1. First Person:
Performing Oral History in the
World Languages Classroom
Matthew Kelly
Academy of International Studies
Charlotte, North Carolina

2. PLEASE NOTE
THE CURRICULUM UNIT PRESENTED
HERE CONTAINS DESCRIPTIONS OF
VIOLENCE AND CIVIL UNREST.

3. The challenge of teaching in
context:
• Culture
• History
• Narrative
• Language structure

4. Culture needs an historical context.
Product of history
or
product of genetics?

5. History needs a narrative context.
• Students retain information presented in
narrative form longer and with more
coherence than information presented as
lists of facts.
Aquiles Negrete and Cecilia Lartigue. "The science of telling stories:
Evaluating science communication via narratives (RIRC method)."
The Journal of Media and Communication Studies 2.4 (2010):
98-110. www.academicjournals.org. Web. 28 June 2012.

6. Teaching narrative requires a
meaningful performance task.
It’s still here.

7. Learning to encode and decode
meaning requires meaningful
content.
PILAR
Pilo Pilamos
Pilas Piláis
Pila Pilan

8. The power of performance
• 1976: The Bicentennial
• A really mean cow

9. Oral history
• the recorded or transcribed testimony of
witnesses to an event or an epoch
• usually collected through interviews
• seeks out the perspectives of ordinary
people

10. La noche de Tlatelolco
• Elena Poniatowska’s collected testimony
of hundreds of witnesses to the 1968
Student Movement in Mexico City
• Documents the Mexican government’s
repression of protestors at the Plaza de
las Tres Culturas in Tlatelolco, October 2,
1968

11. Mexico 1968
Before this…
…there was this.

12. Performing oral history
The slightest sympathy
The slightest
http://youtu.be/HgR9_Bcu9kE sympathy
Something sticky Something sticky
http://youtu.be/MBzWPm3ARDE

13. July 22, 1968
+ 

14. July 26, 1968
+ +

15. Classroom Management, 1968

16. August 13, 1968
+ +
 ...

17. Mexico City, August 13, 1968: 150,000 marchers occupy the Zócalo

19. Setting the Stage

20. Visualize
• Google Maps
• Bing Maps—Photosynth

21. mrsenorkelly@gmail.com
Your turn!
• Take a narrative
• Get in groups of 2-4 people. There must
be a camera or smart phone in each
group.
• Record your narrative with the help of your
teammates.
• Send the video to
mrsenorkelly@gmail.com

22. Principles of Implementation
• “Stone soup” technology access
• Student coaching and self-correction
• Interpretation over memorization
• Content over production technique
• Self-selected portfolio

24. Days of the Dead Festival
Ofrenda=memorial altar

25. Community Days of the Dead Festival
Levine Museum of the New South
Students presented their ofrenda and
met members of the community who were
present in Mexico City and remembered
the events or knew someone who was in the
Plaza.

26. Points of Caution
• Fair use
• Communicate with students and parents
when dealing with sensitive subject matter

27. Image Credits
• Olympic Tank: Mexico 1968 protest poster. 1968. La guerra sucia en
Mexico, Mexico City. http://guerrasuciamexicana.blogspot.com/. Web. 28
June 2012.
• Black Power Salute: John Carlos and Tommie Smith. 1968. AP Images ,
Mexico City. AP Images. Web. 28 June 2012. Excerpt.
• Student demonstration. 1968. El Universal, Mexico City. 68...V Inicia la
represión. Web. 28 June 1968.
• IPN and UNAM. 2012. Singapore. Embajada de México en Singapur. Web.
28 June 2012.
• Marchers. Red Escolar ILCE. "Cronología del moviemento estudiantil de
1968." Historias de la historia.
http://redescolar.ilce.edu.mx/redescolar/act_permanentes/historia/html/mov
68/cronologia.htm (accessed June 25, 2012).
• Gustavo Diaz Ordaz. 1968. La changa Diaz Ordaz, Mexico City. Guztavo
Diaz. Web. 28 June 1968.