ABSTRACT
This chapter reflects on why it matters for students to be able to read Anne Frank's diary in powerful ways that promote their learning and empathetic response. It explores how it happens by considering students' respect for the topic, which emerges as an important theme in students' responses to their study of The Diary of a Young Girl. The chapter shows how community and characters help students to "stand next to Anne Frank" and generate respect for the Holocaust. The theme of respect emerges in robust ways as students participate in the process of Visual Learning Analysis (VLA), in which they examine and discuss photos of their arts-based learning. In the VLA process, students explain how they connect aspects of each photo with issues of embodied and emotional meaning making, risk-taking, movement, and empathy. The nature of the dramatic arts contributes to the students' respect for the Holocaust, and Anne Frank specifically.
