Storytelling and the gift of listening are critical skills for young people. When you sit down with your extended family during the holidays, help your child build those important skills and preserve some family history.
The Great Listen, a project of Story Corps, empowers young people to create an oral history by recording an interview with an elder over Thanksgiving weekend (or anytime). Since the Great Listen was launched in 2015, kids have conducted more than 100,000 interviews, preserving priceless memories. While the project has a classroom component for older students, families with younger students can participate as well. Here’s how to get started:
Download the free StoryCorps App for your iPhone or Android. Make sure to create a login so you can access your interviews later within the StoryCorps Archive.
Select an interview partner and prepare questions for your interview. You’ll find suggestions to get the conversation going in the app or from this Great Questions list. The list suggests topics for parents and grandparents, as well as questions about work, school, growing up, and more.
Have a conversation. Find a quiet place, sit close together, and start your conversation! Just follow the prompts in the app to begin recording.
Share and archive your interview. Create a title and summary, and use descriptive keywords and this year’s keyword TheGreatListen2018. While you’re at it, share a selfie from your interview, and make sure to tag @StoryCorps #TheGreatListen!
All interviews uploaded to the platform will be archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, and stories will be preservedfor future generations to discover. So… Listen. Honor. Share. Participate in the Great Listen 2018 and help create a culture of listening that echoes across the nation.