Activity 2
Gather a selection of books illustrative of oral history, such as:
Howard, Elizabeth, Aunt Flossie's Hats (and Crab Cakes Later),
Clarion Books, 1990. (Sarah and Susan visit their Aunt Flossie in Baltimore
and hear stories about the history of her life there.)
Martin, Bill, Jr., and John Archambault, Knots on a Counting Rope, Holt,
1985. (A young blind boy loves to retell stories of his life's history with his grandfather.)
Mathis, Sharon Bell, Hundred Penny Box, Viking Press, 1975.
(Michael begs his Aunt Dew to tell him the events of her life that are
represented by her penny collection.)
Polacco, Patricia, Keeping Quilt, Simon & Schuster, 1988.
(An old quilt evokes memories of many events in a rich family history.)
Activity 3
Small items to use as memory cues, such as paper or plastic "coins,"
materials to make simple hats, 12" - 18" pieces of string, etc.
Memory cues for
Keeping Quilt and
Aunt
Flossie's Hats are provided as examples.
Activity 4
Artifacts belonging to the teacher, appropriate for telling a story
from the teacher's own life.
Activity 5
Interview Topics Worksheet (optional)
Activity 6
video equipment (optional)
feedback forms.
Extension Activities
Creating a “Somebody Museum.”
Metacognitive Feedback Form
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| Activity 1: |
30 minutes |
| Activity 2: |
40-60 minutes |
| Activity 3: |
40-60 minutes |
| Activity 4: |
30 minutes |
| Activity 5: |
90 minutes |
| Activity 6: |
30 minutes for
Student Booklet
1 to 2 hours for presentations |
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(274k) Acrobat
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General Information.
Obtain copies of as many of the books listed in the bibliography as
possible (see Materials Required for Activity 2)
and include additional titles as appropriate. The activities could be
adapted for use with just one book, but the students will lose much of
the value of the multicultural perspective if limited to a single title.
In addition, each book makes use of a different memory cue, which will help
students understand this method of transmitting oral history.Grouping
strategies will depend in part on how many books may be shared by students.
Students will work individually, in pairs and in heterogeneous groups of four
to six for different activities.
It is important throughout this task to be sensitive to students'
personal life stories.
Some may have no biological relatives to consult
about their earlier lives; a variety of circumstances could make searching
out their early or recent life very painful. Some families may feel any
reconstructing of the past is prying into private matters. Teachers must
help students understand that their past can be as recent as the last
year, month or week. They can interview teachers, neighbors or any person
who has known them. They are in control of what they choose to share about
their own stories. One alternative included in this task is to allow students
to do someone else's history such as a neighbor, or a teacher.
For further information, teachers can refer to various publications
and articles on collecting oral history. Among them are the following:
Cobblestones: Ancestors, “Kwakiutal Ancestors,” p. 28, describes
telling the story through dance; Cobblestones: Genealogy: A Personal
History, “Twenty Questions,” p. 31, suggests questions to ask; and Faces:
Storytelling, “Recipe for a Story,” p. 31, deals with important components
of telling a good story (personal or otherwise).
Vocabulary.
oral history: memories of the past which are preserved by retelling.
memory cues: an article or artifact which helps a person remember past
events or people.
Introduction
Ask students how people learn about the past. Have them brainstorm
and share some of their ideas with a partner. Explain that students will
be preparing oral histories and will be collecting artifacts to accompany
their presentations.
Activity 1
Distribute Student Bookle. Students list as many different methods for passing
on information about people and events as possible (see an
exemplary response). If no one suggests oral history or stories, introduce
the idea and have students discuss advantages and disadvantages.
Activity 2
Divide students into groups to read books from fiction bibliography to find:
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- memory cue for recalling and telling history
(example: Aunt Flossie's hats),
- the major events and the reactions
people had to them, and
- how the geographic setting affected people's lives.
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Activity 3Step A.
Have students read along as you read the introductory paragraph. Make sure all
students understand what is expected. Students will share their learning by
preparing artifacts or memory cues that match the story their group read and by
using these items to retell the story to other students. Distribute appropriate
materials for students to make memory cues that fit their story. (See list of
Materials Required.)
Step A.
Focus the students on the concepts of producer and
consumer. Define the terms for the children.
Step B.
Place students into new groups as indicated in the
Distribute Student Booklet. The grouping
strategy, Jigsaw, allows each student to be responsible for telling about
a book to a group and requires the students to pay close attention to each
other's retelling.
Activity 4
The teacher should bring in several personal artifacts and tell students
a story of his/her life. Help students understand that artifacts evoke historic
and everyday events to help us understand the past.
Activity 5Step A.
Students will begin working on a K-W-L organizer which will be completed
as the last step of the task.
Step B. Begin by addressing the problems people encounter when
investigating personal histories: There may be matters adults do not
wish to discuss with the children, faulty memory or exaggeration, painful
memories, conflicting memories of the same event by different participants,
and different reactions to events. In addition, people may not have family
members available for many reasons. Despite these obstacles, a personal
history can still be prepared. Remember sensitivity issues -- see General
Information, above.
Following the discussion, have students complete Step B individually.
Step C. Copy and distribute the list of sample question
prompts provided for reference; see “Interview
Topics Worksheet.” Have students work with partners to write a
question for each prompt provided. Then, through teacher-directed
discussion, compile a master list of interview questions with the
class. With partners, and using the master list of interview questions,
have students plan and conduct interviews of each other, and practice taking notes.
