Top of page

Lesson Plan Personal Stories and Primary Sources: Conversations with Elders - Unit Two

Teachers

Learning history from real people involved in real events brings life to history. This project provides a means to learn about the twentieth century from real people and primary sources. A 1913 newspaper provides a view of the world on the brink of a World War. An interview with a grandparent or significant elder provides a human face for life in the twentieth century. Through researching primary and secondary sources, students become conversant with significant aspects of twentieth century history.

Lesson Units

Objectives

Students will learn:

  • that each person contributes to the world's story;
  • how to differentiate between primary and secondary sources and how to assess the relative importance of each in the study of history;
  • how to access, interpret, analyze, and evaluate primary sources of various kinds;
  • how to conduct an interview;
  • effective use of questions in doing research;
  • techniques and skills of research;
  • the importance of accuracy and honesty in research;
  • how to "write history" clearly so that it communicates to others;
  • how to teach others the topic on which one has become an expert; and
  • techniques for effective oral presentations

Unit 2: Interviewing

Students are introduced to this project and the concept that each individual creates and contributes to history. They study the transcript of an interview, learn how to conduct an interview, and conduct and record the interview with his or her grandparent or elder.

The interview analyzed in the lesson is called Women and the Changing Times. This document, a transcript of an oral interview, may be printed and distributed to students for homework. It is best if students write out the answers to the questions in the lesson. The interview transcript is used both as a model of interviewing and as part of the lesson on primary sources (see Unit 3). Remind students to keep the copy of the interview and their notes for the later lesson. These papers should be put in the above mentioned folders.

Students attempt to determine what questions the interviewer, Mrs. Daisy Thompson, asked Mrs. Blount and compile a list of the possible questions. Discuss how to formulate questions for an interview. Make a list of questions, which the students believe should be asked of their grandparent/elder. Compare these questions with the list of Interview Questions provided for Students. You may wish to add some of the student-created questions to the Category Questions of this list of interview questions, or you might suggest that the students use class-generated questions for the two original/personal questions mentioned in the "Instructions for the Interview."

Overview

Students are introduced to the concept that each individual creates and contributes to history.

Unit 2 of this project teaches techniques for interviewing. Students learn how to conduct an interview and extract information from oral history. They use Women and the Changing Times, one of the interviews from American Life Histories, 1936-1940, as a model for the interview. This life history focuses on family life in the Great Depression and fits with the theme of the third unit, Gathering Information from Primary Sources.

Objectives: Unit 2 introduces students to:

  • the interview as a primary source in the study of history;
  • the skills of interviewing, accessing, interpreting, analyzing, and evaluating the primary sources of oral history;
  • the ways to pose questions in interviewing; and
  • the process of conducting an interview.

Lesson Preparation

Materials

Resources

Lesson Procedure

Lesson One: Analyzing an Interview

Find complete directions for this lesson in the student Lesson One: Analyzing an Interview.

Lesson 2: Conducting an Interview

Direct the students to the student page Lesson Two: Conducting an Interview. Remind the students to take careful and extensive notes or to tape (audio or video) the interview.

  1. You may require the students to do a transcript (not a summary or interpretive narrative) of the interview. If the interview is extremely long, this requirement may be adjusted to fit a major section of the interview.
  2. The typed transcript should be at least four pages.
  3. If only a portion of the interview is transcribed, the student must hand in the notes or tape from the entire interview.
  4. Students are directed to perform spell-check and grammar-check on the interview transcript. They are not to change the grammar, idioms, etc., of the person interviewed but to use [sic] to indicate these non-standard items.

Extension

You may wish to create a file or a Web site of interview transcripts. The transcripts and the resulting history research papers and visuals created for the history research paper oral presentation may form part of a presentation or display for "Grandparents' Day," if such an event is celebrated at your school.

Lesson Evaluation

  1. The collected interview transcripts should be read, but not marked or graded, by the teacher. If the transcripts do not meet the requirements, they should be returned to the student for revision. The comments should focus on what was interesting or unique about the person, the good qualities of the interview process, and ask questions of the student to further his or her learning from the interview.
  2. A roundtable sharing of what each student found interesting during the interview concludes this unit. As the students share one to three interesting things, the teacher and the librarian should make notes. These "interesting things" often lead to the topics that the students pick for their history research paper Unit 4. The librarian and teacher can use this list to help students select their topic.

Credits

Deborah Dent-Samake and Carolyn Karis, American Memory Fellows, 1998

Students

Lesson One: Analyzing an Interview

One of the ways to learn about history is to conduct an interview with a grandparent or elder. In preparation for your interview, you will study one of the interviews gathered by the Federal Writers' Project during the Depression years of 1936-1940. The interview, Women and the Changing Times, is now part of American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940.

Read the transcript of this interview with Mrs. Blount. As you read this primary source document make some notes.

