Lesson Overview:
Students will learn about portraying places and life stories, both literally and metaphorically, through text and performance. Through the practice of oral histories and written memoir, the student will come to understand the significance of these life stories and places and how they relate to their lives. Through the performance of these tales, the student will be given the opportunity to reflect upon the significant people, events, and/or experiences that define who they are. Students will further reflect upon the lives and stories of the people of Harlem and how their environment influenced them.
Length of Lesson:
Six 45-minute periods
Notes:
This lesson is particularly suitable for grades 3-4.
Instructional Objectives:
Students will:
- contrast the way people lived in Harlem in the 1930s with the way they live today.
- explore the idea of “home” and how it can mean different things to different people.
- learn to use an object or sensory images to bring up memories and feelings that can be developed into an oral history narrative.
- perform a short theater piece to empathize with the feelings and facts of their oral history subjects.
- prepare and conduct interviews as a way of understanding oral histories.
- understand the importance of oral histories as a way to preserve a culture’s history.
- understand the importance of storytelling and how it can bring up memories.
Supplies:
- Notebooks or journals
- Paper
- Pencils
- Important object from home that reminds individual students about a person, place, special time, or event
- Chart paper
- Markers
- Sketch paper
- Various drawing materials (i.e., crayons, pencils, pastels)
- Photographs of Harlem architecture and landmarks
Instructional Plan:
Part I: Portraits of Home
Day 1: The Idea of "Home"
An important aspect of telling stories about one's life is exploring the essence of "home," what evokes comfort and familiarity, and what signals the kind of safe feeling one relates to being "home." Storytelling can relate specifically to senses—sights, sounds, smells—or it can be the longing for what you wish home to be or what home once was. At the beginning of the class period, center discussion on the idea of "…what home is." It is important to acknowledge that "home" will be different to each student. Students can work in pairs, groups, or with teacher-led discussion. Try reading a story or excerpt that illustrates the idea of home, such as Michael J. Rosen's prose poem, "Home" (see Other Materials section).
Another is the book Coming Home: From the Life of Langston Hughes, by Floyd Cooper. This book talks about the early life of Langston Hughes and how he dreams of a happy home:
"Young Langston Hughes was a dreamer. He dreamed about heroes like Booker T. Washington, who was black just like him. When he heard the clackety-clack of train wheels, he dreamed about the places it had been. But most of all, he dreamed about having a happy home. And so, one day, he began turning those dreams into beautiful prose. As he did, he discovered where his home really was—in the words and rhythms of his poetry that reached people all over the world."
Ask the students to bring a photo or object into class for the next day, something that reminds them about a person, place, special time, or event. Bring a photo or object for yourself, too. You will need to model the activity discussed further on so the students understand the process they will be asked to participate in.
Day 2: Harlem, a Home
Write the words HARLEM in bold letters on chart paper. Then ask the students what they know about Harlem. Write down the students' responses.
Distribute the Vocabulary Handout. View the streaming audio/video presentation of Walter Dean Myers reading the text of Harlem on the Kennedy Center's Harlem: Storytime Online site. Discuss with the class how Walter Dean Myers is able to evoke the feeling of his home, Harlem, by using descriptive language. Ask the students to write in their journals some thoughts on the words and images Myers uses to elicit images of Harlem.
Next, show the students Harlem Live's Photo Gallery. This Web site offers interesting black-and-white photos of Harlem in the 1930s. Students can view the kids, buildings, markets, and recreational photos of Harlem to get a feel of what life was like back then. Then have the class view images of Harlem and how it looks today, on the Malcolm X Boulevard: Virtual Tour of Living Landmarks Web site. Ask the students how the second images are different from the first set. What do the two sets of photos tell you about how Harlem today is different from Harlem back in the 1930s?
Bring up Walter Dean Myers's reading again, noting again how he used colorful language to describe what Harlem is like. How would you describe your home to someone who has never seen it, and if you had no photos to show them? Ask students to brainstorm examples of sights, smells, sounds, tastes, and feelings that remind them of home—for example, soft music on a piano, the musty smell of the attic, the taste of homemade tortillas, the sounds of someone cooking in the kitchen or mowing the lawn.
Explain to the students that they will use sensory information like this in the next activity to give the class a sort of doorway into their home, to let them "feel," "see," "hear," and "smell" the same things, and then lead to a specific story about home or family. Tell them to use the photo or object they brought into class to inspire memories for them to work from. (Note that students shouldn't just talk about the photo or object specifically, but just use it as a tool to trigger a memory that they will write about. This use of a photo or object is intended to assist younger students in bringing up memories, but ultimately should be de-emphasized since the overall lesson focuses on the importance of storytelling when one doesn't have tangible objects.)
Begin by "modeling a memory" yourself so the class understands how sensory images recreate places and moments in time, such as the following: "Whenever I smell fresh-baked bread, I think of my grandmother. I don't think I ever saw her without an apron on, partially covered in flour. Grandma learned how to make bread when
she was just a little girl and had to help her father in his bakery...").
