1. A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days Magazine Article
Feature Menu
Introducing the Selection
Informational Text Focus: Comparing Organizational Patterns
Writing Skills Focus

2. A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days Introducing the Selection
How do historical tragedies continue to shape the world we live in?

3. A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days Introducing the Selection
On June 12, 1942, Anne Frank received a diary for her thirteenth birthday.
Within weeks, Anne’s family had gone into hiding from the Nazis, who were attempting to eliminate Jewish people from Europe.

4. A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days Introducing the Selection
Anne recorded her thoughts and feelings in the diary for more than two years. During most of that time, she and her family were hiding in a secret part of a building in Amsterdam.
The last entry in Anne Frank’s diary is dated August 1, Three days later, Anne and her family were arrested and sent to a Nazi concentration camp.

5. A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days
Introducing the Selection
Anne died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in early March, 1945.
What did Anne experience in the seven months between her last diary entry and her death at age 15?
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6. A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days
Informational Text Focus
For readers to understand a text, that text must have a structure and organization.
When a writer arranges the details of an argument into a clear pattern, readers are more likely to understand the writer’s point.

7. A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days Informational Text Focus
Here are three of the most common structural patterns that writers use to organize their points:
Chronological order
Logical order
Order of importance

8. A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days Informational Text Focus
When a text is organized in chronological order, the writer describes events in the order in which they happened.
In May of 1940, the Nazis gained power in the Netherlands, where Anne Frank and her family were living.
By July of 1942, the threat of being sent to Nazi concentration camps was so severe that the Franks went into hiding in a building in Amsterdam.
In May of 1940, the Nazis gained power in the Netherlands, where Anne Frank and her family were living.
By July of 1942, the threat of being sent to Nazi concentration camps was so severe that the Franks went into hiding in a building in Amsterdam.
This information is presented in the order in which it occurred. This pattern is common in writing about history.

9. A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days Informational Text Focus
Writing that is organized in chronological order often shows cause-and-effect relationships, letting the reader know what brought about a particular event and what resulted from it.
In May of 1940, the Nazis gained power in the Netherlands, where Anne Frank and her family were living.
By July of 1942, the threat of being sent to Nazi concentration camps was so severe that the Franks went into hiding in a building in Amsterdam.
In May of 1940, the Nazis gained power in the Netherlands, where Anne Frank and her family were living.
By July of 1942, the threat of being sent to Nazi concentration camps was so severe that the Franks went into hiding in a building in Amsterdam.
In May of 1940, the Nazis gained power in the Netherlands, where Anne Frank and her family were living.
By July of 1942, the threat of being sent to Nazi concentration camps was so severe that the Franks went into hiding in a building in Amsterdam.
In May of 1940, the Nazis gained power in the Netherlands, where Anne Frank and her family were living.
By July of 1942, the threat of being sent to Nazi concentration camps was so severe that the Franks went into hiding in a building in Amsterdam.
Cause: The Nazis gain power.
Event: The Franks fear the camps.
Result: They go into hiding. 9

10. A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days Informational Text Focus
Writing that is structured in order of importance organizes the writer’s points based on how much they matter to the overall argument.
I encourage you to support Ana Tejada’s campaign for mayor because she is honest and she is experienced. Most importantly, she cares deeply about the people of our city.
I encourage you to support Ana Tejada’s campaign for mayor because she is honest and she is experienced. Most importantly, she cares deeply about the people of our city.
Ideas may be arranged from most important to least important, or from least important to most important, as they are here.

11. A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days Informational Text Focus
When writing is organized in logical order, details are grouped into categories.
To get to know me, you’d have to learn about a few things: my family, my hobbies, and my goals for the future.
My family includes my brother, my mother, my grandfather, and me. We live together in a building about a block from my school
To get to know me, you’d have to learn about a few things: my family, my hobbies, and my goals for the future.
My family includes my brother, my mother, my grandfather, and me. We live together in a building about a block from my school
Organizing writing in logical order connects related details. In this example, the details will be arranged into three categories: family, hobbies, and goals.

