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Goal

StoryCorps is the highly praised American oral history project through NPR which has been helping the country appreciate the power and value in the stories we find all around us, teaching the importance of listening and helping us realize that every story counts and every life matters equally. StoryCorps shares interviews of everyday Americans with the nation over public radio, public television, books and new media.

Through this grant, I would like to create a “StoryCorp Titans” oral history project to empower Golden Gate High students and their families, as well as other community members, to share and cherish their life stories through a variety of media (oral, written, visual arts) year after year.

We need to engage in these integral personal history activities to remind one another of our shared humanity, to strengthen and build the connections between people, to teach the value of listening, and to weave into the fabric of our culture the understanding that everyone’s story is uniquely beautiful and matters. At the same time, we are creating an invaluable archive for future generations. It will create such rewarding experiences for our students, fostering increased bonds amongst families, community members, and the school while enhancing academic achievement and interest. 

What will be done with my students

This project, developed in alignment with the Florida Language Arts Standards (LAFS), will introduce students to the power of their own voices, help them articulate their aspirations, and develop public speaking and critical listening skills. Student will practice college and career readiness skills such as learning to communicate information in a well-structured, audience-appropriate manner and writing for a range of tasks, purposes and audiences.

Throughout this year-long process, students will listen to the audio and read the transcript versions of weekly StoryCorps stories. They will participate in class discussions to analyze, think critically about, and reflect on the interview segments, making connections between the stories and their own lives. Students will learn how to conduct their own interviews, and make their own recordings (in our classroom created recording studio audio booth), focusing on their family histories, how they see themselves, and who they hope to become. They will also conduct interviews with teachers and peers.
Parents and community members will be invited to visit our “classroom studio audio booth” to be interviewed by the students and create their own oral history segments which will be compiled into our whole-class “history.” In addition, students will type out their transcripts and provide background information, student created poetry and short stories and other creative writing pieces, share student created musical pieces and art work, as well as family photos to be published in a classroom book using binding machines for each family to cherish for years to come.
 

Benefits to my students

This year-long process will help students engage in self and social awareness, social and emotional learning competencies; speaking, listening, writing, and analytical and critical thinking skills; and strengthened home-to-school and self-to-community and self-to-family relationships. A plethora of state standards and higher-order thinking skills will be addressed and thoroughly explored. It will engage the hearts and minds of our young people to promote positive student outcomes.

This project will enable our GGHS students to experience their teachers as interested not only in their learning, but also in who they are as individuals. It will be an incredibly powerful tool for enhancing school connectedness, a key factor in academic achievement. The relationships that develop as a result of listening to and valuing each others stories are vital to enhancing the bonds that build a positive sense of community with peers. The process will also promote positive interactions between the school community and students' families by providing an opportunity for students to conduct interviews with family members. Sharing stories among teachers, students, and families creates the types of human connections that can play an important role in high school completion.

In a 2010 survey of 40,000 educators funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, nine of ten teachers pointed to the following as critical to school success: academic instruction that promotes critical thinking, problem solving, reading and communication skills; student motivation, a factor that teachers embrace as their responsibility and attempt to address at all teaching levels; and a social support system, including family and friends, that values and promotes learning. This grant addresses each of these issues, providing students with highly engaging material and methods to enrich shared educational goals and experiences.

Our shared stories will present a diverse portrait of the community, including significant historical events and human themes that resonate universally.

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Media-Center/Press-Releases/2010/03/40000-Teachers-Give-Their-Views-on-Education-Reform Retrieved on August 6, 2016.
 

Budget Narrative

The coil binding machine, printer, and cardstock will be used to create the books for each family and student. The refreshments will be given to the parents and other community members as they are interviewed (water and little food "goodie bags" as signs of thanks). The headphones and microphones are for the recording process. The room divider materials will consist of plywood, hardwood, black paint, and a table to create our recording studio sound booth in our room (a quiet, isolated place for interviewers and interviewees to feel comfortable while recording).  

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