Teaching the Music of the Holocaust: Engaging and Enriching Student Understanding at the Middle School Levelv

Abstract

In this study, sixth grade students who were 12-13 years old learned about the Holocaust by studying the music of the Jewish people. Students in this age group are just being introduced to this topic in their core subjects; the study was to determine if they would find it more meaningful and engaging by learning about it through the music of the Jewish people. Mixed Methods research was used to gather information on their base knowledge, determine what they thought was important as they learned, and measure how their understanding grew throughout the instruction of the unit. By the end of the unit, the students were unanimous in their understanding that music was essential to the survival of the Jewish people in the concentration camps and that music is a part of the human experience.