Visualizing_Oral_History.323205441

							                                    Visualizing Oral History!

 “Visualizing Oral History” is a stimulating classroom activity and an exciting process designed
to increase student involvement in their local history and thus improve student understanding of
their own history. Further, oral history involves students directly in a method of personal inquiry,
which includes the organization and presentation of data acquired directly from another person.
Each interview will be created into a documentary film using MovieMaker. Other goals of this
project involve students’ development of conversation and writing skills with the application of
technology pedagogy, skills of collaborative organizing and planning, engaging with others in
significant conversation (formal interviewing and less formal conversation), listening to and
appreciating another, and sharing others’ stories with ethical appropriateness and respect.
Students gain a greater respect for their community members and can express that respect
through a hypermedia presentation thus bringing history into the future. The goal of the
hypermedia presentations is also to create a collection of oral history interviews and thus
documentary films which will be part of the archival collections of our school’s and local
libraries.



The project will provide important benefits for students, for the community and community
participants in the project, and for the school. For students, the process of interviewing and
recording oral histories is a learning process and students become active in the creation of a
primary document about some aspect in their community. From a pedagogical perspective,
students develop oral communication skills, language and writing skills, analysis of the oral
communication, and then its transformation into a hypermedia text. Students will also develop
self-confidence as they present their presentations to their school, parents, community, and the
community members they interviewed. For the community, the oral history project promises
benefits at many levels. At a personal level, oral history enables the interviewee to relive their
history, contribute to its interpretation, and make sense of it in a wider context. Each interviewee
participates in the creation of their own history. The completed hypermedia documentary films
will be housed at the local library, the local museum, as well as the school’s library. These films
will become a permanent record of important aspects of the county’s history and is accessible to
the entire community. Thus these documents will become primary documents of great historical
significance.

Implementation of “Visualizing Oral History” occurs throughout each semester. Students in tenth
grade study World Literature and History and spend a great deal of time reading memoirs,
narratives, and one transcribed novel. At the end of the first nine weeks of the semester, students
are given the “Visualizing Oral History” project. Students are given four weeks to complete the
assignments. The first two weeks is assigned for interviewing while the second two weeks is
assigned for documentary film completion. A Film Festival is presented a few weeks after
completion of the documentaries for the school, students’ families, community members, and the
interviewees. Since this project is engrained in Mrs. Van Geons’s pacing guide and has been
implemented twice previously, the timeline will remain the same for students. This project is
ongoing and will continue to be.

Innovative elements of this project include utilizing hypermedia technology incorporating
multimodal learning. Students are given the opportunity to bridge the gap between generations
utilizing various forms of technology to relate and capture stories of the past. These student
projects will become part of the tapestry of their community, bridging the past, present, and
future. Student learning becomes therefore relevant to their lives, utilizes technology in a
pedagogically sound way, and creates and sustains lifelong learning.

The project will be evaluated in three ways. There is a designated rubric that is given to all
students as to the requirements for the project as a whole. Students also must turn in a written
reflection and self assessment on what they have learned and how they learned the information.
A teacher/student interview is conducted at the conclusion of the project and students present
their information in a think-aloud format to the teacher. These three assessments allow both the
student and the teacher to thoughtfully evaluate progress. In an effort to evaluate the success of
the project as a whole, community members and the interviewees will be asked for their
responses to the documentary projects. Success for this project means students’ clear sense of
their historical contribution, a role in the creation of primary sources of history, and community
support and collaboration.




          THE “VISUALIZING ORAL HISTORY” PROJECT
Definitions of ORAL HISTORY on the Web:

      Verbally transmitted information about past events. Although often providing
       information about non-written events, such history is subject to the vagaries of human
       perceptions and mental recall.

      Evidence taken from the spoken words of people who have knowledge of past events and
       traditions. This oral history is often recorded on tape and then put in writing. It is used in
       history books and to document claims.

      The audio recording or transcript which results from planned oral interviews with
       individuals. These created and preserved interviews are intended for use by researchers
       and historians.

