Project Exchange

ACTIVITY: Reading an Oral HIstory/Interview (Monologue Writing Process)

Project: The Immigrant's Song

SUMMARY

Goals

Discuss "Voice", introduce genre of oral history, begin to develop interview questions

 

Details

Duration: 45 minutes

Assessments: Student discussions, Student writing

Materials: "I Might Get Somewhere" by Balboa HS and 826 Valencia

 

Description

1. This oral history is from the student publication "I Might Get Somewhere" by Balboa HS and 826 Valencia. We started out reading and discussing the introduction by Amy Tan (which was also relevant becuase we were reading "The Joy Luck Club."), which focuses on the concept of "voice."

2. Then the students read the selected oral history in groups. The PPT includes the task, which was to brainstorm a list of possible questions that the interviewer asked the interviewee. This process helped students figure out how they could get the information they were looking for.

ACTIVITY RESOURCES

(e.g. rubrics, examplars, websites, etc.)


Reading an oral history
Harajuku Girl...
Download (264K)

REFLECTIONS & COMMENTS

Author Reflections

This activity was helpful because it forced students to imagine the kinds of questions they would have to ask to elicit the responses they were looking for. They noticed that the oral history broke down into 3 distinct sections: "Life in Homeland" "Journey to America" "New Life in America."