Steps in Putting Together an Oral History Project with Middle School Students: Brief Notes

1. Preparation for the Process
   1. Set up an opportunity for students to pose questions to an adult family member (see Family Story Assignment).
      1. What did the experience feel like?
      2. What did the role reversal feel like?
      3. What did you learn?
         1. About yourself
         2. About the informant
         3. About the subject

   2. Provide an opportunity for students to interview an adult (but not a family member) on a subject of mutual choosing (see Teacher Interview Assignment).

   3. Work with question formulation (see Identifying Open/Closed Questions and Rewriting Closed Questions).

   4. Familiarize students with taping equipment, microphone placement, and other technical aspects of the interview.

   5. Preparation for the interview: formulating an outline that leads to a line of questioning.

2. Preparation for the Content
   1. Traditional background research in the library (varies depending on the nature of the topic).

   2. Research using primary source documents and other resources on the Internet, where appropriate (e.g., American Memory Collections of the Library of Congress, Ellis Island Museum, Smithsonian Institution, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, etc.)

   3. Local resource persons

3. Outcomes

   1. Archival materials -- raw tapes can be retained by the institution/individuals as historical records.

   2. Edited materials -- Radio programming, museum guides, etc.

   3. Pedagogical opportunities
      1. Comparative teaching -- comparing the effects of a national phenomenon (such as the Great Depression) on ordinary people and on the nation as a whole.
      2. Lessons in history -- who/what makes decisions about what gets into the history books?