      The practice or tradition of passing cultural or familial information to further generations
       by word of mouth, or story telling. Oral histories often contain information not available
          in other historical forms, and serve to enrich written history with human feelings and
          personal accounts of global events.



You will be interviewing a person at least 34-years old about one of the following:



a. His/her experiences as a young teenager (about your age) – If you choose this, include
   questions about such topics as friends, school, hobbies/interests, relations with parents (i.e.
   what did parents worry about in those days?), relations with siblings, clothes, music/dance,
   etc.


Or



b. His/her experiences as a student at South Stanly High– If you choose this, focus on relations
   with teachers, friends, school rules (like dress code), activities, fears and hopes before
   coming, best and worst memories, how well SSHS prepared them for the real world, etc.


Or.



c.        Additional ideas for interviews:

         Natives of your state or city
         People who experienced the 1960s
         People who served in WWII or Vietnam War or Iraq War, etc.
         Professionals whose jobs the student finds interesting to explore (firefighter, artist,
          doctor, etc.)
         Community elders from a different culture

                        The goal is to make this project meaningful for you.



Preparation – This is extremely important. If you are poorly prepared, your interview will
probably not go smoothly.



a. Be sure to arrange for a quiet place and an interview time when you will not be interrupted.
b. Make every effort to obtain a tape recorder; having to take notes will interfere significantly
   with the flow of the interview and may cause the interviewee to make his/her answers
   unnecessarily brief. If you must depend only on notes, consider breaking the interview into
   two shorter sessions.


c. Be fully familiar with the questions the class came up with, and mark those you want to be
   sure to ask.


Interview



a. Think of yourself as a reporter. A good reporter knows that being interested and politely
   persistent usually allows you to get the most information.


b. Begin with an open-ended question – one that can’t be answered with a yes, no, name, or
   date. The first question you ask will set the tone for the responses you get throughout the
   entire interview. An example of an open-ended question is: “How would you describe the
   city or town where you lived when you were a teenager?”


c. Ask only one question at a time. Wait for the complete answer. If there is a pause, don’t feel
   obligated to fill it in with another question. This allows the subject to fill the space with his
   or her own thoughts and feelings.


d. Use words like “Why,” “How,” “Describe,” “Tell me about” when you ask your questions.


e. Don’t interrupt a good story. It may not relate to what you asked, but let it run its course.
   You might like the ending.


f. “It was this big,” and “I ran from here to there,” mean little when the tape is played back.
   Add verbal descriptions to any vague gestures: “You mean about as big as a box of
   Kleenex?”


g. Do not antagonize your interviewee by pressing him/her too hard to answer a question he/she
   has indicated he/she does not wish to discuss.
h. One question everyone should ask is, “What would you do differently if you were in high
   school today?” or “What have you learned in life that you wished you’d known then?”




Post Interview Tasks



a. Thank your interviewee copiously for the time and effort made.


b. As soon as possible after finishing the interview, listen to the tape or review your notes and
   jot down any follow-up questions you might have. Ask for this further information as soon
   as possible.




Project – Use this format for your final paper:



a. Cover Page – Use a title that refers to a key point in the life of your subject, preferably a
   quote from your subject, and a subtitle that includes the subject’s name.


      Example:                It’s a Fabulous Friday!

                   An Optimist Speaks, The Life of Lana Brody



b. Biography – Summarize your interviewee’s life or the information you learned about the
   person in a 2 – 3 page biographical paper that has an appropriate opening and conclusion.


c. Reflection – Comment on your experience as an interviewer and listener. Was it hard or
   easy to do the interview? Why? What did you do well and poorly? What questions would
   you add or delete?


d. Paper must be typed and the audio cassette of the interview must be handed in with your
   paper.


e. Try to collect pictures or mementos that you can scan as well.
f. You will be taught how to create an i-movie documentary for your audio/visual presentation.


g. You will present your documentary to the class.