Zlata's Diary

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Commemorating Wartime Experiences Museum”

Monuments, memorials, and museums can help survivors of war process traumatic events while educating those on the outside and future generations. Museums explore wartime experiences by curating exhibits in multiple mediums, including found items, artwork, propaganda, architectural spaces, sculpture, collected writings, and film and audio displays.

After reading Zlata’s Diary and exploring other wartime sources in this unit, students individually create artistic works based on the diary and then collectively build a classroom museum or gallery that explores the work’s major themes.

• Choose a theme (The Absurdity of War, The Support of Friends and Family, Loss Due to War, Coming of Age During War, or Hope and Perseverance) and locate at least three quotes from Zlata’s Diary that connect to or illustrate the theme. Next, view war monuments, museums, or memorials online for inspiration. What sorts of artistic works have sprung from war? Keep in mind that museums often display works in multiple mediums, and choose a medium that you feel confident working with.
• Plan and begin creating your exhibit piece. You may choose to incorporate your quotes from Zlata’s Diary directly into your piece; for example, a collage of images of Sarajevo might feature Zlata’s descriptions of the city.  
• After completing your piece, write an artist’s statement contextualizing it. Your statement should include an explanation of the theme and quotes that inspired you,  an overview of your creative process, and a statement of how your piece speaks to the topic of war and its long-term impact.
• As a class, compile your pieces, either by hanging them on the wall/placing them around the classroom or by uploading images for online display. Consider how different works function alongside one another when deciding how to order them.

Teaching Suggestion: Students may benefit from a curated independent exploration or teacher-led presentation of relevant online monuments, exhibits, and museum websites in preparation for this activity. Students may also benefit from a discussion regarding the responsibilities of museum curators to their audience and the purpose of museum exhibits. You may also find it helpful to have students engage in a preplanning activity or proposal pitch so they can receive feedback before creating their exhibit piece, ensuring classroom appropriateness and clear textual connection. When it comes time for students to organize their individual works into an exhibit, you can even ask them to host a “gallery opening” to share their learning with others.