What is Oral History? 

When many people think about history, they think about dusty books and documents, archives and libraries, or remote castles and stately homes. In fact history is all around us, in our own families and communities, in the living memories and the experiences of older people. We need only to ask them and they can tell us enough stories to fill a library of books. This kind of history - that we all gather as we go through life - is called ORAL HISTORY. 

Everyone has a story to tell about their life which is unique to them. Some people have been involved in momentous historical events like the Second World War. Regardless of age or importance, we all have interesting experiences to share. 

Most importantly, historical documents and books can't tell us everything about our past. Often they concentrate on famous people and big events, and tend to miss out on ordinary people talking about their personal experiences. Oral history fills in the gaps and gives us history which includes everyone. 

Unfortunately, because memories die when people do, if we don't record what people tell us, it is history that is lost forever. 

To this end, as a show of appreciation to the brave men and women who have fought to preserve our freedoms, each member of the junior class at Helix High School interviews a veteran and preserves the interview for future generations. 

Thank you to all the veterans for your many sacrifices...and your willingness to tell your story.

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How To Produce an Oral History Project

Step by step...here is how to produce a project that people will not only want to view, but will have historical significance.

STEP 1: Decide on who you want to interview and contact them

• Set up a date and time when you will have plenty of time to conduct the interview
• Ask them if they have any photos, documents, or mementos of the period you will be discussing

preliminarytopic_exploration.doc
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STEP 2:  Prepare for your interview

• Familiarize yourself with the era that you will be discussing.  
• You may need to do some research and reading to be able to intelligently discuss pertinent issues
• You may want to send or give your interviewee this short letter which describes the project

interviewee_preparation_letter.doc
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STEP 3: Plan the questions

• You will sketch out biographical (specific information about the person) and subject area questions (specific information about their experiences) 
• Select numerous open-ended questions; these are questions that will get you stories
• The guideline document has 50 good sample questions

STEP 4:  Take all of your equipment and go to the interview

• Don't forget the Release Form!

release_form_for_oral_history.doc
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STEP 5: Conduct the interview

• There are many tips on how to conduct a successful interview in the guideline document, including what to do in uncomfortable situations

STEP 6: After the interview, be sensitive to the feelings of the person you just interviewed (see guideline document)


STEP 7: Download and edit your interview

• Edit out the nonessential parts of your interview, for example, the segments that are off topic
• Render the video as an mpg movie
• Create an Interview Log so viewers know the contents of your interview (see guidelines)

interview_log.doc
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STEP 8: Write a short summary of the veteran's military service (a few paragraphs for the website)

• Here is an excellent example from the University of Texas
  
• Another one from the PBS series, The War
  

STEP 9: Submit all materials to Mr K. on your flash drive in a folder called "Your Name Oral History"

• Rendered video 50 points
• Photographs 5 points
• Written summary 10 points
• Interview log 10 points
  
• Release Form 5 points

STEP 10: Thank the person you interviewed with a note and possibly a small gift.  It might also be appreciated if you offered to provide them with a DVD copy of the interview.

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Here is the complete guidelines for the project

veteran_interview_project.doc
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The National WWII Museum has another great guide for conducting an oral history project