Create a Literate Classroom Environment
- Fill the atmosphere with talk about language and literacy use, and with
talk about the ways in which people learn. Use the Oral History Project as
an opportunity for people to understand their own ways of learning and using
language.
- Constantly link reading and writing to learners’ daily lives. Flexibility is
important; seize the moment! Oral history – the history and people of the
community – is about people’s lives! But literacy programs should also address
the day-to-day personal issues that learners always bring to a program.
- Treat learners as though they are avid readers and writers. People will be
motivated to read and write if they feel ownership of the oral history project and a
passionate interest in their topic.
Make literacy activities real, student-centred and communicative
- Encourage learners to take ownership of the project, to make decisions about
their work from the beginning.
- Use literacy for real purposes. All the work in your oral history project is
communication for a ‘real purpose’.
Connect Content Inside the Class to the Community Outside
- Build on learners’ personal needs, issues and interests in
their real lives outside class. Use those contexts and purposes to develop
literacy skills.
Working on an oral history project naturally makes the connection to the
community for you. Oral histories are the histories of individuals, families
and
communities.
Develop Literate Practices through Research
- Collecting data – through reading, listening, observing and interviewing
- Recording data – through recording, transcribing and making notes
- Analyzing data – through finding patterns, comparing and being critical
- Reporting on the research – through group and community presentations
- Establishing a community of researchers who understand and support each
other’s work