Learning History from Those Who Lived It

June 19, 2023

By Jenna Fournel, Director of Teaching and Learning, Center for Inspired Teaching

Hooray for Monday is a weekly blog filled with questions, ideas, reflections, and actions we can all take to remodel the school experience for students.

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Today we celebrate Juneteenth, a date that has been recognized as a Federal holiday for just a few years but that traces its origins back to 1865. The National Museum of African American Culture and History offers many resources to deepen our understanding of the holiday and to fuel our curiosity to learn more. The museum’s Oral History Specialist Kelly Elaine Navies introduces the content in this short video, and in her reflection on her own Juneteenth celebrations along with fellow museum experts here.

Ms. Navies speaks to the power of oral histories in Soul Talk: An Oral History Workshop and Discussion, where she encourages “everyone to conduct at least one oral history interview with an elder in their lifetime.” As she explains, “when you conduct an oral history you’re not only creating a primary document, you’re strengthening relationships and forging bonds between generations and you’re also becoming a part of a long tradition of storytelling.”

This resonates with us at Inspired Teaching. A few weeks ago we hosted students, families, and elder Washingtonians who were part of the Great Migration, during the last gathering of our 2022-2023 Real World History class. Students asked their peers, parents, and elders they’d interviewed to discuss: “What does oral history mean to you?” In one small group conversation, a student and her parents talked about how oral history is at the core of our growth and learning as humans. As far back as language exists, it’s how we have transferred knowledge and understanding from one generation to the next.

A core project in the Real World History course is collecting, transcribing, annotating, and sharing oral histories of elders in the community who came to Washington, DC during the Great Migration. Students remarked that collecting these stories gave them a much better understanding of the significance of the Great Migration and the challenges their narrators experienced. Narrators described how the interview process gave them peace in knowing their stories would be remembered (all stories are archived at the DC Public Libraries). The experience of being listened to also sparked hope in the elders, who saw that young people are interested in learning about history, so they can be part of creating a better future.

Real World History students from the 2022-2023 class.

This made me think of the role schools play in the passing along of our understanding of history. At a time of intense polarization, it’s more clear than ever that there’s no such thing as an apolitical classroom. The sources we provide our students for learning about the world around them always come with a perspective. People do too. But what if we made collecting oral histories a core part of our teaching and learning each year? How might that shape the way students understand the past, if part of their learning came firsthand from people who lived it?

A Real World History student talks with her narrator.

Whether you gather with friends and families on this holiday or at other points throughout this summer, consider what histories you might learn from those around you. And imagine what it would be like to have your students collect oral histories this fall! Ms. Navies’ workshop includes a guide for how to do a family oral history, a great place to start!

What We’re Curious About

Each week a member of the Inspired Teaching community shares something that’s piquing their curiosity. We’d love to include what’s making YOU wonder right now! Submitting a curiosity is easy. Just follow these steps:

Identify something you’re currently curious about. This could be in the form of a question or just a concept.
Think about where this curiosity came from and what else it’s making you wonder about as you explore it.
Record a voice memo (no longer than 2 minutes) in which you share your reflection on the above.
Email the voice memo to Michelle Welk, Inspired Teaching’s communication and marketing specialist, at michelle@inspiredteaching.org. Be sure to include your full name, title, and where you work in your email.

We look forward to learning with you!

Teacher Resources

Profile Pages

This is a simple yet powerful activity that helps you to learn more about your students, to make sure introverts and extroverts alike feel heard and valued, and to reveal and strengthen meaningful connections between peers.

Listening With Someone Else’s Ears

This activity invites students to step into the role of someone else, imagine what they would say, and listen to what those around that person are saying too.

Document History with First-Person Accounts

Students choose a historical event that took place within the last 20-30 years during which they know family or friends were alive, and ideally, experienced firsthand. Then they combine their own research with interviews to better understand that event.

