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Lesson Plan
National Museum of the American Indian

Lone Dog's Winter Count: Keeping History Alive

For Teachers 4th - 8th Standards
What is oral tradition, and what unique tool did the Native Americans of the Northern Great Plains use to help them remember their complex histories? Through pictograph analysis, discussion, research, and an engaging hands-on activity,...
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Handout
Park City Historical Society & Museum

Oral History Interview Questions Worksheet

For Students 4th - 8th
What is an oral history interview? What goes into the planning and what should be said? Why is it important that we know and learn from oral history? This is an excellent worksheet to support your young historians as they conduct...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Listening to History

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students consider the insight to the past that oral histories can provide. They, in groups, analyze oral histories, prepare to interview a family member on their recollections of a historical event and then write a historical narrative.
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Lesson Plan
US House of Representatives

House History Comes Alive

For Teachers 7th - 12th
How reliable is oral history? The resource uses the oral history website to help academics understand the pros and cons of using recollections to teach others. Scholars complete a worksheet, draft a letter to a representative, and...
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Lesson Plan
American Institute of Physics

Women and the Manhattan Project

For Teachers 9th - Higher Ed Standards
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...
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Lesson Plan
American Institute of Physics

African Americans and Life in a Secret City

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Imagine the lure of being offered a job at a secret site, working on a secret project, and earning higher wages! Such was the approach used to recruit African Americans to Hanford, Washington, one of several sites used to develop...
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Lesson Plan
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Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation

Exploring Oral Histories of Angel Island Immigrants

For Teachers 5th - 12th
Empowered by the previous lesson where they interviewed a family or community member, young historians examine Angel Island immigrants' oral histories. They use a matrix to record their interpretation of the feelings of the immigrant....
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Lesson Plan
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Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation

Interview a Family or Community Member: Taking Oral Histories

For Teachers 3rd - 12th
Young scholars gain insight into how historians record events by engaging in an oral history project. In preparation, class members brainstorm open-ended interview questions and take part in and debrief a mock interview simulation....
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Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

Doing Oral History with Vietnam War Veterans

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Get the story from those who experienced it. Engage learners with a structured oral history project involving Vietnam War era veterans. By conducting thoughtful interviews, class members learn what it was like to serve in the...
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Activity
Teaching Tolerance

Oral History Project

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Get up-close-and-personal with history using guidance for an oral history project. An engaging resource takes pupils through brainstorming through feedback for a project to interview and collect oral histories from members of their...
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Activity
Teaching Tolerance

Oral Interviews

For Teachers K - 2nd Standards
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...
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Lesson Plan
National WWII Museum

Rationing by the Numbers: Quantitative Data as Evidence

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
What was it like to live on wartime rations in the United States during World War II? Young historians find out by exploring how those on the home front bought food thanks to the ration system. Other data includes statistics on car sales...
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Lesson Plan
Vanderbilt University

Stories from the Panama Canal

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
The stories of the Silver People, the West Indies immigrants hired to work on the Panama Canal, come to life in a lesson plan about the building of the Panama Canal. Groups research why the canal was built, how it was build, the working...
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Website
University of North Carolina

Oral History

For Students 9th - Higher Ed Standards
There's no better way to learn something than to hear it straight from the horse's mouth. A handout on oral history, part of a larger series on specific writing assignments, explains how to conduct interviews and use the information...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Merging New Technology with Old Stories

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Is your city's history a mystery to your class? Ever wonder if your county contains a bounty of folklore? Young computer scientists incorporate technology with time-honored tales during a project with both individual and group...
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Lesson Plan
Scholastic

Tell Us a Tale: Teaching Students to Be Storytellers

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
Encourage scholars to retell their favorite short story or folktale, adding personal details to make it their own. After reading their book of choice several times, story tellers retell a tale verbally to their classmates. 
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Lesson Plan
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Museum of Tolerance

Oral History Activity

For Teachers 3rd - 6th Standards
Oral history has brought a multitude of lessons, stories, and factoids to our current knowledge of the past. Let us continue to use oral history traditions through a lesson that encourages pupils to discover and appreciate where they...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Oral History

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Use oral history as a way to help learners develop communication skills. They interview a trusted adult about their life as a young person, challenges they overcame, and what they are proud of. Learners are then interviewed themselves in...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Interview An Older Person

For Teachers 3rd
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...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Compare and Contrast Knowledge of Vietnam War

For Teachers 9th - 11th
Kids compare and contrast knowledge of the Vietnam War. They consider what they know and how their knowledge has changed after listening to oral histories from the war. They compare the understanding of the war from the perspective of...
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PPT
Curated OER

International Folklore

For Teachers 5th - 9th
Folklore is composed of stories that convey cultural heritage and traditions. Many types of tales are listed as well as what they portray in various contexts and situations. Give your learners a brief description or definition of...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Storytellers Past and Present

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students read and discuss an article about Olga Loya, a modern storyteller. They watch a videotaped performance of a story and then create a storytelling experience for a story of their choice to share with the class.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Oral History: Park City Museum

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Bring U.S. history to your language arts class with this lesson plan. Middle schoolers complete an interview for an oral history project, and discuss the importance of oral histories - and how they embellish written accounts. They write...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Storytelling: Oral Traditions Learning Center

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students explore the oral traditions. In this storytelling lesson, students compare and contrast stories from the cultural traditions of Alaska and Hawaii.