NPR’s StoryCorps has posted an invitation for high school students to celebrate this year’s Thanksgiving family gatherings by downloading the free StoryCorps app and using it to interview grandparents and elders. The Great Thanksgiving Listen is a wonderful opportunity for students to become oral historians and to contribute to a national database of “bottom-up history, history through our voices, through our family’s voices and stories of the last 75, 80, 90 years of United States history” (StoryCorps founder Dave Isay) .
StoryCorps has included a downloadable Teacher Toolkit to help guide students through all steps of the interviewing process. The project also offers students the opportunity to develop:
- Research, archiving, and planning skills
- Speaking skills that enable them to express ideas clearly and persuasively
- Listening skills that reflect increased comprehension, lead to critical analysis, and advance discussion
- An increased connectedness to community and school
- A deepened sense of social awareness, exhibited by appreciation of diversity and respect for others. (Source: StoryCorps Educators Toolkit)
We would love to see EGUSD students represented in this national project – and would be happy (thrilled!) to create a tab on the TOR website for Student Oral History Projects. Please keep us in the loop by leaving a comment.
