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FK Lane High School                                     English                         Mrs. Maslow
Oral History Interview and essay on an Older Relative
 who: An oral history interview should be done with the oldest relative you can find; your grandparents are usually the best.  Some students have interviewed older friends of their parents or neighbors.
 what: You want to find out stories  about their childhood, growing up, coming to the USA or NYC, working, conflicts, something they are proud of, or relationships with other people or living conditions, sometimes very different than today’s.
 how:  Choose the person and make arrangements to interview for a minimum of 40 minutes between (write in dates.) Write down a good start-up question.  Write down at least five back-up questions but remember to do mainly follow-up questions.   Use a tape recorder to record the interview.  Afterwards, listen to the tape, stopping it every few seconds to write down the exact words said.  This is called a transcript.  It will take you as long as two hours and maybe more to write down all the words.  Also, write down your own thoughts and impressions of the person you were interviewing.  If you cannot tape the person you must take notes, using both quotes and paraphrases, and that is very difficult to do well.
 when:  Hand in the transcript or notes  by -( write in date) in class.
 why:
1. Interviewing, knowing the questions to ask, is a useful life skill.
2. You will learn a great deal from your older relatives and both of you will enjoy  yourselves.
3. If you would like to enter your interview article in the PAL “Stories My  Grandparents Told Me” contest in mid-October, there is a lot of prestige and  pleasure in winning this contest and attending the awards assembly.
4.  Write an essay based on notes or a transcript is a necessary skill for advanced academic work.

I. The Transcript -Students are to interview an older relative and produce a transcript.  The transcript will be used to write an essay in several drafts.  Transcript or notes are graded based on :
         1. length - 25 points, should reflect an interview of approximately 40 minutes
         2. for notes-should include both paraphrasing and quotations  - 25 points
         3. the transcript includes appropriate follow-up questions and starting questions -25 points
         at least one interesting story or anecdote included - 25 points
(For an example of an exemplary transcript click here.)

II. The Essay  -Students are to write an essay based on their transcript or notes.  The essay will be graded based on:
        1. length - 15 points , at least one page, four paragraphs

         2. clarity - 15 points, essay is clearly constructed and  ideas are clearly developed

         3. organized - 10 points , see graphic organizers that we go over in class

         4. one interesting story or personal anecdote included - 15 points

         5. both paraphrasing and quotations are included - 25 points

         6. a theme or message is clearly developed- 10 points

         7. originality - 10 points

Lesson 1- What makes a good essay?
    1. Look at the   FK Lane High School winners of the NYC PAL contest, "Stories My Grandparents Told Me," from the past 6 years.  What can you learn about how to interview an older relative from the stories of past winners of the "Stores My Grandparent's Told Me Contest?"
        a) Write you first impressions on 5 of the articles.
        b) Answer the following questions on any 2 of them. Write the title and author of the story you will examine.
            1. What is the controlling idea or main idea of this story?  Can you write the summary in two sentences?

            2. What is the lesson or point of the story?

            3. Tell the most interesting part of this article- one story.

            4. Is there anything humorous or something that affects you emotionally? Explain.

            5. Why do you think it won a contest?

            6.  What questions do you think the writer asked?
 

Lesson 2- What are the steps to follow in order to do an interview and a transcript of it?
    Students will view a model of the teacher doing an interview with a purpose and using follow-up questions.  Also, they will see how the tape recorder can be used  to make a transcript. When the recorded interview is transcribed they will review it to see if more information is needed.  They may have to think of more questions to ask at a later time. The topic to be focused on for this lesson is how the person being interviewed, a former winner of the contest- "Stories My Grandparents Told Me," did their own interview and suggestions they have.  For teachers just starting out ty to find an older person from the staff to interview.
    The teacher models the interview by first asking simple questions and demonstrating the importance of writing down the person's name and relaxing them with simple questions at first. ( Can you spell your name for me?  When were you born?)  On the board the teacher has written the simple questions.  Then the teacher writes a more complex starter question that should promote a long response from the person being interviewed.  (Students could use a starter question such as -What is one of your favorite memories when you were growing up? or What story about your childhood will you never forget when they interview an older relative?)  Then in a third place on the board are back-up questions in case the interviewer can't think of a follow-up question. ( Students would use questions such as-What stories about you friends are special to you?  What stories about school are especially interesting?   What stories about your family will you never forget?)
    The students should be made aware that the teacher is using questions to focus on a specific topic and the questions are usually follow-up questions.  Even though the teacher has specific questions written on the board, she may not necessarily refer to these.  Since I am interviewing a student on what they asked their parent or grandparent and what worked for them my questions will be different than if I was interviewing an older relative.  After 15 minutes, students get to ask questions  they want answers to on the topic of doing an interview with an older relative.  They can also ask about writing the essay based on the transcript.
   The tape is then rewound and using the play and pause button when necessary,  the entire class proceeds to listen to the tape and produce a verbatim transcript.

