► 3: Implementing an Interdisciplinary Unit on the Holocaust

“I think I am much less inclined to be prejudiced or anti-Semitic because I know now the prices that many have had to pay and I don’t want to cause any trouble by thinking people are bad just because they are different.” This was one seventh-grade student’s evaluation of an interdisciplinary¹ study of the Holocaust in which he had just participated.

What is the reality of implementing an interdisciplinary unit in a school where the discipline-centered curriculum organization enjoys a long and abiding tradition? During the 1990–1991, 1991–1992, 1992–1993, and 1993–1994 school years, members of the seventh-grade team at William Annin Middle School in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, developed and taught three interdisciplinary units. Each unit examined a curriculum topic through the focus of a central theme. The connection of a theme to a topic prevented the mere presentation of subject facts relating to the topic and instead encouraged the application of information to developing greater understanding not only of the timely topic but also of a timeless theme. Classroom activities in each subject area were correlated to relate to the theme/topic and were coordinated to occur at about the same time.