Listen to This Issue of Hooray For Monday

InspiredTeaching · May 22, 2023: Disrupting the Egg Carton

Micaiah Anderson

Community Outreach Specialist

As a Community Outreach Specialist, Micaiah is responsible for program promotion and outreach support for Inspired Teaching events and workshops. Micaiah has a passion for collaborating with community members to build-power and connect. She is an educator with a heart for youth and has experience supporting students fight injustices within their schools and communities. She has a BA in Political Science from, the real HU, Hampton University & anticipates graduating in May 2024 with a Masters of Arts degree in Educational Policy Transformation from Georgetown University.

AUTONOMY

"I want to have a say in what happens to me."

Autonomy is the need for independence; the ability to make choices, to create, to explore, and to express oneself freely; to have sufficient space, to move around, and to feel unrestricted with opportunities to exercise free will.

Brady Maiden

Outreach Coordinator

As the Outreach Coordinator, Brady helps maintain Inspired Teaching’s social media presence and supports the organization’s mission to connect with DC community leaders, educators, and parents. Brady has her Master’s in Public Policy from George Mason University and her BS in Political Science from Northern Arizona University. She is passionate about community, equity, and coalition building recognizing that learning and growing with the community at large is how we continue to be impactful.

What brings you joy in life?

I find joy in spending time with my friends and family and meeting new people. I like going to concerts and festivals, and finding new books to read.

The Learner’s Cycle, Wonder-Experiment-Learn, and the Teacher’s Cycle, Observe-Plan-Instigate, comprise Inspired Teaching’s approach to engaging students in inquiry-based learning.

When they are engaged in the Wonder-Experiment-Learn Cycle, students are immersed in learning. They take the lead in designing authentic learning experiences around their own interests and their school’s standards of learning. Each discovery leads to a new question which in turn leads to more wondering and more learning. In the Wonder-Experiment-Learn Cycle, Learn is not a destination or an endpoint; it is a deeper understanding, leading to a deeper wondering and new possibilities that create new entry points to further exploration. The cycle continues because what students have learned generates more wonderings that require more experiments that foster more learning – and on and on.

The Observe-Plan-Instigate Cycle is the work of an Inspired Teacher. While a student is expected to follow the Wonder-Experiment-Learn Cycle, the teacher joins them on the learning journey while following their own cycle of Observe-Plan-Instigate. This cycle ultimately serves to ensure an inquiry-based atmosphere is at play in the classroom.

Jaqueta Abbey

Teaching and Learning Specialist

Jaqueta is the Teaching and Learning Specialist for Inspired Teaching. In addition to her current role with Inspired Teaching, Jaqueta is a first-grade teaching assistant. Her background features a variety of traditional and non-traditional experiences in the field of education, including working as an adjunct professor, teaching summer reading programs to children and adults, and tutoring children in the foster care system. Jaqueta earned a B.A. in Communication Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an M.A. in Interactive Media from Elon University.

What brings you joy in life?

Creative self-expression! In addition to my passion for storytelling, I love dancing of all kinds. I've studied belly dance, bachata, and Brazilian Zouk among other styles. I also enjoy glass fusing, crocheting, photography, and cross stitching. These art forms allow me to express myself and build connections with other people at the same time. I think life would be a lot less vibrant without artists and storytellers!

Michelle Welk

Communication & Marketing Specialist

As Communications and Marketing Specialist, Michelle is responsible for finding and creating new ways to highlight Inspired Teaching and promote its programs in order to expand and deepen the organization's impact. Michelle has worked in communications in an array of settings, from creative agencies to state politics to national nonprofits. She has a BA in Journalism from Temple University in Philadelphia and is passionate about education, access, and equity.

What brings you joy in life?

My son, the beach, making a persuasive argument and good food!

Max Peterson

Real World History Assistant Teacher

Max received his Bachelor’s degree in History and African American Studies from Boston University in May 2016. He has worked in museum curation at the Museum of the White Mountains in New Hampshire and the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Max has worked with young people of varying ages from young children to young adults transitioning to college.

Feedback and Accountability

We grow through feedback and an understanding that the quality of our work is a reflection of what we are learning, but the shift to remote learning this spring disrupted a lot of the tools teachers were used to using to evaluate student growth. How might we do things differently this fall? Participants in this workshop will explore ways to bring meaningful assessment into the virtual and/or socially-distanced classroom and approaches to student feedback that strengthen motivation, and build relationships and achievement.