Prepare and Practice Oral History Interviews

Question(s)

How do social scientists collect information through oral history interviews?

Overview

Students define social science and oral history as a class and then work in small groups to prepare for and practice oral history interviews with classmates and teachers. Interview skills include: developing a specific oral history research question, developing and asking interview questions, taking notes, tape-recording or videotaping live interviews, taking photographs of interviewees, and transcribing interviews from tape or video recordings.

This activity was developed as part of the Penobscot River Watershed Education Program, a collaborative project led by Maine Sea Grant, the University of Maine Senator George J. Mitchell Center, and the Penobscot River Restoration Trust, working in partnership with Old Town Elementary School and the City of Old Town, Maine. Fifth grade teachers and students at Old Town Elementary School piloted this activity during the 2007-2008 school year.

This activity builds on the previous My Watershed Connections activity, in which students explore their personal values for and connections to local watershed resources. It sets the stage for the subsequent Conduct Oral History Interviews activity, in which students interview community members to get a broader picture of past and current community values for local watershed resources.

Standards (MLR)

Learning Objectives

• Students develop working definitions of the terms social science and oral history
• Students practice developing and asking oral history research and interview questions
• Students practice taking notes during oral history interviews
• Students practice tape-recording or videotaping and photographing live interviews
• Students practice transcribing interviews from tape or video recordings

Materials

• Paper and pencils
• Tape-recorder or video camera
• Blank cassette tapes or video tapes
• Dictionaries
• Computer and Internet connection
• Computer projector (to show video clips of practice interviews, if using a video camera)

Time Needed

Four or five 40-50 minute class periods (depending on whether or not students practice interview transcription)

Activity Procedure

Part I – Define the terms social science and oral history as a class, introduce social science research skills, and decide upon a specific research question for the investigation.

1. Ask for volunteers to look up the terms social science and oral history on the Internet or in the dictionary, and read the definitions aloud to the class. The definitions they find should be similar to the following definitions from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary:
   • Social science: a branch of science that deals with the institutions and functioning of human society and with the interpersonal relationships of individuals as members of society.
   • Oral history: tape-recorded historical information obtained in interviews concerning personal experiences and recollections.
2. Write the dictionary definitions on the black board or a flip chart, and ask the students to rephrase them in words that make sense to them. Ask the students to write these definitions in their notebooks and keep them for future reference.
3. Tell the students they are about to become social scientists, and they are going to do an oral history project of their own. To conduct an oral history project, there are some skills they’ll need to have as social scientists. These include:
   • Deciding what historical or cultural information you are looking for: developing a specific social science research question
   • Writing interview questions that produce information about the research question
   • Deciding who you want to interview and inviting them to participate
   • Interview skills: asking questions, listening, taking notes, taking photographs, and tape-recording or videotaping their answers
   • Reviewing the notes, cassette tapes, or videos of the interview, and transcribing them word-for-word, or selecting important parts of the interview that help to answer your research question(s)

   Refer to the resources section below for additional information about the oral history interview process, examples, and information for teachers and students.

4. First step: develop a specific research question for the oral history project. Remind the students that social science includes the same steps as natural science; they are just trying to find the answers to their research questions within people’s experiences and thoughts instead of through experiments or observations of the natural world.

   NOTE: This is a guided inquiry process. Students will develop specific oral history research questions and interview questions, but the overarching research questions are already laid out for them when they start: how have members of your community been connected to watershed resources through the past and in the present, and how are individual’s values and perspectives different from one another? The students should develop their specific research question and interview questions based on these overarching questions

5. Guided brainstorming session: ask students to suggest research questions within the theme of learning about community members’ connections (past and present) to watershed resources. It is important to make the question specific, because interviews that are focused on one or two issues or types of information are easiest to conduct. It is also easier for the interviewee to collect his/her thoughts this way, and the information different interviewees provide will be easier to compare afterwards. Example of a specific research question:
   • How are community members using watershed resources for recreational enjoyment now, and how is this different from the ways long-time residents remember their families using watershed resources when they were our age?

