Understanding Elements of Drama
&
Making Inferences
The Diary of Anne Frank
Today’s Agenda:
• Review Elements of Drama
• Reviewing Making Inferences
• Who was Anne Frank?
Elements of Drama
• Drama : a work of
literature that is
performed by actors for
an audience
• Dialogue: lines
characters speak
• Stage directions:
describe what is
happening on stage
• Conflicts: problems
• Exposition: characters
and setting are
established
• Complications: conflicts
arise
• Climax: conflict reaches
its most suspenseful
moment
• Resolution: conflict is
resolved
Making Inferences
• Inferences are
INFORMED
GUESSES
• Your guesses are
based on your
observations & your
prior experiences
• When we read
dramas, we make
inferences about the
characters’
personalities and
why they act the
way they do
Hints for Making Inferences
• What does the writer tell
you about how the
character looks and
acts? What do you
know about people that
look and act that way?
• What does the writer
tell you about the
way people respond
to the character?
What do such
responses usually
• What does the writer tell
tell you about a
you about problems the
person?
character faces? What
do you know about
similar situations?
Let’s try it together….
• “Pulling out from a wall on a
folding bed, Jimmy slid back a
panel in the wall and dragged
out a dust-covered suitcase.
He opened this and gazed
fondly at the finest set of
burglar’s tools in the East…In
half an hour Jimmy went
downstairs and through the
café’. He was now dressed in
tasteful and well-fitting clothes
and carried his dusted and
cleaned suitcase in his hand”.
1) What can you infer
about how long it has
been since Jimmy
used his tools?
2) What connection can
you make, knowing
that Jimmy carries his
suitcase with him?
3) Based on this
evidence, what is your
opinion of Jimmy? Is
he a good or bad man,
or a bit of both?
Making Inferences
To make an inference,
look for text clues
and connect what
the text says to what
you know about life.
As we read The Diary
of Anne Frank, try
and connect the
characters to what
we have learned
already about WWII,
The Holocaust, and
Europe in the
1940’s, to create a
picture in your mind!
I keep my ideals, because in spite of
everything I still believe that people
are really good at heart.
-Anne Frank
Who was Anne Frank?
• Born in Frankfurt,
Germany in 1929
• At 4 yrs. old, family
immigrates to
Amsterdam,
Netherlands to escape
anti-Jewish laws
• May 1940: Netherlands
surrenders to Germany,
Nazi occupation
Anne Frank home
Publishing the Diary
The Diary of Anne Frank
By: Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett
• Before they wrote the
play, Goodrich and
Hackett spent ten days
in Amsterdam visiting
the Secret Annex and
questioning Otto Frank
on his memories.
• Took two years, and
eight drafts to complete
• Opened on Broadway in
1955 to great acclaim
• 1956: Won a Pulitzer
Why do you think
Prize
the writers put so
much time and
effort into this
Otto Frank talks about Anne's diary
play?