Next, have the students "model a memory" in their writing journals. This may take several days to complete. Afterwards, students can read their stories aloud as a monologue, doing their best to evoke the environments they are describing so that their classmates can effectively share the experience of the place. (Note: You may not wish to reveal that the stories will be performed as monologues until later on in the process, as students may become intimidated if they know that they must present their material.)
Part II: Portraits of a Family
Day 3: Learning About Oral Histories
Introduce the concept of oral history to students by explaining how storytelling is an important way to preserve a family's culture or heritage. Ask the students if anyone knows of a story that's told repeatedly by their family members. It may be a funny story, a sad story, or an unusual tale. Note how "family stories" may be told over and over again during family reunions, holidays, and celebrations. They become part of a family's history.
Explain how many of Harlem's residents had originally come from Africa, or had ancestors from Africa. In Africa, storytelling was, and is, a large part of the life and culture. Explain that many Africans came to the United States initially as slaves during the 1600s to the 1800s. Discuss with the students how the telling of stories became even more important during this time, and encourage the students to think about why that might have been. (Because most slaves were not allowed to learn to read and write, storytelling became an important and necessary means of communication, history-keeping, and a way for African Americans to talk about their daily life.) (See Extension II: The Mind's Suitcase in the lesson, The Great Migration, for additional exploration.)
View the Web site, Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938. This resource presents a fascinating look at the personal stories of former slaves and their lives before, during, and after the Civil War. You can choose to print out and display various interviews to discuss their importance of these stories and the importance to our country's history.
Read an excerpt from Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years. Ask the students why someone would go through the trouble of sitting down with another person to interview them. Why are oral histories important? What can we learn from them? Students will have various responses. You should convey that the primary value of oral history testimony is its usefulness in social history, in putting together the fabric of daily life, and in reflecting how people live and feel about themselves.
Day 4: Learning to Interview
Tell the students they are going to be part of an oral history project. They are to think of an adult family member or other close relative or friend who they would like to interview. As a class, brainstorm some questions one might ask a potential interviewee. Write these questions on chart paper. (Refer to the
Interview Question Guidelines Handout to spur question ideas.)
Next, model how to interview someone, using yourself and a student as an example. If a small personal recording device is available, this might be a good time to demonstrate how to use it. Note that if the student uses a recording device such as a camcorder or tape recorder, he or she must request permission from the interviewee to record before the interview takes place.
Give the students the Helpful Hints for a Successful Interview handout. Discuss with the students the guidelines on how to conduct an interview.
Students can then pair up and interview one another for practice. Afterward, the student pairs can tell the class some of the information they learned about their classmate during the interview. The learning process of interviewing should be an ongoing learning experience. Some students can take to this quite naturally while others may be reluctant.
Day 5: Preparing for and Conducting the Oral History Interview
Give the students a handout of their brainstormed interview questions. These questions can be used as a guide for the interview or students can stick to the questions as written. The students can again use their classmates as rehearsal interviewees, now using the handout to direct the questions (pair students with new partners).
Now, the students should tell an adult family member or other close relative or friend that they wish to interview them for a class project. Each student should obtain the subject's permission for this, and make sure the subject knows that their information may be shared with the class (see Consent Form for Oral History Subjects). Then the students should go ahead and interview as they've been practicing in class, recording information either by writing in a notebook, or by using a personal recording device. Students should be given ample time to conduct their interviews. You can have an ongoing discussion of any successes or problems students may be facing as they prepare for and conduct their interviews.
Day 6: Presenting Student Adaptations of the Oral History
When the subjects have been interviewed, the information gleaned can be applied in a number of ways. Students can transcribe the information from their interview subject and make it into a monologue. Then they can present this oral history as a performance piece for the class. Suggest to the students that they pretend to be the person that they interviewed. They really want to "become" that person, so that we can believe them, the way we believe in a television or movie character played by an actor, for example. Have the students use the responses they gathered from their interview and then turn them into a script for their presentation. They can start out by saying "My name is (interview subject)…" and continue on from there.
Assessment:
Use the rubric, Oral History Performance Assessment Rubric, to assess students' work.
Extensions:
Extension 1: Important Places
Students can visit the Web site, Census of Places that Matter, to nominate a place they feel truly "matters." The Municipal Art Society of New York and City Lore maintain this site to discover places that tell New York’s history and anchor its traditions and communities. Though the Web site is geared to New York City’s special places, it might be an interesting and fun experience for students to think about areas around their town or city and what makes those places "Places That Matter."
Extension 2: See My Home
Students can create a visual representation of what home means to them. An art gallery exhibit can be used to display the students' art.
Extension 3: Visual/Oral Stories
Students can use a camcorder to record their oral history interview if equipment is available and the subject feels comfortable.
Sources:
Print:
- Cooper, Floyd. Coming Home: From the Life of Langston Hughes. Putnam Publishing Group, 1997.
- Delany, Sarah Louise and Annie Elizabeth Delany. Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years. Kodansha International, September 1993.
Web:
Authors:
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ARTSEDGE
The John F. Kennedy Center
Washington, DC