   Write down the students’ suggestions on the black board or a flip chart, and ask them to consider all of them and choose the one that they find most interesting. OR, you could decide upon 3 or 4 questions and break the students up into 3 or 4 small groups to investigate different questions.

Part II – Develop interview questions and practice conducting live interviews.

Develop interview questions

1. Write the students’ overarching oral history research question on the black board. Or, if small groups will investigate more than one research question, choose one for this exercise.
2. Ask the students to brainstorm a list of interview questions they would use to find out the answer to this question, and write their suggestions on the board.
3. Ask the students to offer their thoughts about what makes a good interview question. Specific or general? Look over your list and see if there are any they think are especially good.
4. Ask the students to offer their thoughts about what kinds of questions yield the most interesting answers. Questions that require generalizations, or questions the interviewee can answer from personal experience? Look over the list again to see if there are good questions that stand out.
5. Ask the group to choose 3-5 questions they would like to ask during their oral history interviews. If you are using more than one research question, each group should eventually go through this process on its own, but it is good to do it as a class first.

Practice conducting live interviews

1. Set the oral history research questions and interview questions aside, and give the students a chance to practice interview skills asking one another questions about a simple topic to which they can all relate (e.g. recollections from the first day of kindergarten).
2. Review the list of interview skills: asking questions, listening, taking notes, taking photographs, and tape-recording or videotaping their answers.
3. Provide a demonstration of how the tape-recorder, camera, and video camera work. Students will be able to practice using each one in their small groups.
4. Break the students into groups of five. Ask them to assign one group member to each of the following interview roles:
   • Question-asker
   • Note-taker
   • Tape-recorder or video camera operator
   • Photographer

   The fifth person will play the role of the interviewee, and will answer two or three simple questions about a topic, such as: What do you remember from your first day of kindergarten? How did you feel on that day?

   Important: Each group should come up with its practice questions individually, but all of the groups should base their practice interviews on the same topic.

5. Each group should spend 30 minutes rotating through the five roles, so each person gets to experience each interviewing “job,” and learns what it feels like to be formally interviewed. If possible, each group should have an adult helper during this time, or the teacher should circulate from one group to another frequently to help the students use the tape-recorder, camera, and video camera.

   NOTE: If you do not have more than one camera, tape-recorder, and video camera (many schools will not), here are some suggestions for ways to conduct the practice interviews: 1) try to borrow additional equipment from another school in your district, from your local library, or from a local college Audio Visual department, if you have a college nearby; 2) rotate through this exercise several times as a class, giving everyone a chance to do one of the jobs they are most interested in, and asking the other students to observe and take notes in their notebooks; or 3) set up alternate times when small groups can meet up and conduct their practice interviews before or after school, or during study halls.

Part III – Reflection on first round of practice interviews and revision of oral history interview questions.

1. Give each small interview practice group five minutes to share their experiences and observations, as well as some of the video or recordings of the practice interviews, if they have a highlight they would like to share.
2. Discuss the experience as a class, give students a chance to ask questions, and create a list of “interviewing tips,” based on their experiences. Questions to help guide the discussion:
   • What went well?
   • What did they find challenging?
   • Did anything surprise them?
   • What kinds of questions gave them the most interesting information? Please share examples.
   • What kinds of questions gave them the least interesting information? Please share examples.
   • Did they have any technical difficulties?
   • What did it feel like to be interviewed?
3. Write the “interviewing tips” on the board or a flip chart, and ask the students to record them in their notebooks.
4. Review the questions/question-types that gave them the most interesting information and the least interesting information. Write down their observations on the board or on a flip chart.
5. Review the list of oral history questions they developed for their oral history interviews in Part II.
6. Ask the students to check the questions against their practice interview observations about what makes a “good question.” Are there any questions they would like to change? If so, make the revisions as a class.

Part IV – Second round of practice interviews, reflection on the interview process, and discussion about opinions vs. facts.

1. Ask the students to use their list of “interviewing tips” to review and modify their interview process for the practice interviews. Discuss the list as a group, and come up with ways to improve their questions, use of equipment, note-taking, etc.
2. Give the small groups additional time to do another round of practice interviews, using whichever method worked best (see the NOTE at the end of Part II). They should use the same questions as they used the first time, but instead of interviewing one another, they should make arrangements to invite another teacher, school administrator, or staff member into their classroom to be interviewed. This will add a degree of formality that will help them to imagine themselves interviewing community members whom they do not know.

