Got Roots? Doing an Oral History Project

Initial Interview

Objective: Through the interviewing process, students will become more familiar with…

• Listening skills
• Note taking skills
• Organizational skills
• Writing Skills

Overview: Students are put into pairs. They will…

• Interview their partner
• organize their notes into a usable form
• write a three-paragraph article about their partner, and
•  introduce their partner to the rest of the class

Procedure:

1. Students get partners (Select the person they know least well in the class)
2. Students write five questions that they would like to know about their partners and list the questions.
3. They talk about good interviewing techniques. (Click here for directions sheet.)
4. Students then do the actual interview
5. Students make a further list of five questions. This time they are trying to get direct quotes and to delve deeper into information about the person.
6. Students use their notes and their topic sentences to make a presentation about the person they interviewed.
7. Students create a five-slide presentation telling about the person they interviewed. (This could also be done by writing up the interview and taking or drawing a picture of the interviewee.)  (Click here for assignment sheet.)
8. Present the person you interviewed to the class.

Material: PowerPoint and paper

Assessment: Because this was a practice activity, assessment involved having students…

• Write the questions
• Write the responses
• Take a picture of the interviewee
• Make a five-slide PowerPoint presentation.