise. My hope is that they will continue learning and developing the ideas that they have throughout these exercises about what censorship means and how it can affect the learning process.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Another possible idea I had for an activity was to explore the Anne Frank Diary facebook page: []. An article about the controversy was posted on the page and over 1,200 people have liked the post and there are numerous comments. I would be interested to see the student’s reactions to the posts and I believe they could use these comments to explore the opinions of a large group of people. I’m not sure that I would use this for a specific assignment as much as just a thought exercise. It would be a medium that most students would be familiar with and I think if we had the ability to view the posts at school that would be a good way to draw the students into the topic since I believe at most schools it is not allowed to students to use facebook in school.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">The Common Core State Standards that will be addressed through these exercises will include formatting and supporting arguments within their essay responses. The students will work on developing their research skills, will learn to draw evidence from multiple forms of literature through their research paper assignment, and will learn citation techniques. They will also be learning the uses of different forms of writing, including: diary entries, short responses, letter writing and writing focused towards a publication. Throughout all these assignments I would like to utilize peer evaluations in order for students to get some experience giving feedback and also be help encourage the students to look at their papers from a different perspective with a more critical eye. Additionally, all their feedback wouldn’t be just from me.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">My hope would be that these students would make a personal connection with the texts they are reading and that they will use these personal connections as motivation to continue their research and continue learning about the topics at hand. I believe starting with The Diary of Anne Frank and using that text as a starting point into additional texts that are chosen by the students will interest them in the idea of censorship and how it affects not only them but society as a whole. There are many different paths this unit could take; it makes it complicated, but I think having too much structure in a curriculum could lead to narrowing the potential of the student. I want them to feel like they can focus on pretty much anything, and I feel that this topic is malleable enough to accomplish that.