ORAL HISTORY LESSON PLAN

1. A Note to Teachers

Teaching oral histories
As a 10th grade English teacher at Balboa High School in San Francisco, I taught oral histories for the last six years. I often found this project to be the one I looked forward to most, and one that drew in and excited a wide-range of students. As part of a team of teachers and then on my own, I used oral history collection to build students’ skills and to give them personal connections to the content we were studying.  The first year, students conducted interviews with people who had had intimate knowledge of violence.  After that, we focused on people’s stories of immigration and migration to California.

Who can/should teach oral histories?
I’m such a fan of taking students through the oral history process that I think everyone should try it.  I do know English, History and English Language Learner teachers who’ve used oral history assignments with great success, and many times these teachers use such a unit for a service-learning project, as well, linking their students with people whose stories are rarely told.  Aside from the themes I referred to above, I know teachers have had students interview veterans of wars the class studied, holocaust and internment camp survivors, civil rights movement participants, and people with roles in local history.

How to use these plans
I’m presenting my whole unit plan, which took about five weeks to complete.  However, you can modify and use bits and pieces of this plan for a shorter time frame. 

You’ll see that these attachments are labeled as “teacher worksheets” or “student worksheets” and that most of them are “student worksheets.”  That’s because after students have completed an interview, the unit is much more about process than about teacher-centered instruction. 

The two-day plan
This will work best if you want to have students make a personal connection with a topic you’re studying in history, economics, or literature.  You’ll want it to be pretty easy for students to find an interviewee, so broaden the possibilities (people living during the Vietnam War, for example, not just veterans or immigrants or protesters).

• Start with a short version of the question game (see Attachment 1: teaching interviewing skills).  Have students write questions for their interviewee, checking with each other and with you to make sure they’re planning well to get at the stories and topics you want.  This is a great time to have a whole-class share-out of questions where you encourage students to borrow questions from each other.

• For homework, students interview a person connected to the topic, writing down responses as best they can.

• When interviews are completed, groups of students share the most compelling or confusing responses given by their interviewees.  Each student should probably only have five minutes to share and a few more to respond to questions.   Then, most importantly, these student groups will synthesize information from the different interviews and present this to the class.

The one-week plan
If you have a little more time and want students to dig into the process and compare each others’ interviews as well as having them make those personal connections with a topic you’re studying, take a week!  Like with the two-day plan, you’ll want to lessen the burden for students to find an interviewee, so broaden the possibilities (people living during the Vietnam War, for example, not just veterans or immigrants or protesters).

• Start with a short version of the question game (see Attachment 1: teaching interviewing skills).  Have students write questions for their interviewee, checking with each other and with you to make sure they’re planning well to get at the stories and topics you want.  This is a great time to have a whole-class share-out of questions where you encourage students to borrow questions from each other.

• For homework, students interview a person connected to the topic, writing down responses as best they can.  If they can record the interview and transcribe it, even better (see Attachment 6: preparing transcript and modify for your class).

• Have students bring copies of their transcripts in to share.  Small groups read the transcripts, writers workshop style, and give feedback to the interviewer, pointing out the most compelling, funny and interesting responses, and also noting the parts of the interview where they wish they had more information. (see Attachment 7: follow-up questions and modify for your class).

• Based on their peers’ feedback, students write follow-up questions and re-interview their source, adding the new responses to their transcript.

• Students now share the new transcripts with their peer groups.  Peer groups identify key responses in all of the transcripts which help illuminate the topic you’re studying as a class.

• As last steps, students can take these group-selected passages and work together to present them to the class with some analysis, or they can use them to write on the topic individually. 

The five-week plan
Yes, take the plunge!  With the following attachments, the unit should be pretty self-explanatory.  I made big versions of the check-list and started each class reviewing where students should be in the process.  Because there are so many worksheets, I also copied the steps in different colors, which made it all easier for students and volunteers.  Here’s what I’ve attached:

Attachment 1: teacher worksheet, teaching interviewing skills
This includes the question game and ways to deepen interviewing preparation into multi-day assignments.

