Flip for Family History

Today's classroom are full of students that do not fully engage with any the of topics found in a high school history textbook. These students see these topics as events not linked to anything that matters in their lives. Through creating a family history and learning about the past experiences of their family members it helps create a link to the past, reminding students that the decisions of the past are far reaching to the world they live in. This lesson would have the opportunity to be interdisciplinary as students would use skills that are applicable to social studies, science, math, and English.

Day 1- Students would have the opportunity to film a message about their expectations and the aim of this lesson. Next students would be given notes on interviewing skills, and would practice these skills using the flip camera in the classroom.

Day 2- The class together would help each other to generate a list of interviewees and what kinds of questions that they should be asking. This would process would also be filmed using the flip cameras. Students would then be given a week in order to complete their interviews and bring the information back to the classroom.

Day 3- The class would return with their videos in order to complete a write up about their interviews. A writeup includes the name, age, time line of the events that the interviewee offered in their interviews. The students would also have to film their reactions to what they learned about their families and the process of this activity.

Day 4- The class a whole would spend time editing and creating their own oral history videos. The students would then invite family, friends and others from the school community to their viewing of the videos.

These oral histories could be used as supplementary media to the textbook. It could help inspire others to conduct their own oral histories in order to gain the experience.