Using Oral History Teacher Material

Computer-Based Activities

1. To participate in this lesson, your class will need computer access to the World Wide Web for each small group.

2. For each student or group of students, print and duplicate:
   • Tips for Organizing Group Work

3. Before beginning the lesson, assign small groups of students to work at each computer station. Give roles to students in each group based on Tips for Organizing Group Work. Students may want to rotate responsibilities throughout the lesson.

4. In Section 3: Analyzing Oral Histories, student groups are asked to read and answer questions about oral history excerpts from one of three primary source sets. This activity will provide the basis for later class discussion of possible topics for student research. If computer time or printer access is limited, you may wish to print out these Primary Source Sets in advance:

   A: Working Women in the 1930s
   B: Dancing as a Form of Recreation, 1890s-1930s
   C: Americans and the Automobile

   Note: These are large files (about 30 K) and contain all the documents within the set.

5. To help your students do on-line searches suggested in Section 4: Background Research for Oral History Interviews, spend time searching the American Life Histories, 1936-1940 collection yourself. Once you have completed some searches, you will be better prepared to answer students' questions.

   Review the Learning Page Collection Connection for American Life Histories guide to American Life Histories, 1936-1940 for an overview of the collection's contents.

   American Life Histories supplemental pages provide a brief overview of the project and the life histories. Here you'll find out the focus of the project and how interviews were conducted.

   • About the Folklore Project and the Life Histories;
   • WPA Life Histories: About the Federal Writers' Project; and
   • Oral History and the Federal Writers' Project, a descriptive summary of the project included in the student lesson.

6. Students will be asked to print out guidelines from Section 5: Guidelines for Oral History Interviews. If printer access is limited, you may wish to print and duplicate these guidelines for students.

Oral History Interviews

1. You will need to identify interview subjects for your students. Some ideas for identifying interview subjects include:
   • Recruit community residents to come to your classroom.
   • Arrange a field trip to a local senior center for a student interview day.
   • Prepare a list of names and telephone numbers of community residents willing to be interviewed.

2. Students should be accompanied by an adult for face-to-face interviews. (Interview subjects sometimes talk above a young interviewer's head to an adult. Adults may want to sit to the side to keep the focus on the student interviewer.)

3. Students can go in pairs. One student can take notes, or operate the tape recorder if one is used; the other can ask questions. Taking notes is helpful if the interviewer asks questions not on the original list.

4. Originally, paper and pen were the means of recording interviews. Today, researchers use tape recorders. If students plan to tape interviews, they will need blank cassettes and tape recorders. In Folklife and Fieldwork: A Layman's Introduction to Field Techniques, under "How to Do It," you'll find a simple checklist with hints for sound recording.