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Oral History Interview

Overview

Students prepare and carry out an interview with an older person, then reflect on what the testimony reveals and what it cannot tell us.

Learning Objective
Students conduct a simple oral history interview and understand the value and limitations of personal testimony as evidence.

Resources needed

  • A willing interviewee — a teacher, elder, or community member
  • Paper and pencil to record responses

Lesson stages

0 / 7 done
  1. 1 Discuss: what is oral history? Why is it valuable?
  2. 2 As a class, prepare 5 interview questions about the past.
  3. 3 Focus questions on change: 'What was school like when you were young?' 'How has the community changed?'
  4. 4 Pairs or small groups interview the person, one asking and one recording.
  5. 5 Share findings with the class.
  6. 6 Discuss: what did we learn that we couldn't find in a book?
  7. 7 Ask: could the interviewee be wrong about anything? How would we check?

Tap a step to mark it as done.

Variations

  • Interview two people of different ages and compare their accounts.
  • Focus the interview on one specific topic: food, transport, school.
  • Record the interview if a phone is available — create a community archive.
More information

Teach: interview, testimony, account, memory, reliable, bias. Model a good interview question: open, specific, and polite.

Pre-prepare all questions together before the interview. Less confident students can be recorders rather than questioners.

Did students ask open questions that generated detailed answers? Can they identify one limitation of oral testimony as evidence?

Any willing adult is the resource. Notes can be taken on any surface or remembered orally. No recording equipment needed.

Students treat personal testimony as completely reliable. Teach gently that memory can be selective or affected by time — this does not make it worthless, just requiring care.

Oral history is particularly important in communities where written records are limited. It preserves voices and experiences that would otherwise be lost.

Activity details
Primary Medium 30 minutes 10 minutes prep Pairs, Small Group Indoor & Outdoor
Topics
Oral History Interview Skills Evidence