by Eric Langhorst

“If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” — Rudyard Kipling

I always find it interesting when people ask me what I do for a living. My response — “I teach 8th grade American history” — is typically followed by two standard replies from strangers. Some reply that they loved their history classes in school, and others reply that they didn’t enjoy history as students but have found an interest as adults through visiting historical sites and watching historical documentaries on television.

I always ask the latter group a follow up question: “Why did you not enjoy history as a student?” Their answers are unfortunately consistent, and typically make me a little sad. “The class was all about dates, facts and names with nothing more.” This is the polar opposite of what I believe makes history an amazing subject to study. When I ask the individuals who tell me they loved history class to describe their teachers, they nearly always share the same experience: “My teacher told amazing stories that brought history to life and made it personal.”

Storytelling is the essence of teaching history. Students are naturally drawn to the power of stories. Good history teachers must be storytellers in some capacity. It is often our mistake as educators to present the content in our classes as something that does not have much impact or relevance to our students’ lives as teenagers.

A great way for students to connect to history is through oral history projects. This summer I read The Oral History Project: Connecting Students to Their Community, Grades 4-8 by Diane Dickson, Linda Reilly, Dick Heyler and Stephanie Romano, and it has encouraged me to attempt an oral history project with my students this spring. The book includes perspectives on creating an oral history program with your students as well as tips on preparing your students to ask the proper questions and structure an interview. The book has an accompanying CD with audio, video, and print examples of many oral history projects.

I have always found teaching World War II a challenge because of its enormity. The entire planet felt the impact of that war, and its sheer size makes it easy to get lost in statistics and maps. It is difficult for today’s students to grasp the totality of the war and how it affected every American on a very personal level.

“The War” by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick is an excellent example of how even a subject as large as World War II can be effectively shared through the power of personal connections in the form of stories. The story of World War II was written by tens of thousands of American teenagers that had lives not that different from those of our modern day students. To hear these stories is to understand the war on a personal level, which is much more compelling to students than merely knowing the names of Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin.

Ken Burns and Lynn Novick are experts in the genre of historical documentaries, and they share their expertise with students through “Power of Story: A Student Guide to Documentary Filmmaking,” a kit designed to enable teachers and students to preserve the stories of World War II veterans in their own communities. Burns and Novick provide valuable insights into the process of collecting these precious histories, offering advice on preparation, research, equipment use and setting up the interview. Students will also gain valuable insight through video clips from the producers describing the power of story and the process of making “The War.” You can also check with your local PBS station to see if they are participating in Story Share, a program to collect the stories of veterans.

The producers of “The War” have partnered with The Library of Congress and the Veterans History Project to create an Experiencing War archive containing oral history projects related to “The War.” The Veterans History Project provides an outstanding opportunity for students to collect oral histories from local veterans or family members and submit the final products to the permanent collection of the Library of Congress. This project, created in 2000 by an act of Congress, collects and archives the personal reflections of United States wartime veterans — from World War I through the present conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. The stories of these veterans, along with homefront civilians who supported our armed forces, are available to current and future generations. The Veterans History Project has a field kit available online with guidelines for conducting the interviews and procedures for submitting your information to the Veterans History Project. The project has already collected the personal stories of 45,000 individuals.

The benefits of collecting oral history are not reserved only for global events such as World War II. Preserving one’s own family history through storytelling has a very personal importance for me. I can remember as a young boy a particular Christmas at which my father and uncle, both high school history teachers at the time, brought an old reel-to-reel audio recorder to Grandma and Grandpa’s house. They sat around the dining room table and interviewed my grandfather for hours about his life — his experiences as a young German marine fighting to survive in the trenches of World War and his journey to America as an immigrant passing through the gates of Ellis Island in 1923. He spoke of meeting my grandmother and working the rich Nebraska soil on his farm. That old analog tape recorder rolled the entire time and captured his life. Over 6 hours of audio exist today, now in digital format on CD’s and a computer hard drive, and are available for present and future generations to discover the amazing life of my grandfather, Henry C. Langhorst. I am so grateful that my father and uncle took the time to preserve that family history. His story is just a small slice of a global story, but to us it is a precious artifact of our family heritage.

Fortunately, it has never been easier, technologically speaking, to record oral histories as either a video or audio project. Digital camcorders are available to many teachers and students as items that can be checked out from school library media centers. Some students may be able to use a family digital camcorder. Free video-editing software is available for both Apple (iMovie) and PC (Windows Movie Maker). These video-editing programs are easy to operate and great tools for creating video oral history projects. However, it is important for students to remember that the critical element of an oral history project is the story, not a special effect or fancy editing.

Students can also collect an audio version of the story using a portable MP3 player, such as an i-Pod with an attached microphone, or an MP3 player with an internal microphone such as the portable players made by iriver. Students can also record audio with an internal microphone or an inexpensive microphone attached to a laptop computer. Audacity is a free audio-editing program that works on Mac, Windows and Linux systems. Once the students have created a finished product using these audio and video editing programs, the story can be shared with family and possibly archived at a museum if the interviewee gives permission. Another place for students to share their audio and video oral history projects is the Apple Student Gallery.

I hope that you will consider using the power of story in your classroom this year. Give your students the opportunity to connect with the subject matter in a unique and personal way. Everyone has a story. Make your classroom a place where students can share their stories and hear the stories of others.

I would love to hear about how you are using stories in your classroom. Please share your thoughts and comments.