Heritage, 2007, Volume 3 Page: 27
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Oral History in the Classroom
By Pam Murtha
Although textbooks provide a wealth of written information
on any given subject, students excel when learning from methods
of teaching that are more dynamic and interactive. At the
Baylor University Institute for Oral History in Waco, their mission
is to encourage teachers to integrate the oral history tradition
into their social studies classrooms as one way to animate
the learning process. Incorporating archived interviews from
outside sources into lesson plans is a valuable teaching tool, but
participating in oral history can go beyond listening to previously
recorded accounts. The institute's instructional material
for their Oral History Workshop (available on-line at www.
baylor.edu/oral_history) cites many benefits to students while
learning the necessary techniques to complete an individual or
group oral history project. Some of those advantages include:
* learning how to use primary and secondary resources for research
on a chosen interview topic;
* gaining an understanding of and appreciation for how one's
family heritage is a part of history;
* creating primary source material that enriches the historical
community;
* improving upon listening and interviewing skills, which allow
for greater confidence in oral communication; and
* linking historical events studied in class to local voices and
familiar places.
In addition to advancing essential learning skills, educators
can use oral history in the classroom in a number of ways. Students
can listen to previously recorded oral histories, analyzing
the content, making comparisons with formal research on the
topic, and drawing conclusions about the similarities or differences
between the two. Besides supplementing lesson plans,
archived oral histories can serve as models as students prepare
for their own oral history interviews. Young scholars can then
interview family members, focusing their questions on a particular
era or historical event currently in discussion.
A final application of the oral interview is for teachers to
bring in a community member (or members) for in-class oralhistory project work. For Texas history teachers this approach
enables those students without a Texas heritage to participate
in uncovering personal recollections of historic state events.
As an alternative, students could independently seek out older
residents of their community, located through school or family
and neighborhood resources. In 1973, Gary High School
history teacher, Lincoln King, had his class members take this
approach, spawning The Loblolly Project, a student-run magazine
(four books have also been published) that for the past 24
years has served as a publishing vehicle for pupils collecting and
preserving their community's East Texas history, culture, and
folklore using the oral history tradition.
For educators interested in incorporating oral history in their
classroom, Baylor's Oral History Workshop (besides offering
their own extensive tutorial for teachers) lists several other instructional
Internet and print resources. The resource also cites
several web postings of student oral history projects for teacher
reference. Additionally, on the National Endowment for the
Humanities EDsitement website (http://edsitement.neh.gov),
two downloadable lessons plans are posted. In "Listening to
History," activities center on family history interviews, and in
"My Piece of History" students use family mementos to create
historical narratives.
Oral history is both a process, accomplished through research
and interviews, and a product, an audio or videotaped personal
recollection. By using oral history as a teaching tool, educators
introduce their students to the more intimate, human element
of historic preservation. Past events become less abstract and
much more interesting when listening to first-hand experiences.
Using oral history in teaching Texas history allows
students a different perspective of their community and their
family members while at the same time developing essential
learning skills.Volume 3 2007
HERITAGE
,I I
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Texas Historical Foundation. Heritage, 2007, Volume 3, periodical, 2007; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth45361/m1/27/: accessed March 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Foundation.