12. A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days Informational Text Focus
Into Action: This article contains a chronological account of what happened to Anne Frank and the other residents of the Secret Annex after their arrest by the Gestapo. Draw a time line like the one below to show what Ernst Schnabel discovered. Start with 1942 and end with March 1945.
Time Line of Events
1942
1945
Franks forced into hiding in the Netherlands
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13. A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days Writing Skills Focus
Preparing for Timed Writing
As you read, think about Anne’s expressed belief that people are basically good.
Record your thoughts in a notebook.
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14. Vocabulary

15. A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days Vocabulary
annihilation n.: complete destruction.
inexplicable adj.: unable to be explained.
premonition n.: feeling that something will happen.
emaciated v. used as adj.: extremely thin, as from starvation.
raucous adj.: loud and rough.

16. A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days Vocabulary
The sentence below may help you understand how the word annihilation is used in “A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days.”
The Holocaust, Adolf Hitler’s annihilation of six million Jews, is considered by many to be the most violent act in history.
Why might Hitler’s attempted annihilation of the Jewish people be considered history’s most violent act?

17. A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days Vocabulary
Hitler’s annihilation of so many people—some six million human beings—was a horrific act of almost complete destruction.

18. A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days Vocabulary
Scientists study fossils for clues about what caused the annihilation of the dinosaurs.
What do they hope to learn from the fossils?

19. A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days Vocabulary
The sentence below may help you understand how the word inexplicable is used in “A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days.”
The warehouse clerk became curious about the inexplicable sounds that came from the back of the building.
Why might these sounds have made him curious?

20. A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days Vocabulary
The sounds coming from the back of the building were mysterious and unexplainable.
The inexplicable noises made him wonder who or what the source could be.

21. A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days Vocabulary
Kevin’s friends found his decision to quit the team inexplicable.
Do they know why he had decided to quit?

22. A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days Vocabulary
The sentence below may help you understand how the word premonition is used in “A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days.”
When the residents were taken from the Secret Annex, Anne left her diary; she seemed to have a premonition of what was to come.
Why might such a premonition cause her to leave her diary behind?

23. A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days Vocabulary
Anne seemed to have a bad feeling about what was going to happen now that they’d been found.
As a result of this premonition, she may have decided to stop writing in her diary.

24. A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days Vocabulary
That night, Emma had a premonition of danger and decided to stay home.
Why would Emma’s premonition cause her to stay home?

25. A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days Vocabulary
The sentence below may help you understand how the word emaciated is used in “A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days.”
Her time in the concentration camps left Anne looking emaciated.
Why would Anne look emaciated?

26. A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days Vocabulary
Prisoners in the concentration camps received very little food, so they became extremely thin.
This starvation explains Anne’s thin, emaciated appearance.

27. A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days Vocabulary
When Louisa saw the emaciated dog, she assumed it was a stray and took it to a shelter.
Why would the dog’s emaciated appearance cause Louisa to think it was a stray?

28. A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days Vocabulary
The sentence below may help you understand how the word raucous is used in “A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days.”
When the Occupation Police arrived for Anne and her family, they entered quietly, not in the raucous way the play suggests.
Why might the Occupation Police have made a quiet entrance, rather than a raucous one?

29. A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days Vocabulary
Because the officers made a quiet entrance, rather than a loud, raucous one, they were able to take the occupants of the Secret Annex by surprise.

30. A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days Vocabulary
Mr. Harrington was disappointed to hear of the class’s raucous behavior from his substitute.
Why would raucous behavior be disappointing to Mr. Harrington?
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31. The End

32. QuickTalk

33. A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days QuickTalk
With a small group of classmates, discuss a recent large-scale tragedy that you’ve seen on the news or read about.
How did it affect you?
How will memories of it affect future generations?
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34. Read with a Purpose 34

35. A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroine’s Last Days Magazine Article
Read with a Purpose
Read this article to find out what happened to Anne Frank after she was taken prisoner.
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