Session 3: Interdisciplinary Teaching

Since I am teaching World History this year I will be teaching students about World War I. In high school, I read All Quiet on the Western Front and I found it to be very powerful. The novel gave a personal account of the horrors of war and it really opened my eyes to how much of a tragedy this war had on people personally. I read the novel in my English class and looking back I wish I would have been learning about World War I at the same time in my history class. Ideally what I would like to have happen when I teach about World War I is to have the English department have their students also read All Quiet on the Western Front. This way I could focus a lot about explaining the war on a broader spectrum while at the same time students will get more personal accounts in their English class.

I found a resource that incorporates poetry with this unit. Students would read All Quiet on the Western Front and also be working on a poetry project of their own. Because the novel deals with War students would be writing their poetry on war based themes. Once again, I like how the students can really dig deep and better understand World War I by creating their own poetry and display their own feelings about war. That being said even though this lesson plan was designed for English, it does not mean I couldn't do it in history class too. That being said, it would be very helpful if the students have a background knowledge of poetry from their English class. This unit really lends itself to collaboration which I hope can happen in the future when I teach it.

http://www.discoveryeducation.com/teachers/free-lesson-plans/all-quiet-on-the-western-front.cfm

http://www.bookrags.com/lessonplan/allquietwesternfront/

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Michael Rose