Curated OER
Oral History: Park City Museum
Bring U.S. history to your language arts class with this lesson. 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...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Doing Oral History with Vietnam War Veterans
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...
Curated OER
Oral History
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...
Curated OER
Listening to History
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.
Museum of Tolerance
Oral History Activity
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...
Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation
Interview a Family or Community Member: Taking Oral Histories
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....
Curated OER
Creating an Oral History--Who Tells the Story?
Explore the difficulties in compiling an oral history with this lesson. Young researchers conduct interviews and consider how point of view changes various accounts of a single incidence, resulting in conflicting information. They view a...
Curated OER
Telling My Story - Oral History
Students determine the importance of the process behind creating an oral history. In this oral history activity, students determine how to ask important questions in an oral history interview. They practice interviewing each other and...
Curated OER
What is History? Timelines and Oral Histories
Students consider how we learn about the past and discuss how the framing of history is always done by the person who is telling it. They construct a personal and class timelines, compare two or more accounts of the same event and record...
Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation
Exploring Oral Histories of Angel Island Immigrants
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....
Curated OER
What is History? Timelines and Oral Histories
Students determine that their lifetime shows just a small piece of history. They determine how two or more accounts of the same event can be different. They write an account of the same event from two perspectives.
Curated OER
Immigration Oral History
Learners explore oral history and how it is important to historical record. They interview someone who is a U.S. immigrant and create an oral history project/paper based on this interview.
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...
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
Oral History
Students create oral histories. In this oral history lesson, 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
Students 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 activity, 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...
Library of Congress
Oral History and Social History
Students examine the Great Depression. In this oral and social histories instructional activity, students analyze primary sources to develop an understanding of the America in the 1930's.
Curated OER
Immigration and Oral History
Young scholars examine immigration. For this oral and social histories lesson, students analyze primary sources to research immigration history in their community. In this year-long research project, young scholars participate in visual...
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
Living History
Students investigate historic events through the eyes of people who were their age when the event happened. Through personal interviews, students gain insights on the impact of these events on these people's lives and on the world at large.
Curated OER
The Great Depression: An Oral History
Students examine the hardships experienced during the Great Depression through an oral history interview with person who lived through the event. Students transcribe their interviews and discover the contributions oral history can make...
Curated OER
Preserving the Past with Oral History
Students 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.