Vol. 41, No. 3, Fall 2011:Conversations |
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Featured Article
Increasing Language Resources: Taping
Oral Histories toTheir Voices Everyone has a story to tell As a journalist who has interviewed thousands of people, I have learned so Taping oral histories is a good exercise to do at the beginning of a new school term, I ask my students to be journalists for a day and for each to interview a partner about his or her life. In doing so I give my students a set of questions they can use to elicit information about another person. I leave space on the sheet between each question for students to write notes based on what they hear (this is a great technique to encourage good listening skills). I also tell them, if they prefer, that they can use a tape recorder to record the interview and replay it later as a way to review their notes and hear how they sound. I ask them to write up their notes as best they can to refer to when they later introduce the person they interviewed to the rest of the class. You also can record these interviews on audio or videotape, which can then become a class taped library. At the beginning, I provide students with a list of questions that can be used for such oral history interviews. I then review the questions with my students and
Creating oral histories can also be part of a special “Grandparents Day’’ program in which your students can invite family members, including children or older neighbors, to school for the day to share their life stories. Encourage students to bring old family photos and ask them to prepare a special food dish to share and taste. As part of this intergenerational program, students can record on audio or videotape the elders telling their stories. In addition to taping oral histories, another activity you can do with your students is encourage them to create paper, memory-quilt blankets to tell their life stories. The quilts are made up of individual panels, drawn by students, which represent key moments in their lives. Using white oaktag panels, 7 inches by 7 inches, first write some subject prompts on each to help students get started. Examples: My Happiest Memory, Something Wonderful, A Memory of Someone I Love, Something I Treasure, My Hopes and Dreams, A Sad Time, My Greatest Accomplishment. Students use crayons or Magic Markers to draw the panels; when completed, the panels are taped onto a wall or blackboard. The students then gather around the wall, which now looks like a mosaic quilt, and each is asked to talk about the memory the panel evoked. I promise that you will learn so much about your students this way and that they will take pleasure in what they have learned about each other.
About the Author A journalist all his life, Bill Zimmerman is the author of How to Tape Instant Oral Biographies, an oral history guide, and My Paper Memory Quilt: A Family History Pack. Excerpts from these and all of his 15 books, used in literacy and ESL programs, can be seen on his educational Web site at: http://www.billztreasurechest.com. He teaches a writing course at the College of Mount St. Vincent Institute for Immigrant Concerns in Manhattan and tutors at the Aguilar/Spanish Harlem branch of the New York Public Library. As a newspaper editor, his nationally syndicated Student Briefing Page for Newsday was nominated twice for a Pulitzer Prize. Go to http://www.billztreasurechest.com/make_believe.html for more award-winning Make Beliefs by Bill Zimmerman and Tom Bloom. All the different pages on Bill’s Web site have activities that educators can use with students in teaching writing skills.
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