Lesson 3- Can you identify follow-up questions in this exemplary transcript?
Read the transcript from one of the Lane winners who wrote the article titled, "A Tough Life Growing Up."  What do you think of his questions?  Which questions might you use?  How many of his questions are follow-up questions, those based on the answers that the respondant gave?

Lesson 4- Can students do an interview of one another and take notes?
    Students will learn how to find information by interviewing another student in the class.  But instead of using a tape recorder they will take notes.  Students should use their own words when taking notes.  But if the person being interviewed says something really interesting they might want write the exact quote.  Notes will be collected on the following topic: Interesting stories about the person's life involving neighbors, neighborhood, family members,  friends, trips, school, moving.

Lesson 5-How do you use quotations marks and other punctuation marks correctly?
Read a feature article written by a professional writer (journalist.)
I have students find the correct punctuation in 10 sentences I have retyped from the article without punctuation.
I had students read about Larry Doby from an February 23, 1997 article in the NY Times.  Stories about his childhood and career are interesting and give them ideas.

Preliminary homework or classwork
1. Write the answers to these questions:
Who you will interview for the oral history assignment and why did you select them.  What question or statement will you use to get started and what are a few back-up questions?
 Write any problems you might have in doing an interview and recording it and writing the transcript or taking notes.     What is your feelings about new immigrants to this country.  What do you know about the experience of moving to a new place, whether a new country, state, city or block?  What conflicts do you have with older relatives?

2, Read suggestions on how to do an interview:
Write what you learned.

3. Read interviews with  Americans on woman working during WWII and write what you learned about asking questions and doing an interview.3.

4.. Read on the Internet stories told to students from aGeorgia 8th grade class posted recently.
Read at least 5 of these articles.  What did you like and what did you not like?  What questions do you think they asked to get the stories their relatives told to them.

 Three Lessons on - Can you write an essay based on your transcript or notes?
        1.) What are some ways to organize your essay?
        2.) What are some possible controlling ideas or main ideas?
        3.)  What is a lead?  Can you write 5 possible leads for your essay and choose one?

Students type essays in the 2nd draft stage and then post them onto http://nicenet.org, under the conference topic, Stories My Grandparents Told Me.  Other discusion forums could be used.  Students then reply to each other by writing only three things- what they liked, questions, or summarize what they read. ( You can go in as a guest- use the log in-LA2 and the password-artstwo.

Students do more drafts as is necessary and then edit in a word-processing program and repost the final draft in documents in http://nicenet.org

Students are taught to do Front Page or Netscape Composer and create a web page  for the class web site with their essay  and photos of the person which they can scan.  Look for finished web page on fklane.org

Advanced Activity: Articles based on interviews of older neighborhood residents: Takara, Bernice, Shuily

