Ex-slave Narratives and WPA Interviews

About | K-12 Objectives | Materials Needed | Procedures | Assessment | Related Resources

Assessment

K-12:

• Using the evidence from the analysis charts, students will be on a publishing team for an anthology of slave interviews and narratives. The anthology should contain the interviews and narratives each team read. To make the team work collaboratively the content of the anthology must be shared, therefore the first thing each team should do is talk about their documents. After the briefing, individuals on the team should complete the following tasks:
  1. Write an introduction to this anthology. This should be about one page. It should contain an overview of the WPA Federal Writers Project and the nature of the slave narrative publication business. The introduction should also contain a short passage on the connections between the readings. (At the most basic level they all deal with the lives of slaves.)
  2. Cluster the narratives according to themes and create a table of contents.
  3. Design a book jacket including graphic design and text for the flaps.
  4. Develop a marketing strategy for the release of this book.

   

• Complete the Library of Congress’ The Historian’s Sources activity. This is an introductory lesson on primary sources. Contained within the lesson (section 4 of the student lesson) is an activity that makes use of slave related documents.

Methods:

• Oral history issues should be discussed in the methods course. Students could be assigned a person to interview and could present the findings to the class.
• Have students design a lesson using incorporating oral history.

Center for Technology and Teacher Education, University of Virginia, This module was created by John K. Lee University of Virginia