Zlata's Diary

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

What wars have happened since WWII? What kinds of conflicts in modern times can lead to war? If you know little about a particular war, what kinds of things would you need to research to understand the war?

Teaching Suggestion: In exploring the historical context for Zlata’s Diary, there exists a potential for trauma and re-traumatization due to the nature of Bosnian history, which includes war, terror, ethnic division, war crimes, and ethnic cleansing/genocide. As postwar propaganda and covering for war crimes continue today, you may wish to vet sources for content and accuracy, and prepare and share a clear, trauma-informed plan of conduct for discussing, researching, and writing about sensitive issues before students engage in any tasks. These questions can be approached via reflective journal, general classroom opener/discussion, think-pair-share, or as part of a larger prior-knowledge activation strategy such as KWL. You might use guiding questions about the Bosnian War and Sarajevo to guide students before, during, or after a mini research session using the sources below or similar sources.

Differentiation Suggestion: Students who are English learners or have organizational and executive functioning needs may benefit from a bulleted list of the questions with space for answering between. Audio recordings and/or pre-annotated versions of each source may also prove helpful. If using the questions as a written exercise, prebuilt graphic organizers such as a KWL chart may benefit organization and facilitate notetaking.

• This timeline of events of the Bosnian war from Reuters offers an accessible and brief overview of major events and players.
• This encyclopedia entry from Britannica offers an in-depth account of the Siege of Sarajevo, the portion of the war most relevant to Zlata’s Diary, including a brief history of the city itself, as well as pictures and maps for visual learning.

Short Activity

Diaries can be viewed as a form of expressive writing in line with genres such as poetry, narrative in their plot-like record of autobiographical events, and also nonfiction, as they offer primary source insights into historical events.  

Using the provided resources, observe the particularities of the audience, purpose, style, and structure of each text. Then compare and contrast each text based on these structural and stylistic choices. What features distinguish a diary from letters, eyewitness testimony, and other primary sources such as news reports? How do the private nature of diary writing and its proximity to current events distinguish it from memoir, which is written in retrospect for a public audience? How do differences in purpose and audience impact the style, structure, and content of different genres? What benefits and drawbacks might there be in using each type of source to understand an event like the Bosnian War?

Teaching Suggestion: The question above works best after students have had time to read, view, and analyze the sources provided below, though allowing them to preview the questions ahead of time will help guide their analysis of each source. The questions could be used to facilitate a whole group discussion after analysis, or else to guide individual written responses in closing reflection.

• This letter describes a nurse’s experiences caring for wounded soldiers during the American Civil War.
• This excerpt comes from Farah Ahmedi’s memoir The Story of My Life: An Afghan Girl on the Other Side of the Sky, which details her experiences growing up in and outside of Afghanistan in the midst of civil war.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the novel.

Think of a large, newsworthy event that impacted you, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, a natural disaster, a political event, or any event involving many people. Then locate a reliably sourced news article, televised segment, or radio account of the same event. After reading, listening to, or viewing this source, compare it to your own memories of the event. If you were to write about the event yourself, how might your account differ in tone, purpose, audience, style, detail, and/or focus?

Teaching Suggestion: Due to the potential for trauma or differences of political opinion, it is advisable to prepare and share a clear, trauma-informed plan of conduct for discussing and writing about sensitive issues before the task. Students may also benefit from having an instructor share a brief list of events they experienced, such as 9/11, the Columbia shuttle explosion, or Hurricane Katrina. Students may also benefit from reminders regarding how to select and cite reputable news sources.

Differentiation Suggestion: Students in need of organizational support for writing or multistep tasks may benefit from graphic organizers or numbered steps outlining the instructions and questions above. Students in need of support for executive functioning may benefit from those scaffolds as well as from timers paired with suggested time limits for each of the steps, such as 10 minutes to reflect on their personal experience of an event, 20 minutes to locate and view a source, and 10 minutes to compare and contrast.