   NOTE: Be sure to get written permission from the interviewees to be video taped or tape-recorded and photographed. Also ask for permission to use quotations from the interview for class instruction later on.

3. When the students are finished with the second round of practice interviews, ask them to reflect on the whole interview process as a class. Are they ready to interview their community members? Do they have any remaining questions or concerns? Do they want to make any more changes to their oral history interview questions, based on their second round of practice interviews?
4. After reflecting on the interview process, introduce a discussion about the nature of objectivity and subjectivity in science (opinion vs. science-based information and how to tell the difference). Guide the students to an understanding of the need to remain objective as social scientists, while respecting the information gained through the interviews as those individuals’ personal experiences and opinions.

Part V – Practice transcribing interviews from tape or video recordings.

1. Ask the class to choose one or two interviews from the second round of practice interviews with teachers or school administrators, and watch them as a group to decide which parts are most interesting.
2. Ask for student volunteers who are interested in learning how to do interview transcriptions, and set pairs of students up in a quiet space with the tape or video of the interview they will practice transcribing.
3. Give them the choice of whether they prefer to write out the transcription by hand or type it with a computer.
4. Ask them to take turns operating the tape player or video/DVD of the interview to go slowly through the sections they wish to transcribe.
5. Make the transcriptions (written or printed) available for the rest of the class to read.

NOTE: Interview transcription from tape recordings or videotapes is time-consuming, and it requires careful attention to detail and good writing or typing skills. Transcription activities can be a rewarding way to capture formal interviews and make them available for others to read, but they may not be appropriate for all students in grades 5 and 6, depending on individual students’ writing skills and patience for this type of work. Instead of transcribing entire interviews, it is usually best to listen to or watch one or two of the practice interviews as a class, and decide as a group which part is most interesting. Then, a small group of students with the interest and necessary skills can practice transcribing the short segments that the class chooses to highlight.

Reflection/Formative Assessment Ideas

The following formative assessment activity will help teachers get a sense for how their students are feeling about their oral history interview skills and to find out whether they have remaining questions and concerns about the interview process after the first round of practice interviews.

1. Pass out a blank half-sheet of paper to each student
2. Ask each student to write down three things about the oral history interview process
   • Which interview role they feel most comfortable doing, and which one they feel least comfortable doing
   • Something they are still wondering about
   • Something funny or happy that someone shared during the first round of practice interviews.
3. Collect their papers, summarize them yourself after class, and share them anonymously with the students before the next part of the activity.

The students’ responses to this formative assessment probe will help teachers to understand which parts of the interview process needs more clarification or attention during the second round of practice interviews. It will also provide information about the distribution of students interested in different types of interview roles, and some funny stories to share with the class.

Extension Ideas

Practice interviewing family members or friends outside of school! Once the students have practiced the oral history interview skills above, they should be ready to tackle an interview all on their own. Family members and family friends are often thrilled to be involved in personal record-keeping of this kind, and it is a good opportunity for student social scientists to practice their skills by conducting research within their own family or social network. You can sign out tape-recorders or video cameras overnight for out-of-school interviews, or ask students to record their out-of-school interviews by hand in their notebooks. If in-person interviews are not possible, students can try doing this via telephone, or they can send their questions to far-away family or friends by mail or email.

NOTE: If you give students the option of signing school equipment out overnight, you may find it useful to ask them to sign a contract which states that they will treat the equipment with care and respect, and that they will return it in the same condition it was in when they borrowed it.

Resources

• Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.
• Oral History Association. Education website.
• Oral History Education.
• NOAA Local Fisheries Knowledge Project.
• Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. 2003. The Smithsonian Folklife and Oral History Interviewing Guide.

References

• Lanman, BA, and LM Wendling. 2006. Preparing the Next Generation of Oral Historians: An Anthology of Oral History Education. AltaMira Press. 508 Pages.