Education

These pages contain flexible educational materials intended for use by educators and their students, roughly grades 9-12, who seek to discuss and analyze primary sources related to life on the World War II Home Front. All materials are drawn from a large archive of oral history interviews collected by Washington College faculty and students at the Starr Center for the American Experience.

The classroom oral history guides below consolidate interview excerpts into broad thematic categories, allowing students to connect the intimate memories of World War II survivors to larger themes in World War II history. Students are able to hear first-hand accounts of what life was like on the American Home Front, from participating in scrap metal drives to witnessing the atomic bomb. Furthermore, working with oral history interviews allows students to tangibly assess and evaluate primary source materials, to consider the differences between primary and secondary sources, and to practice employing primary source evidence in the development of arguments.

Navigating Your Classroom Oral History Guide

Each classroom oral history guide follows a similar structure and format, and contains:
1) An Abstract, providing an overview of the overarching theme and its importance in understanding World War II history, often previewing the following interview story content.
2) Sub-Themes, representing various perspectives and experiences within that broader theme.
3) Full Story Transcripts, four to five per sub-theme, fleshing out a cohesive narrative of the topic.
4) Featured Stories, one per sub-theme, highlighting the most outstanding or representative story from each category. These are ideal when time constraints set in.
5) Additional Sources, including a number of links to primary and secondary sources.
6) Questions to Consider, for use in classroom discussion or as part of an evaluative assignment. Some questions seek straightforward responses found directly in the interview transcript, while others prompt higher-level analysis, argumentation, or interpretation.
7) A Narrator Profile Gallery featuring each project narrator’s image and biography, as well as a fuller range of their interview materials.

What is Oral History?

As defined by Dr. Barry A. Lanman and Dr. Laura M. Wendling in a Teacher’s Guide to Oral History as an Educational Experience:
“Oral history is a method of research that seeks to preserve the memories of individuals who shaped or participated in the events of the past. Through informed and empathetic interviewing, the oral historian creates information about the famous and obscure, about events in daily life and those of international consequence.”
At its core, oral history reveals the historical significance of everyday experiences and ordinary individuals. Compared to “textbook history” oral history is frequently more emotional and reflective. Its uniquely personal character often allows history to resonate beyond names, facts, and dates.
For more on the field of oral history, we would recommend reviewing the backgrounds, definitions, and best practices provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, Southern Oral History Project, and Oral History Association.

Oral History in the Classroom

Numerous resources are available to lead educators through the process of conducting oral history interviews in a classroom setting. In contrast, these classroom oral history guides utilize existing interview materials, providing a quicker but nonetheless powerful way of incorporating oral history into the classroom.
Investigating and researching interview content supports close reading and higher-level analysis. Oral history is especially useful for analyzing point of view and identifying personal bias. Additionally, studying oral history promotes situating sources in their proper context, evaluating source arguments, and explaining cause and effect, comparison and contrast, and change over time—all deemed “Historical Thinking Skills and Reasoning Processes” by the AP U.S. History curriculum. Oral history also walks a fine line between history and memory, inviting students to consider the importance of critically evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of all sources.
Beyond the content of history, oral history allows students to reflect upon—even to experience—the significance of history. More holistically, oral history combats the standardization of education and the reduction of history to fact-memorization and test-preparation. Returning individuals to the center of the narrative can both support and challenge the “objective” third person narrative of history in a classroom textbook. In short, history can become more engaging when we listen to it first hand from those who lived it.
Relating to narrators also encourages students to practice empathy and deep listening. Realizing the importance of everyday lives is empowering, helping students understand that they need not be famous to make a lasting contribution to history. Decentralizing the narrative also promotes inquisitiveness into a history beyond macro movements and individuals, fostering an interest in investigating history that is local or “closer to the ground” and includes familiar places and names.

About This Project

Learn more about this project mission, process, and contributors.

Celebration at A Cost: Reflections on the End of the War and the Dropping of the Atomic Bombs

Growing Up on the Home Front: Youth and Childhood During World War II

Beyond the Battlefield: Service and Sacrifice of Conscientious Objectors to World War II

Destination, Delmarva: A Window into the War

About This Project