ABSTRACT
Students come to classrooms with varying degrees of knowledge about a respective subject, and this variance in background knowledge affects instruction as well as comprehension. Anchored instruction involves the use of a shared experience, or anchor, as a basis from which to develop understanding and provides a way to link teaching within a “macrocontext”. An anchor can be anything that all students can experience and that can be easily revisited. The Integrated Curriculum Project tested a 3-week-long, anchored instruction unit about the Holocaust in two eighth-grade classrooms. The project was designed to reduce the academic and social difficulties of middle school students with mild disabilities through the development, implementation, and evaluation of an instructional system that incorporates instructional anchors and related curriculum, including the STEPS+G framework. One of the areas that students and teacher identified initially as difficult for students to negotiate was conducting research for their STEPS+G area.
