This project for elementary school children takes participants through activities that help them see their lives in an historical context and teaches storytelling techniques so they can dramatize an elder's oral history.
This project introduces the concept of oral history and explains how to create timelines of historical events. In the next set of activities, educators guide young people through the process of interviewing a subject and collecting stories. Then they can use the story mapping tool, an online interactive graphic organizer, to arrange the story elements in preparation for sharing them with the group. As participants craft their presentations, educators lead activities that give them support and practice in the art of storytelling.
Oral history projects, which often involve interviewing an older family member or neighbor, promote intergenerational connections and cultivate young peoples' interests in their community and cultural heritage. This project was constructed using resources from different Thinkfinity partners and helps participants develop skills and gain a deeper understanding of concepts in the areas of history, drama and language arts.
Project Duration:
From three to four weeks (assuming multiple sessions per week), depending on how many of the various activities the group undertakes ,and how in depth the research is..
What Young People Will Learn and Do:
- understand that their lifetime represents a small piece of history and make connections between their family history and world events
- formulate questions and conduct an oral history interview, taking notes about a family member's or community member's childhood experiences
- use a graphic organizer to synthesize key elements of a story and share it with an audience using various storytelling techniques
Materials needed:
Computer with Internet access
Large roll of butcher paper, markers
Notebooks and pens
Career fields highlighted:
History/historian
Theater/storytelling
Journalism/creative writing
Academic standards addressed:
- National Council for the Social Studies, Curriculum Standards: NCSS-1 Culture and cultural diversity; NCSS-2 Time, continuity and change. The ways human beings view themselves in and over time; NCSS-4 Individual development and identity; and NCSS-9 Global connections and interdependence.
- National Standards for Arts Education, Theater Standards 1 - Script writing by planning and recording improvisations based on personal experience and heritage, imagination, literature, and history; 2 - Acting by assuming roles and interacting in improvisations; and 5 - Researching by finding information to support classroom dramatizations
- Grades K-4 History I, Standard 1: Understands family life now and in the past, and family life in various places long ago