Joanne R. Pompano
Family stories can connect students to their heritage and be a resource for historical research. By interviewing their family members they can uncover important events in their family and community history. By using carefully worded and questions they can obtain a unique personal insight into the nation's past and learn the impact of that history had on their family and community.
This lesson plan is designed to help students conduct oral history interviews with family members and community members. Using a series of classroom activities, this lesson introduces students to the riches historians can uncover conducting firsthand recollections.
Step 1: choose a topic
Step 2: prepare for a family interview
Step 3: learn how to conduct and record the interview
Step 4: share their family stories in a historical narrative, praise song, epic, poem, songs
Guiding Questions
How has American history touched your family and community? What stories do your family tell that may add to our local or national history? How does their experience help you understand the past?
Learning Objectives
After completing the lessons in this unit, students will be able to:
Analyze examples of oral history
Develop an oral history research topic
Prepare questions to ask during an oral history interview
Conduct an oral history interview using a tape recorder
Provide evidence of the impact historical events have on individuals and families
Preparing to Teach this Lesson
Discuss oral histories and the methods used to conduct them.
1. Discuss what can be learned from family histories
2. Discuss interviewing techniques
3. Provide practice time for interviewing
4. Create meaningful questions for the interview
5. Access websites that offer guidelines and suggestions for conducting interviews
Discuss the ethical and legal considerations associated with any oral history projects.
Use the Oral History Association at Dickinson.edu/organizations/oha/guidelines or similar resources to protect privacy and confidentiality
Consider the following:
Persons interviewed must be informed about the purposes of the project and the potential uses of their interview
Materials needed
Computer with adaptations for visually impaired or blind students:
1. JAWS (a screen reader to navigate website and read text on screen)
2. Zoomtext (software that allows text on screen to be enlarged)
3. Computer with web access
4. Tape Recorder
Websites
The Digital Classroom www. nara.gov/education/classrm.html
This activity introduces students to the experience of organizing and conducting an oral history interview recording
1. Divide the class into study groups
2. Find information on the Internet on conducting interviews with family members
3. Identify a topic relevant to experience of interviewee
4. Develop questions for the interview outline the questions they will ask in their interviews.
Remind the students to keep the topic broad enough to allow for a wide-ranging discussion yet focused giving the interview direction.
Examples: What memories do they have of these events? Did they take part in the events or were they observers? What were people talking about at the time? How did the events affect them?
National and Local Topics to Consider:
1 The Civil Rights Movement
2 The Black-Panther Trial in New Haven
3 Watergate
4 The Black Power Movement
5 Landing on the Moon
6 The Women's Movement
Step Two: Background Research
Students should conduct background research on the topic selected to become familiar with the basic facts on the event.
Step Three: Planning Your Questions
Ask open-ended questions such as:
1 How did you react to the event and why?
2 What were your experience concerning the event?
3 What were your feelings about this activity?
4 Tell me about…?
5 How did people react when…?
6 What do you remember about……?
7 Where were you when you heard….?
8 When did you realize……?
9 Why ….?
Step Four: Conducting the Interview
1 Students should be familiar with use of tape recorders before the interview and should have a list of general questions and topics that will be covered
2 Obtain a signed release from participant
Checklist for interview:
3 Have a list of questions in Braille or in a type size and format that is easy to read. Bring a pad of paper and a pen, laptop or Braille notetaker in order to take notes during the interview.
4 Label the tape with the date, the full name of the family member you are interviewing, and the topic you plan to explore.
5 Before beginning the interview, the student should have the family member sign and date a release form that explains the purpose of your interview and how you plan to use the information you collect. They should also sign the release form at the same time.
6 Turn on the tape recorder and state the name of person to be interviewed, date, location of interview, purpose and topic of interview for the record.
7 Get a little background information on family member
8 Conduct the interview.
Students will listen to their interviews and produce a summary. Transcribe a key part including stories and statements that are especially interesting or revealing and that will bring a moment in the past back to life.
A class discussion will be designed to help them share evidence from their interviews on the impact events had on individual lives and how individuals impacted the events they participated in or witnessed.
1 Compare a family member's recollection of an event with accounts their background research and with other interviews from different families recalling the same event.
2 Investigate how stories are different or the similar.
3 Have students construct their own historical narratives or reports that tell their family member's story in his or her own words with the addition of their background research to fill in details and provide historical context.
4 They should quote accurately from their interview and indicate which parts of the narrative are direct quotations, indirect quotations or their own summary.
5 Students will also share their oral history findings in a class presentation that combines audio clips from their interview or from their research on the topic.