San Antonio's cultural experience museum..
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Student Handouts The following worksheets may be useful in working with groups of students and others. They can be downloaded or printed.
There are many steps to collecting oral histories and numerous details to remember. The following is a guide to the general steps: Select a topic Selecting a Topic The topic can be on any aspect of the history or culture of a local community, but topics of potential historical significance are best. For example:
-local legal issues or trials -people previously excluded from our history such as Asians, African Americans, women, -senior citizens, etc. -jobs related to local agriculture, industry, or community service -unusual jobs or hobbies, such as beekeeping -holidays or family traditions -transportation -local customs, rituals, weddings, funerals, etc. -town ghosts -local natural disasters -feuds -law and order -clubs -daily activities from the past, such as quilting, raising turkeys, braiding horsehair, making butter, ironing clothes in a mangle, making ice cream, hunting rattlesnakes, drilling for oil, getting false teeth, breeding horses, picking cotton, growing rice, making turpentine, making scarecrows, building outhouses, etc. The person should have firsthand knowledge of the topic. Ideally, the person interviewed is a primary source who has had direct experience with the topic. Criteria for Good Oral Histories 1. Only one person is interviewed and recorded on an audiotape. 2. Both voices on the audiotape are clear and understandable. 3. The topic is focused on some aspect of history and has historical significance or importance. 4. The interviewer establishes a context (time period/place/history) for the interviewee's information. 5. The interview questions bring forth detailed responses about the topic that adds to the historical record. 6. The texture of the interview contains detail, richness, and flavor that adds to the historical record. 7. The coverage of the topic is sufficiently complete for information to be understood and useful to others. 8. The interviewer exhibits critical thinking and follows up by requesting additional information when needed. 9. The interviewer ends with a concluding statement about the significance of the interview. Asking Open and Closed Questions A. Ask questions that include the word YOU:
B. Ask specific/closed questions to establish person and context (a query that restricts the interviewee to a narrow, specific answer).
C. Follow with general/open questions encouraging lots of possible responses to get lots of details (a query in which the interviewee can develop his or her own answer).
D. Open question examples
A. You have decided whom you want to interview, but the person only speaks German. What do you do? B. You think you have everything ready to leave for the interview, but you can't find your list of questions. What do you do? C. You called to confirm the day and time of your interview, but the car has a flat tire, and you are going to be late for the interview. What do you do? D. You show up for the interview, and the batteries in the tape recorder are dead? What do you do? E. You arrive for the interview, and the husband of the woman being interviewed wants to join in the conversation? What do you do? F. You start the interview, but the person speaks so softly you are not sure it is being recorded? What do you do? G. The interview is going well, and the dog starts barking. What do you do? H. The person you are interviewing answers every question with one word. What do you do? I. The interview is going well, but you look at the tape recorder and see that the tape came to an end sometime during the interview. What do you do? J. The person you are interviewing keeps jangling his/her keys so it will be hard to hear the voice on the audiotape. What do you do? K. You feel like you have been waiting forever for the interviewee to answer your question. What do you do? L. The person you are interviewing starts to cry. What do you do? M. The interview is finished. When you get home and play back the tape, there is nothing there. What do you do? N. The interviewee is really giving you all kinds of information about the way that African Americans were segregated in town, but you wanted to talk about the hardware store that the person owns. What do you do? O. It is time to write a thank-you note to the person interviewed. You don't have the address and zip code. What do you do? P. You are back home and realize you forgot to get the interview permission signed. What do you do? Note: Be sure to 1) copy audiotape to avoid damage to the original while transcribing, 2) label the tape with name of interviewee and interviewer, and 3) number the pages in the transcript. 1. Header: Name of interviewee
Date of interview 2. Use initials of speakers to indicate each person's words. 3. Spell words as best you can and circle words you are unsure of to check the spelling later. 4. Leave a blank space if you cannot understand the words. 5. Insert a — (dash) when the sentence is not complete. 6. Use the [ ] bracket symbol to insert your own words when interviewee omitted words or when you need to clarify. 7. Do not correct grammar, word order, or change interviewee's words. 8. Omit "filler" words like yeah, you know, okay, uh huh, except when logical or essential to understanding. 9. If it is important to know what the person is doing or if something happens on the tape, this can be included in brackets [ ] 10. Do not write anything in dialect spelling. Just use standard English. 11. These rules can be "bent," but because you are a beginning transcriber, it is best to just follow the rules. Oral History Checklist for Interviewer Preproduction 1. ______ Select topic. a. ____ Determine if person has experiences relevant to the topic. 7. _____ Get equipment and practice doing an interview. Production 8. ______ Schedule and make arrangements for interview. Postproduction 13. ______Type interview on computer. Someone other than the individual student can
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