Students at Rio Lindo Elementary, Rio Real Elementary, and Rio Plaza Elementary Schools are now preparing to conduct oral history interviews with their parents and grandparents to uncover the diverse culture and traditions of their family members. Not only will the students have an opportunity to learn about their families “histories,” but they will have the opportunity to learn about each other’s personal “histories” as well. By engaging in listening and learning about other students’ family culture practices and experiences, students are provided with opportunities to build connections with each other as well as promote opportunities for them to “see themselves” in the curriculum, thus encouraging the development of a more inclusive curriculum that reflects our students.
The first step in the process is to learn how to develop different types of questions, and then focus specifically on open-ended questions for interview purposes. The students will then participate in a variety of grade level lessons to help them develop interview questions to ask their family members, strategies in taking Cornell notes, ways to conduct an interview, skills on how to summarize the results in written form, and then opportunities to present to the larger class. Stay tuned to the Blog and History Harvest Photo Gallery to learn more!
