Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

Doing Oral History with Vietnam War Veterans

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Get the story from those who experienced it. Engage learners with a structured oral history project involving Vietnam War era veterans. By conducting thoughtful interviews, class members learn what it was like to serve in the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Oral History: Park City Museum

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Bring U.S. history to your language arts class with this lesson. Middle schoolers complete an interview for an oral history project, and discuss the importance of oral histories - and how they embellish written accounts. They write...
Lesson Plan
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Museum of Tolerance

Oral History Activity

For Teachers 3rd - 6th Standards
Oral history has brought a multitude of lessons, stories, and factoids to our current knowledge of the past. Let us continue to use oral history traditions through a lesson that encourages pupils to discover and appreciate...
Lesson Plan
California Department of Education

In the Interview Hot Seat

For Teachers 12th Standards
Interviews can be so stressful. How does someone stay calm and confident in the interview hot seat? Senior job seekers get acquainted with common interview questions during the fifth of six career and college readiness lessons....
Lesson Plan
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Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation

Interview a Family or Community Member: Taking Oral Histories

For Teachers 3rd - 12th
Young scholars gain insight into how historians record events by engaging in an oral history project. In preparation, class members brainstorm open-ended interview questions and take part in and debrief a mock interview simulation....
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Oral History

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Use oral history as a way to help learners develop communication skills. They interview a trusted adult about their life as a young person, challenges they overcame, and what they are proud of. Learners are then interviewed themselves in...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Interview An Older Person

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders interview older people about their experiences and memories. They include information about entertainment, travel, dress, toys, and food and present both written and oral reports. They publish their stories in a class...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Creating an Oral History--Who Tells the Story?

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Explore the difficulties in compiling an oral history with this lesson. Young researchers conduct interviews and consider how point of view changes various accounts of a single incidence, resulting in conflicting information. They view a...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Oral Interviews on Traditions and Celebrations

For Teachers 5th - 12th
Students practice speaking in a target language through the use of oral interview techniques. They engage in conversations with peers using a certain theme of celebration and tradition. Students plan questions that they use in the...
Lesson Plan
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Berkshire Museum

Meet a Naturalist: Researching, Writing, Interviewing

For Teachers 2nd - 5th Standards
Young scholars reach out into the community and learn about different environmental science careers in this inquiry-based instructional activity. Beginning with a short research assignment, children gain background knowledge about...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Sound of History: Conducting an Oral Interview

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Students conduct an oral interview with a person from their local community. They conduct research, write interview questions, conduct the interview, and identify the subject matter using headings and subheadings.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What is History? Timelines and Oral Histories

For Teachers K - 2nd
Students consider how we learn about the past and discuss how the framing of history is always done by the person who is telling it. They construct a personal and class timelines, compare two or more accounts of the same event and record...
Lesson Plan
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Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation

Exploring Oral Histories of Angel Island Immigrants

For Teachers 5th - 12th
Empowered by the previous lesson where they interviewed a family or community member, young historians examine Angel Island immigrants' oral histories. They use a matrix to record their interpretation of the feelings of the immigrant....
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Listening to History

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students consider the insight to the past that oral histories can provide. They, in groups, analyze oral histories, prepare to interview a family member on their recollections of a historical event and then write a historical narrative.
Lesson Plan
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Scholastic

Smart Quotes Mini-Lesson

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
Prepare for an interview project with a set of worksheets about asking questions and quoting people. After completing a grammar exercise about quotation marks, kids write out the questions they want to ask their interviewee, and record...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Passing Down Family History Through Oral Tradition: Corridos

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students create and perform Corridos which are oral tradition ballads. In this Passing Down Family History Through Oral Tradition instructional activity, students interview family members using a predetermined list of questions. In...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Immigration Oral History

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students explore oral history and how it is important to historical record. They interview someone who is a U.S. immigrant and create an oral history project/paper based on this interview.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Interviewing Skills

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Students participate in mock interviews. In this interview skills instructional activity, students prepare for a mock interview by following the provided instructional activity procedures, participate in the evaluated interview, and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Telling My Story - Oral History

For Teachers K - 3rd
Students determine the importance of the process behind creating an oral history. In this oral history lesson plan, students determine how to ask important questions in an oral history interview. They practice interviewing each other and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Listen To Me!

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Young learners need practice speaking comfortably in front of others. Post a list of oral speaking tips on the board during this unit. Over a week-long period, they create a story from their interview sheet and present it to the class....
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What is History? Timelines and Oral Histories

For Teachers K - 2nd
Students determine that their lifetime shows just a small piece of history. They determine how two or more accounts of the same event can be different. They write an account of the same event from two perspectives.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Oral Histories

For Teachers 9th - 11th
Distinguish the difference between primary and secondary sources. High schoolers discover how to conduct an interview using an individual as a primary source, and why it is important to get a real-life perspective. They either video or...
Lesson Plan
California Department of Education

Learn to Reach Out

For Teachers 12th Standards
How can social media help my career? Explore the world of networking through a instructional activity about professional organizations. The fourth of six career and college readiness lessons has seniors research organizations in their...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

E-mailing the Chamber of Commerce

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Encourage effective internet research and e-mail correspondence as scholars investigate a US capital city they've never visited to find pertinent and relevant information. They begin by picking a city, then visit that city's chamber of...