Hearing/Producing/Performing Oral History

CASE Conference 2015
Steve Schwartz, Kristen Finkbeiner, Mike Soffer, and Bernie Heidkamp
Oak Park River Forest High School American Studies teams

Inspired by Tim O’Brien’s reflections on truth and the power of storytelling in The Things They Carried — a foundational text for our American Studies courses — we have looked to use first-person narratives, literary and historical, to enhance our understanding of the moments and movements we study. A diversity of voices and perspectives resists the tendency to generalize, to simplify or reduce the complexity and contradictions, within the American experience.

As the culmination of this approach, the final project of the year requires students to hear, produce and perform oral history — as part of a larger research process that asks them to consider the significance of recent events or movements that have touched their families, friends, and community.

Hearing Oral History

• Race and the City
  • Studs Terkel’s Division Street (oral history compilation)
    Telling (Hi)stories assignment
  • Anna Deavere Smith’s Twilight (oral history performance — see trailer or Ted talk)
    Viewing Guide

• Understanding Hurricane Katrina and the Aftermath
  • Reading Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones (fiction)
  • Voice of Witness: Voices from the Storm (oral history compilation)

• Understanding 9/11 and the Aftermath
  • Reading Jon Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (fiction)
  • Voice of Witness: Patriot Acts: Narrative of Post-9/11 Injustice (oral history compilation)

Producing Oral History

• Preparing to Interview
• From Interview to Narrative Monologue — Learning from Studs

*Two versions of a Final Research Project incorporating oral history*

• Telling a True American Story (Heidkamp/Schwartz – Final Product: Podcast)
  • Focus Question and Statement of Argument
• Standing on the Shoulders of Giants (Finkbeiner/Soffer – Final Product: Persona Performance)

Performing Oral History

• Persona Preparation (Not Oral History But Sets Up the Idea of Embodying a Voice)
  • Taking Jim’s Point of View in Huck Finn
  • Writing a Persona Poem (inspired by A Van Jordan’s MacNolia – sample)

• Taking History Personally: A Studs Terkel Mixer
  • Mixer – Round Tables
  • Mixer – Collecting Voices

• Interview Project with Persona Performance
  • Sample Performance #1: Teacher
  • Sample Performance #2: Administrator

• Final Podcast Project
  • Sample Podcast #1: Dogfighting and Masculinity
  • Sample Podcast #2: Masculinity and Double Standards

• Final Persona Performance Project