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Keeping the Past Alive
Students read about the oral histories of West Africa and complete related activities. In this oral histories lesson, students read about the importance of oral customs in African cultures. Students interview a family member about oral...
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Immigration and Oral History
Pupils 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, pupils participate in visual and information...
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Migration During the Great Depression: Living History
Young scholars interview immigrants of Central Florida and photograph them to learn their oral history and life stories. In this immigration lesson plan, students discover where people come from, and write about the life story of this...
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Personal Stories and Primary Sources: Conversations with Elders
Young scholars learn from their elders. In this oral and social histories lesson plan, students analyze primary sources to develop an understanding of the America in which their grandparents grew up. Young scholars conduct interviews...
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African American Traditions: Cameroonian and African-American Folktales
High schoolers compare Cameroonian and African-American folktales. In this folktales lesson, students participate in a jigsaw activity that requires them to read "The Owl Never Sleeps as Night," "Why the Lizard Often Nods," "Tappin, the...
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History Telling
Tenth graders examine the different parts of history that make up people's lives. In this American History lesson, 10th graders explore how historians learn about events that happened in the past by looking at events that happened in...
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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...
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Listening for Leschi: Voices from the Past
Students interview a family other than their own to learn about oral history. In this oral history lesson plan, students also create a newspaper article about Leschi and pretend they interviewed him back in the past.
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Oral History
Students interview a Native Elder to learn about oral history and cold weather. In this weather lesson, students ask an Elder about the coldest day they remember in their community and complete two worksheets for the topic.
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Swapping Stories: Response Journal
In this oral traditions worksheet, students respond to their emotional connection to a story of their choice by completing 10 sentence starters linked to events in the story.
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The Rest of the Story Worksheet
In this oral traditions worksheet, students choose a character from 1 of the 3 poems and compose an ending for the story from that character's point of view. The characters include an American Indian orphan, a European, and an American...
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Tall Tale Map Worksheet
In this story map worksheet, students make a map of a tall tale they have read or heard to show they understand how the tales develop.
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War Stories
Students watch the film "The Perilous Fight: America's World War II in Color". Using the film, they work together to develop proper interview questions to use while talking to World War II veterns. After the interview, they research...
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Great Migration 2002
Ninth graders compose journal entries that relate to interview topics working in pairs interviewing each other. They create ten interview questions on their own as well as deliver presentations about their interviews of one another. Each...
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Folktales: Oral Traditions as a Basis for Instruction in our Schools
Middle schoolers visit their school library to read a variety of folktales. While they read, they identify the trickster or hero in each and discuss how the character represents the chaos in the real world. In groups, they write their...
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A Taste of the Caribbean
Students are introduced to the foods and traditions of the Caribbean. In groups, they brainstorm their own definition of culture and review the physical and political geography of the Caribbean. They spend time sampling different foods...
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Elders as Resources
Learners participate in an oral history project where they interview a person's valuable insights to their life stories. They gain personal experience in an interactive process that brings history alive all over again. Students conduct...
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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...
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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.
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School Daze - Remembering First, Best, Worst
Learners gather and record information in interviews with adults discovering their first, best, and worst school memories, and transfer interviews into memory pages containing the interview information.
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More Folk Songs
First graders explain that texts of folk music are handed down by tradition. They sing two folk songs.
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Daily Life During the Great Depression
Students identify what daily life was like during the Great Depression and why oral histories are valuable tools for preserving memories. They develop a list of questions. They conduct an oral history interview. They write down the...
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Telling My Story: Conducting and Writing an Oral History
Learners analyze the use of oral history as a way of gathering history. In this oral history lesson, students define oral history and then discuss researching immigration. Learners research immigration. Students create questions for to...
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Motifs and Variations Worksheet
In this oral tradition motif and variations worksheet, students answer several questions based on famous stories that cross cultural lines. Students examine similar story elements and motifs.