Here are some of the questions you might ask about this interview:

  1. Where and when did this interview take place?
  2. Who was the interviewer?
  3. What questions do you think the interviewer asked Mrs. Blount in order to elicit the information in this document? Make a list of these questions.
  4. What facts do you learn about Mrs. Blount?
  5. What additional questions would you like to ask Mrs. Blount if you were conducting the interview?
  6. What aspect or topic of this interview appeals to you most?
  7. If you were to summarize what you learned from this interview, what would you say?

Be sure to save your notes from this assignment for use during Unit III, when we use primary and secondary sources to learn about family life during the Great Depression.

Lesson Two: Conducting an Interview

After you have finished your analysis of the interview from the American Memory collections, you are ready to prepare to interview.

  1. Select a person and ask to interview him or her. Express interest in learning about his or her life and if necessary explain the class project. If asked, tell the person that he or she may choose not to answer some of the questions--that you will be flexible but are most interested in learning his or her life story. Arrange for a specific time and place to meet for the interview. If necessary, the interview may be conducted by phone.
  2. Before conducting the interview, print out a consent form. Complete this form before you hold the interview and return it to your teacher. Both you and the person you interview should sign the form.
  3. Refer to the list of Interview Questions to ask during the interview. Some of the questions are mandatory and some are optional.
  4. In addition to the required questions, ask at least two questions that you have created yourself.
  5. Points to remember in conducting the interview are:
    You are looking for quality information.
    If the person you're interviewing does not want to answer a particular question, don't insist.
    If you are interested and intrigued with something the person being interviewed is discussing, continue the conversation.
    If you don't complete all of the questions, don't worry; get through as many questions as possible.
  6. You may record your interview, but you must type it out.
  7. Hand in a typed interview transcript written in complete sentences--except for the vital statistics. Include the questions with the answers.
  8. If only a portion of the interview is transcribed, you must hand in the notes or recording from the entire interview.
  9. Use spell-check and grammar-check and proofread the interview transcript. Do not correct or change the grammar, idioms, etc., of the person interviewed. If the person interviewed uses unique phrasing or pronunciation of a word, insert [sic] in the transcript following each non-standard item, to indicate that the phrasing or spelling is intentional and reflects the language of the answers.
  10. To conclude this unit, you will participate in a classroom roundtable discussion, in which you will share with you classmates what you found most interesting during the interview.
  11. Take note of one to three "interesting things" that might form a topic for further research.

Interview Questions

Initial Questions

  1. What is your name?
  2. What is your date of birth?
  3. What is your place of birth?
  4. What is your ethnicity?
  5. Where were your parents, brothers, and sisters born? Include their names.
  6. Where were your children born? Include their names.
  7. Where have you lived?
  8. What language(s) do you speak?
  9. What is your citizenship(s)? Have you served in the military? (Get the details connected with this question.)
  10. What is your religious affiliation? What are your spiritual beliefs?

(You may expand on any of the above topics.)

Category Questions

You must ask questions from each of the following three categories. You may expand on any of the questions in the category.

Birth to Adolescence

  1. Where did you live as a child?
  2. When you were growing up, what was the role of boys and girls in the family? Were there any "coming of age" ceremonies or significant events?
  3. Describe your neighborhood when you were in junior high school (grades 6-9). What music, clothing, and food were popular during your teenage years? (How much did candy, movies, clothing, etc., cost?)
  4. Describe your school. (The building, classroom, teacher, subjects offered, schedule, homework, etc.) What was the ethnic breakdown in your school? (Was there any diversity and/or multicultural education at your school?)
  5. What was socially accepted in your community? (Consider religious beliefs, sexual preferences, racial differences, women's rights, etc., as well as things such as smoking and dancing.)
  6. How did one do for amusement? (Consider forms of entertainment, hobbies, sports, collections, etc.)
  7. What illnesses were threatening the health of the community? (What vaccinations did you have to have?)
  8. What were the rules of your house? Did you rebel in any ways?

Jobs/Professions

  1. What jobs did you have throughout your life?
  2. What did your job(s) entail? Did you enjoy your work?
  3. Did you attend college? If so, what did you study?

General Questions

(Specify the time periods and the approximate age of your grandparent/elder.)

  1. Did you have any dangerous and/or life threatening experiences? If so, what happened?
  2. What presidents (or national leaders) do you recall?
  3. What were some of the important news (current) events that you remember? How did you receive the news?
  4. What wars did you experience directly or indirectly? What was your experience?
  5. How did the Depression affect you?
  6. Describe your kitchen and school rooms. What technological items were in these places? What were some of the new inventions?
  7. Describe the cars that you owned. What were some other modes of transportation you have taken?
  8. Are you a citizen of the United States? Naturalized citizen? If you were not born in the United States, where are you from? Are you the first generation in the United States? When and why did you come to the United States?
  9. Tell a family story or a family event.
  10. Describe and briefly talk about someone you admire(d).

Original Questions

In addition to the required questions, you must design two original, personal questions.