Teaching Tolerance
Oral Interviews
Show class members how personal history can be using an oral interview project. Even the youngest learners engage with history using a resource to create and execute interviews with members of their community. The activity walks a class...
Curated OER
Oral History
Students create oral histories. In this oral history activity, students prepare for and conduct interviews with Holocaust survivors, liberators, or rescuers. Students study the provided procedure for the interview and present their...
Curated OER
Oral Histories
Learners investigate the theme of what it means to be American in a pluralistic society. They conduct oral histories with a family member and create a presentation of the interview. Students develop a better comprehension of their own...
Curated OER
Oral History
Students interview a Native Elder to learn about oral history and cold weather. In this weather lesson, students ask an Elder about the coldest day they remember in their community and complete two worksheets for the topic.
Curated OER
A Day in the Life of a Veteran: Oral History
Seventh graders conduct an interview with a veteran of a recent war to provide an account of military conflicts. In this oral history lesson, 7th graders research a recent war and write interview questions for their research. Students...
Curated OER
In Search Of Wisdom: An Interview With An Elder
The key to writing a good narrative is having good material to work with; and the key to getting good material is asking good questions. Working in groups, class members brainstorm questions that might result in the most interesting...
American Institute of Physics
Women and the Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a massive undertaking involving multiple sites and thousands of scientists and technicians. To gain an understanding of the women who participated in the project, groups select an oral history of a woman...
Curated OER
Immigration and Oral History
Students examine immigration. In this oral and social histories lesson, students analyze primary sources to research immigration history in their community. In this year-long research project, students participate in visual and...
Library of Congress
Oral History and Social History
Students examine the Great Depression. For this oral and social histories instructional activity, students analyze primary sources to develop an understanding of the America in the 1930's.
Curated OER
Preserving the Past with Oral History
Pupils research history by interviewing people in their community. They create a list of questions and record their responses. They end the project with some type of final product which might include a memory book.
Curated OER
Oral Histories
Distinguish the difference between primary and secondary sources. High schoolers discover how to conduct an interview using an individual as a primary source, and why it is important to get a real-life perspective. They either video or...
Curated OER
Interview An Older Person
Third graders interview older people about their experiences and memories. They include information about entertainment, travel, dress, toys, and food and present both written and oral reports. They publish their stories in a class...
Curated OER
Migration During the Great Depression: Living History
Students interview immigrants of Central Florida and photograph them to learn their oral history and life stories. In this immigration lesson plan, students discover where people come from, and write about the life story of this person.
Curated OER
Slave Narratives: Constructing U.S. History Through Analyzing Primary Sources
Learners access oral histories that contain slave narratives from the Library of Congress. They describe the lives of former slaves, sample varied individual experiences and make generalizations about their research in journal entries.
Curated OER
Baseball Memories
Students act as historians by, first, reading and analyzing oral histories of professional baseball players to become familiar with baseball figures. Then, they proceed to interview family members, relatives, or neighbors who have...
Curated OER
Immigration: Stories of Yesterday and Today
Students use Web technology to access immigration history and develop an understanding of the concept of immigration. Then they develop oral history writing skills, including note-taking and conducting an interview and read for detail....
Curated OER
Discovering Your Heritage
Students interview a family member about their heritage. They listen to and record part of their family's oral history. Students also create and label a family tree going back a minimum of two generations and compare and contrast...
EngageNY
Practicing Listening and Reading Closely: The Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address
Thanksgiving doesn't occur only once a year for the Haudenosaunee. Weave an instructional activity about reading closely with an inspiring message about eternal gratitude for all of the elements of creation into a unit on Native American...
National Endowment for the Humanities
The Freedom Riders and the Popular Music of the Civil Rights Movement
The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s marched to its own beat—literally. Using songs from the era, as well as other primary sources such as King's "I Have a Dream" speech, class members analyze lyrics to discover how music and protest...
Curated OER
Oral Presentation
Practice your speaking skills! Using a chosen visual aid, pupils present a previously written essay to the class. During the oral presentation, the listeners identify and write down the author's purpose and a question for the author. At...
Curated OER
The Brick Industry
Students listen to an oral history radio program from the Countdown to Millennium project. They discuss the lifestyles of various workers heard on the radio program and how has the area changed.
Curated OER
Folklore and Oral History
High schoolers listen to a lecture about the tradition of story telling and oral history. They research three examples of African American and/or Negro Leagues oral tradition. they work in groups of four, and decide on one example from...
Curated OER
Legends as Oral History
Sixth graders read First Nations legends to find information about the First Nations. In this legends as oral history lesson, 6th graders interview and write oral histories from family members.
Curated OER
Maurie Japarta Ryan, Oral History Analysis
Students research Australian History as it relates to the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families. In this Maurie Japarta Ryan instructional activity, students apply specific skills pertaining to...