Oral+History+Strategy

Oral His ories I Culture II Time, Continuity, and Change IV Individual Development and Identity V Individuals, Groups, and Institutions V' 3-5 V' 6-8 The investigation of the social studies should connect students to their community, and the exploration of history should help students place themselves on a time line of events. As a teaching strategy, the oral history can facilitate both. Students can audiotape and collect oral histories from members of the community who share personal recollections of and reflections about specific events or time periods. Students can organize, write, edit, and rewrite the personal histories, thereby supplementing classroom texts. Students who use oral history chronicle and interpret events based on a variety of sources and perspectives. When students use oral history to examine an event as time period from multiple perspectives, they recognize and value an important social studies goal. Collecting oral histories takes a tremendous amount of preparation, training, research, and skill. Students will not be experts in the field of oral history, but opportunities for practice and research provide them with valuable experience. • Referring to the objectives of the lesson or unit, explain to students that collecting oral histories will enrich their understanding of a particular topic. Topics do not have to be limited to local history: Understanding the experiences and perspectives oflocal citizens during times of national or international crisis is important. • With your students, brainstorm a list of issues, topics, or perspectives that benefit from examination based on oral history. • Locate individuals who will provide oral histories. Begin with the teacher's family members and acquaintances, and include those of the students, matching experience with the goals of the oral history project. Family members and acquaintances can connect you and your students to other individuals in the community. Other indirect sources include the local historical museum, county or city records, and newspaper archives. Ideally, a local historian trained in oral history collection can assist your students with training and question preparation. • Prepare students to conduct the oral history interview. Achieve consensus on several general questions based on students' research of issues, events, and topics they anticipate exploring through the oral history. Students need not ask questions to which they already know answers unless they are trying to document the informant's perspective for their audience. Remind students that the purpose of the project is to learn how members of their community understand events of historical significance: How is the community member's perception of an event different from that in a history text? • Emphasize to students that audiotaped or videotaped interviews provide more accurate records than do those in which the interviewer/student takes notes. A student who tries to accurately record the interview, think of follow-up questions, and actively listen to the interviewee will lose important details. In addition, taped interviews preserve the conversation, allowing others beyond the interviewee to hear the interview in its original form. Note that students will need to obtain written permission from the interviewee before taping any interview with him or her. • Inform students about the process of taping, where the tapes and other equipment will be stored, who will have access to the tapes, and what form the final product will take. • Arrange for students to practice interviewing before collecting the actual oral histories. They might interview in pairs, with one student asking the questions and the other one jotting __down notes and ensuring that the audio or video equipment is working properly. Students -'should demonstrate competency in both roles. • Have students generate and practice delivering follow-up questions. Rarely does an interview strictly follow the general questions agreed on. It takes skill for students to recognize comments that they should follow up on, while keeping the interview on track. • Have students practice one interview as a class. Invite a guest into the classroom and have one or more students ask him or her questions. Have the rest of the students practice taking notes and managing the taping equipment. After the interview is complete, have students critique their experience. Were follow-up questions missed? Was everyone heard (and seen) clearly on the tape? Do the questions need refinement? • When background research, question development, and interview practice are completed, students are ready to collect their oral histories. Invite speakers to come to class or send students into the community. • When the interviews have been completed, have students transcribe their conversations. This step takes a great deal of time and provides an excellent opportunity to develop wordprocessing skills. • Point out to students that oral histories may be organized in different ways. For example, each community member may have his or her own oral history presented in its entirety. A stay-athome mother might remember the "Blizzard of'85," when all four of her children were home for a week, and have her story recounted as a discrete piece of work. Another way to organize oral histories is by question or topic. For example, if students collect remembrances of the 1969 moon landing, tl1ey might record a number of interviewees' responses to one question: "How did this make you feel as a citizen of the United States?" The responses of individuals who were recent immigrants, children, members of the armed services, high school science teachers, and clergy in 1969 could be reported together. • Whenever possible, work with a local historical agency. These agencies are often understaffed but provide a wealth of information. When the oral history projects are completed, these agencies can also serve as a site to house and display the projects. This allows the projects to be viewed by a larger number of people over a longer period of time. • Have students send thank -you letters to all of the individuals who assisted in the project. Three eighth-grade history classes begin a unit on World War II. The teacher, Mr. Jones, is aware that students examine this topic again in their junior year of high school, and he is cognizant of his responsibility to connect world and U.S. history to the state and local community. He decides that his students will examine the war from the home front. This approach requires that his students research the war era and connect this distant and somewhat abstract event to the community, making it a more concrete experience for them. The approach also helps him meet his curricular responsibilities. The first call Mr. Jones makes is to the local college, which houses an oral history department. He is able to connect with some college students willing to help with the project: They will identity prospective interviewees and train the eighth graders. Before the college students arrive, Mr. Jones and his students spend three class sessions preparing a chronology of the war and gathering information about the community during this era. The information collected includes data about area residents who served in the armed forces, a description of popular culture of the time, and an analysis of the local and national economy. Mr. Jones facilitates the research across all three of his classes, encouraging his students to share what they have discovered. With the general goal of understanding the effects of World War II on the local community, Mr. Jones and his students spend another two class sessions outlining some general questions, including "What was daily life like during the war?, How was it similar to or different from life before or after the war?," and "D~tribe your favorite movies and radio programs. What made them special to you?" With the general questions prepared, the college students begin regular visits to train the students and to help refine their questions and techniques. At the same time, Mr. Jones and all of tlle students begin their search for community members interested in participating. They get substantial assistance from family, other teachers in the district, the local Veterans of Foreign Wars chapter, and the local historical society. With the refined questions, plenty of practice, and willing participants, the interviews begin. Mr. Jones and his class have decided to conduct the interviews in the school library over the course of a week. This allows them to set up and adjust the video equipment one time rather tllan transporting it to different sites around the community. Videotaping in one site also provides consistency from a lighting and background perspective. Viewers will focus on the oral content of the interview, as opposed to any changing settings. This plan also provides a consistent format. After students complete their interviews, they begin to transcribe, analyze, and edit the information. They decide that the best presentation format is to let each interviewee tell his or her story. This requires them to edit video as well as to create an accurate and interesting written narrative. Much time is spent on the project, and some students undertake additional research. Unfamiliar names, locations, and terminology are used in the interviews, and students must understand these in order to accurately present the stories. This project takes a great deal of time and energy, and the families of many of the students become involved. With parental and school administration assistance, Mr. Jones's classes decide to present their project in an event open to public, with special invitations going to all of the interviewees. At the event, the entire crowd watches several selected video clips before each interviewee receives a copy of all of the collected and transcribed stories. The audience then moves in small groups through different stations. Small groups of students manage each station, presenting the information gathered through their research and interviews. The stations include video clips, photographs, and written narratives. The students donate the interviews and presentations to the local historical society so that the experiences of the citizens and the work of the students are available for others to enjoy and learn from.