Teacher Resource:http://dohistory.org/on_your_own/toolkit/oralHistory.html

Transcript of an interview by a student of his mother, "A Tough Life Growing Up"
J: What nationality are you?
Answer: I am from the island of Trinidad, which is an island in the Caribbean.
J: Can you describe this island?
Answer: It is not a very large island, but it has alot of people living there.  The climate
is very hot, and there are also alot of rain.  People plant sugarcane, and do alot of
gardening.
J: How long did you live there?
Answer: I lived there for about twenty three years.
 J: What do you consider to be the most important and interesting thing that
happened to you while you were living there?
Answer: Well when I was 12 years old, I fell in love with a guy.  My father did not want
me to marry him because he was black in color, but of the same ethnicity.  My father
thought that he was too black for me because we were a little white.  I had to run away
with him, and so I left school at the age of 13.
J: Where did you go with him?
Answer: To his fathers house.
J: What did his father have to say about that?
Answer: He accepted me into his home and considered me his daughter.  He was a
very wonderful father-in-law, and a wonderful inspiration to me.
J: In what way was he an inspiration to you?
Answer: Because he made me feel welcome, he never took me for granted, I was
very loved by him.
J: Why do you consider this to be the most important?
Answer: I consider this to be the most important because I was young and did'nt
want to listen to my parents so I just defied them.
J: Why did you want to defy your parents?
Answer: Because long ago they did not want you to go anywhere, only to stay at
home, never to walk down the street and don't talk to other boys.
J: Did you feel deprived because you had to leave school at that age?
Answer: No I did not.
J: Why did you not feel deprived?
Answer: I do feel a little deprived because now when I think about it and now I think
that I should have listened to my parents and stayed in school and get an education.

J: How many brothers and sisters did you have at that time?
Answer: I had 3 brothers and I was the only daughter.
J: Did you all live together in the same house?
Answer: No, we all lived seperately in different houses.
J: Were they allowed to "hang out" often?
Answer: No because they were boys, and boys and girls were treated differently at
that time.
J: Do you think that because you were the only daughter, that you were treated
differently?
Answer: No, not really because my parents were old fashion people.  Daughters
were supposed to stay at home and perform household duties.
J: What kind of household duties?
Answer: Household duties like cooking, washing, taking care of the cows, doing the
dishes, almost everything.
J: Did your parents have alot of animals?
Answer: They had Cows, Cats, Dogs and some Chickens.
J: At what age did you start cooking?
Answer: I started cooking at the age of 8.  My step-mother used to box my ears if I did
not cook the food properly.
J: Did you know how to cook well at that age?
Answer: No I could have only cooked a few things, like vegetables, potatoes and
some traditional foods.
J: Were your step-mother usually mean to you?
Answer: Yes she was always mean to me.
J: In what way was she always mean to you?
Answer: She used to sit all day and have me do all the work.  She never wanted to
help do anything.  One time one of my brother spent some time with us and she
gave us food in one dish to eat, she used to make us bathe together by a public
standpipe.
J: Why do you think she made you do this?
Answer: She did not want to give us alot of food, she was just mean.
J: Did you feel uncomfortably bathing with your brother?
Answer: I was very small at that time and so it did not really matter that much to me.
J: What happened to your real mother?
Answer: My real mother caught a stroke when I was 9 days old and she could not
take care of me.
J: How did she catch a stroke?
Answer: She caught a stroke from high blood pressure.
J: Did she leave the house at that time?
Answer: My father found another woman and brought her into the house, then he
kicked my mother out.  The other woman then became my step-mother.
J: Being older now do you feel angry at your father for what he did?
Answer: I was but then I got over it.  I guess that's why I defied him and eloped
because I felt that the responsibility which was given to me was too much of a
burden for a kid of my age.  Due to all of these things thats why I defied him thinking
that when you have a husband, you would not have so much of a burden, not
knowing that it would be the same situation.
J: Did you marry the guy?
Answer: No we did not marry, we stayed common-law.
J: Did the marriage work out?
Answer: No it only lasted for 4 years.
J: Why didn't the marriage work?
Answer: The marriage didn't work because he was very lazy, he didn't want to work,
he smoked marijuana with his friends, he came home whenever he felt like it, and
he also beat me.
J: Did you have kids?
Answer: Yes we did.  We had 2 kids, both boys, but he did not want the responsibility
of children.
J: What was your reaction to that situation?
Answer: I took my kids and left the house, and went to live with some relatives for a
while, then I started making it on my own.

Graphic Organizers for writing an essay based on an interview with someone older:

Sequence-

 1st_______________________________________________________

 2nd_______________________________________________________

 3rd_______________________________________________________

 4th_______________________________________________________

 5th_______________________________________________________

Examples-
 
 

. Comparing and Contrasting-

E. Cause and Effect-
 

Cause_____________________________ Effect______________________________
Cause_____________________________ Effect______________________________

F. Problem/Solution-
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