Looking back

The oral history interview 'Looking back' provides a further source about the past.

An oral history interview is a primary source of information about the past. Watching and listening to personal accounts of experiences and events from the past can help build historical knowledge. It is important to note that oral histories depend on people's memories and experiences and can be inaccurate due to the passing of time and the interviewee's perspective.

An oral history interview is generally a narration that is guided by open-ended questions. An open-ended question usually begins with how, what, when, where or why. Phrases such as 'What do you think about ...?' and 'Tell me more about ...' are open-ended as they are asking for answers that require knowledge and opinions. The interviewer asks questions about the past and records the interviewee's responses through video, audio or written notes (with a scribe for young students). The interview can be analysed and inferences made to give a clearer picture of an event or period of time.

Familiarise yourself with the interview questions (.docx 21kB).

Tell your students that they will be watching a video in which a child interviews an older member of the community to find out about what home life was like in the past.

Organise your students into small groups. Elect a person from each group to report back to the class. Give each group an interview question and tell them that they will need to listen to the interview carefully because they will be reporting back to the class on the response that was given to their question.

Watch the interview a number of times for groups to gather the information required. To make the task easier students could make sketches to help them recall the information.

At the end of the interview each group will discuss what they found out and the nominated person from each group can report back to the class about their question.

Ask students: 'What other questions could we ask to find out more about what people did at home in the past?'

Record the questions on a large sheet of paper or in software displayed on an IWB.