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Interview Builder

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About This MicroSim

The Interview Builder turns the book's Ask Your Elders sections into a complete oral history interview plan. Choose a theme (any of the 21 chapters, or a "life story" capstone), a narrator (a grandparent, a parent, an aunt or uncle, or a family friend or community member) and a length (10, 20 or 30 minutes). The sim assembles:

  • a consent script to read aloud, adjusted for the narrator,
  • 6, 8 or 10 questions, color coded as warm-up, theme, change and closing questions, drawn from a plain-text question bank written from each chapter's Ask Your Elders topics,
  • follow-up prompts for active listening, and
  • a note-taking grid with one row per question.

Some themes add a care note, for example on painful memories of 1947 and 1971, on asking about values in families that aren't religious, or on recording home remedies as traditions rather than medical advice.

Print plan prints a clean, one- to three-page version of the whole plan, with blanks for the date, first names and the narrator's permissions. Nothing you choose is saved or sent anywhere.

How to Use

  1. Pick a Theme from the menu. Start with the chapter you enjoyed most.
  2. Pick a Narrator. Open the Consent tab and read the script. Switch to "Family friend or community member" and notice what the script adds.
  3. Open the Questions tab. Change the Length and watch how many questions the plan keeps.
  4. Press New questions to see a different mix and order, and keep the set that fits your narrator.
  5. Open the Notes tab to see the follow-up prompts and the grid you'll fill in during the interview.
  6. Press Print plan (or print to PDF) and take the page to your interview.

Learning Objective

Students will be able to design an ethical oral history interview plan, including informed consent, open questions, follow-up prompts and a plan for notes, for a chosen theme, narrator and length.

Bloom level: Create (design, plan).

Iframe Embed Code

<iframe src="https://aaryavvatts-lab.github.io/south-asian-culture-textbook/sims/ch22-interview-builder/main.html" height="762px" width="100%" scrolling="no"></iframe>

Lesson Plan

Grade level: 9 to 12 (ethnic studies, social studies, English, or a South Asian student club meeting)

Duration: 25 to 30 minutes in class, plus an interview at home

Activity:

  1. (5 min) In pairs, students read the consent script aloud. Then they list what the narrator is told and what rights they keep.
  2. (10 min) Each student builds a plan for one theme and narrator, then changes the length. They write one sentence on which questions they would drop for a 10-minute interview and why.
  3. (5 min) Pairs swap plans and suggest one follow-up question for each other.
  4. (5 min) Students print or save the plan and set a date for their interview.
  5. (Follow-up meeting) Students share one story from their interview, only with the narrator's permission and using first names only.

Assessment questions:

  1. Name three things the narrator is told before the interview begins, and explain why each matters.
  2. Why does the plan start with warm-up questions instead of the hardest question?
  3. Which questions in your plan are open questions? Rewrite one closed question to make it open.
  4. What would you do if your narrator became upset during a question about the past?
  5. Your narrator agrees to notes but not to sharing. What can you do with the interview, and what can't you do?

Chapter 22: Bring It Home