Mining the Riches of History
Teach Interviewing Skills & Do the interviews
• Generate lists of 15-25 high-quality questions. Teach the difference between “open-ended” and “closed” questions. The best questions are those that keep the subject talking! See Doug Lipman’s site for games that will help teach questioning and other interviewing skills.
• Practice active listening skills. Nothing is more annoying than to have an interviewer ask a question that the subject has already answered in a previous response!
• Share and examine some examples of oral histories (see list of resources below).
• Conduct some “mock” interviews to practice. Practice using recording equipment as well.
• Complete the interviews (or view/read primary sources), having students follow the guidelines you’ve put in place.