Attachment 2: student worksheet, assignment
This is the skeleton of my assignment sheet meant for your modification.

Attachment 3: student worksheet, rubric
Coming in March to match California and National standards!

Attachment 4: student worksheet, check list

Attachment 5: student worksheet, planning
Students rarely stuck to this, but it was good to get them thinking.

Attachment 6: student worksheet, preparing transcript

Attachment 7: student worksheet, follow-up questions

Attachment 8: student worksheet, editing transcript

Attachment 9: student worksheet, creating oral history narratives

Attachment 10: student worksheet, final stages

Attachment 11: teacher worksheet, model reflection

I also had students write letters to peers after they read each others’ oral histories, and this was often illuminating.

A note on my students
Balboa is a high school that has historically served a poor and immigrant population in San Francisco.  Many of my students had little experience taking on a big project like oral histories, and, among them, there was a huge disparity in computer and equipment knowledge.  Many of my instructions to them gave painstaking directions about saving their work, using the computers, etc.  One great side benefit to the project was that it enhanced my kids’ familiarity with computers, email and recording equipment. 

A note on volunteers
After a year or two being the only adult editor of these oral histories, I knew that to boost the quality of the work I’d need help.  Luckily, just at this time, the amazing 826 Valencia opened in San Francisco, offering writing workshops and tutoring to students, and bringing adult volunteers into classrooms.  If you work near an 826 site, work with their volunteer coordinator to get folks in your classroom.  If not, I also recruited counselors, administrators, colleagues and friends to sit next to my students as they refined their oral histories.  Then I became the manager of the process, not the sole feedback-provider!

A note on materials           
I started writing grants to get materials for this project.  I eventually had about 45 tape recorders which students shared.  They were responsible for setting a schedule for who got the recorder on which day.  As planned as I was about this, it always resulted in a little bit of chaos.  Because so few of my students had computers at home to work on, we spent time at school typing out transcripts, so the recorders had to be signed out daily for class use.  Again, chaos often ensued.  But the lessons in using and caring for resources made the chaos worth it for me. 

A note on standards
Over the years I found the oral histories helped my students meet standards I never expected.  The following are the California English Language Arts Standards I measured in this unit.  Of course, if you’re using the oral histories as response to what you’re studying, there will be many, many more standards covered.

Reading: 
2.6 Demonstrate use of sophisticated learning tools by following technical directions

Writing:
1.4 Develop the main ideas within the body of the composition through supporting evidence.
1.8 Design and publish documents by using advanced publishing software and graphic programs.
1.9 Revise writing to improve the logic and coherence of the organization and controlling perspective, the precision of word choice, and the tone by taking into consideration the audience, purpose, and formality of the context.
2.1 Write biographical or autobiographical narratives or short stories:

Written and Oral Communication:
1.1 Identify and correctly use clauses, phrases,  and mechanics of punctuation.
1.2 Understand sentence construction.
1.3 Demonstrate an understanding of proper English usage and control of grammar, paragraph and sentence structure, diction, and syntax.
1.4 Produce legible work that shows accurate spelling and correct use of the conventions of punctuation and capitalization.
1.5 Reflect appropriate manuscript requirements, including title page presentation, pagination, spacing and margins.

Listening and Speaking:
1.9 Analyze the occasion and the interests of the audience and choose effective verbal and nonverbal techniques (e.g., voice, gestures, eye contact) for presentations.
1.11 Assess how language and delivery affect the mood and tone of the oral communication and make an impact on the audience.
1.12 Evaluate the clarity, quality, effectiveness, and general coherence of a speaker's important points, arguments, evidence, organization of ideas, delivery, diction, and syntax.
2.3 Apply appropriate interviewing techniques:
a. Prepare and ask relevant questions.
b. Make notes of responses.
c. Use language that conveys maturity, sensitivity, and respect.
d. Respond correctly and effectively to questions.
e. Demonstrate knowledge of the subject or organization.
f. Compile and report responses.
g. Evaluate the effectiveness of the interview.