Step D. Students use the questions developed in Step C
to interview important individuals in their lives or in the life
of the person they selected. Be sure to remind students to ask
permission of their parents/guardians before contacting other adults.
Instruct students to save interview notes and attach them to their
booklets. The teacher may want to offer students the option of
tape-recording interviews. If so, before taping, students must
get permission from the person they choose to tape.
Activity 6
Step A. Using a think/pair/share format, work
with the class to create a rubric for scoring student presentations
of their oral histories and copy it on the board or a transparency.
Step B. Students will prepare their own personal history,
or that of the person they chose, incorporating artifacts or memory
cues that are appropriate. Refer back to the books read by the
class to have students think about the kinds of artifacts or material
objects they could use to present or to evoke the memories of their own
lives, or the life of the person they selected. Remind students that
the books/stories use a wide variety of memory cues. If artifacts they
want to use no longer exist, they can create reproductions to represent
the objects.
Provide a selection of appropriate graphic organizers for planning.
Step C. Have students present their oral histories to
the class. (Option: videotape the presentations.)
Display the student-generated scoring rubric on the board or a
transparency so that students may refer to it as they assess
the presentations. Have each student score his/her own presentation,
and have two classmates evaluate the presentation using the feedback
forms provided in the Student Booklet.
After the presentations, have students remove the forms from the booklet
and give them to the classmates they evaluated.
Extension Activities
After completing the task, you may wish to have students
complete the Metacognitive Feedback Form.
This self-assessment is a way to help students integrate new learning
experiences by reflecting on them. The feedback can also be helpful in
planning other instructional activities to meet student needs. The
form may also be adapted to many different types of activities.
The following ideas are offered as examples of further activities
which could be included with this task.
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- Students may create a “Somebody Museum” by assembling and displaying
artifacts. Invite parents and other classes to visit the museum. See
Creating a “Somebody Museum” for more details.
- Students may create and share videotapes of oral histories of people
in the community.
- Students may create a “Personal History Quilt,” with a square made
by each student in the class to represent important aspects of his/her
life, or the life of the person they selected. The quilt could be displayed
in the school or community, or shared with other schools.
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RationaleYou may want to focus on particular activities to evaluate
student progress on a certain indicator and outcome. For the purposes of this
exemplar, a sample scoring tools are provided for
Activity 5 and
Activity 6A
Activity 5. Score Steps A, B and C together.
At the direction of your teacher, find at least two other students or pairs
who studied and described objects similar to yours. Form a group, then
discuss and complete the following:
- What characteristics do the objects have in common?
- Based on common characteristics identified in Step A, what name could you give to your group of objects?
- Think about the other objects presented by your classmates. Which of those could also be included with the objects in your group? Why?
This activity addresses the MSPAP Outcomes
Economics,
and
Skills and Processes. The responses are gauged
on a 0 - 2 scoring tool.
Scoring Tool: The response demonstrates an ability to determine what group
action is required and to analyze patterns of technological change and resource use.
2: The response gives considerable evidence by having a group of at least two students:
- state two or more characteristics that all objects in the group have in common.
- create an appropriate name for the group based on common characteristics of objects.
- identify other objects that might be included, based on common characteristics, and provide a rationale, or state that there are no others and provide a rationale.
1: The response gives adequate evidence by having a group of at least two students:
- state one characteristic that all objects in the group have in common.
- create an appropriate name for the group based on common characteristics of objects.
- identify one other object that might be included, based on common characteristics, and provide a rationale, or state that there are no others and provide a rationale.
0: All other responses.
Sample Response:
(Note that this response is based on sample objects listed under “Materials Required”)
Objects: candle mold, butter mold and muffin tin
Step A.
Characteristics in common: All are used to shape one thing from another,
like wax into a candle.
All require some hand-power--they are not automatic.
All are made, in part, from metal.
Step B.
Movers and Shapers
Step C.
The nutmeg grater and hearth toaster could be included with our group because they are also hand-powered preparation tools made of metal. They also take something and turn it into something else.
Activity 6A. Now, follow the directions of your teacher to create a
class rubric. Copy it below.
This activity addresses Social Studies Skills
and Processes. The response is gauged on a 0 - 2 scoring tool.
Choice 1. Scoring Tool: The response gives evidence
of the student's ability to obtain, interpret, organize and use print and
non-print sources of information to create a rubric for an oral history
presentation.
- 2: The rubric involves two or more specific and appropriate
score points for each of the numbers on the rubric worksheet and one score
point for “0.”
- 1: The rubric includes at least one specific and appropriate
score point for each of the four numbers on the rubric worksheet.
- 0: All other responses.
Sample Answer:
3: This response includes the following:
- presentation is well organized, clearly presented, free of grammatical
errors and delivered with good attention to audience;
- presents at least three events that have personal significance and
explains the significance with rich detail;
- uses a memory cue
clearly associated with each personal history event.
2: This response includes the following:
- presentation is organized, clearly presented, with few grammatical
errors, delivered with attention to audience;
- presents at least two
events of personal significance and explains the significance including
some details;
- uses a memory cue associated with each event.
1: This response includes the following:
- presentation lacks organization, is unclear with little attention
to audience, and may have many grammatical errors;
- presents only one event with little detail and little or no
explanation of significance;
- lack of memory cues or inappropriate artifacts for the event.
0: None of the above or off topic. |
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