Use Oral History Projects to Teach Research Skills and Personalize Learning

I’ve always found that students become more engaged in a topic when they have agency over their learning and can make personal connections to our curriculum. Oral history projects–a kind of basic podcast–is a quick, easy way for students to explore curriculum, learn qualitative and quantitative research methods, hone their writing skills, and engage with experts and stakeholders beyond the classroom.

Use the free, native app, Voice Memos to record oral history projects and interviews for podcasts.

Activity Overview: Using qualitative research methods to learn about the origins of a topic

Using the Voice Memos app on student mobile devices (or video conferencing tool), this activity is designed for use in any subject area as a way for students to embrace their curiosity to develop a broader, more nuanced understanding of the context of a topic, and build empathy for those affected by or responsible for the development of a topic. Unlike quantitative research based on numbers, qualitative research–sometimes called rich data– is based on observations and interviews, and is used by psychologists, marketing experts, and even teachers to guide their work.

Objective:

Inspired by audio projects like Story Corps, and inquiry projects featured in my book, Storytelling With Purpose, students use microphones on their devices to investigate aspects of a topic beyond what is covered in textbooks or standard class materials. This develops their research skills, personalizes learning, and helps them understand the human impact of concepts from our curriculum.

Materials needed:

• iPhone or iPad devices
• Voice Memos app, or a video conferencing tool to record interviews
• Pages or Keynote for publishing audio stories (optional)
• Internet connection (optional)

Length of activity:

• Introduction: 5 minutes
• Primary source research 30 minutes
• Develop interview questions 15-30 minutes
• Conduct interview: 15 minutes
• Reflect and debrief 30 minutes
• Optional publishing of audio stories: 30 min

Step by step guide:

1. Have students identify an aspect of your curriculum to explore (or choose from a pre-selected list).

2. Have students conduct primary source research to learn more about the topic. 

• Identify surprising or impactful facts, statistics, or concepts.
• Turn these reflections into questions, and think about who might be a good person to ask about for clarification or answers.

3. Identify someone to interview.

• Choose someone who has experience with or has been affected by a topic. This might include an older family member, community leader, or an expert on the topic.

4. Write 4-5  interview questions. Good questions should:

• Be open-ended and not answerable with “yes” or “no.”
• Not lead the interviewee to give a certain answer (e.g. “Don’t you think that was a bad idea?”)
• Ask one question (don’t ask multiple things at once)
• Be asked in a logical or chronological order

5. Conduct the interview. Using student mobile devices (or video conferencing apps) record the interview. Tips for interviews:

• Introduce yourself and the purpose of your interview
• Don’t finish their sentences
• When concluding an interview, ask them to share final thoughts or ideas

6. Reflect and debrief on the recordings. Have students listen back to their conversation recordings and write a reflection on what they learned. As a class, share some of the more interesting findings from students to find commonalities, and what this might mean for your topic moving forward. Reflect on these questions:

• What surprised you?
• What do you still wonder about?
• How do these ideas confirm or contradict what you thought you knew prior to this interview?

Level up this project

1. Have students create annotated bibliographies to reinforce high level research skills

2. Take oral history projects to the next level by creating more complex stories, and publishing them for an authentic audience: 

• Publish as a digital book. Curate individual student recordings into a digital book made with Pages. Audio files can be embedded as audio widgets. Add photos, maps, or other images and links to resources.
• Produce a podcast (a more complex oral history project) by recording multiple interviews and editing them together along with a voice over and music. Learn more about creating podcasts with Garageband, or read my book, Podcasting For The Classroom.

Sample Project Topics

There are infinite possibilities for oral history projects. Here are some ideas to get you started.

“Now and Then”

Students interview an older family member or friend to compare what life was like decades ago compared to how it is now. Topics might include weather patterns, the cost of food or gas, how people get their news, popular forms of entertainment or sports, etc.

“Interview an Expert”

Introduce the concept of expertise, and have discussions about how we define an expert, what qualifies someone as an expert, and why we should rely on them. Then have students contact and interview an expert related to a unit or topic from your curriculum.

Resources

Plan and record podcasts

Record a podcast to enhance learning

Book by the author: Podcasting For the Classroom. Learn the step-by-step process of planning and producing a podcast, with insights from teachers at all grade levels.

Book: Creating Digital Books with Mac and iPad. This guide walks you though how to create and publish digital books using Apple Pages. See teacher examples, and tips and best practices for publishing student and teacher-created digital books.

Book by the author: Storytelling With Purpose: Digital Projects to Ignite Student Curiosity. Learn more about using digital stories to enhance learning and create uncheatable authentic assignments–including audio stories and podcasting–in this book by the author.