Story Corps Bonus Opportunity

The Great Thanksgiving Listen is a national movement that empowers young people—and people of all ages—to create an oral history of the contemporary United States by recording an interview with an elder using the free StoryCorps App.

Interviews become part of the StoryCorps Archive at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Now in its third year, The Great Thanksgiving Listen has grown from an experimental challenge issued by our founder, Dave Isay, into a vital intergenerational movement. To date, thousands of high schools from all 50 states have participated and preserved more than 75,000 interviews, providing families with a priceless piece of personal history.

Get the Story Corps app:

Directions

  1. Download the App and create a StoryCorp Account.
      • (If a student does not have access a smartphone or does not have permission to use the app, they can still complete the project using any digital recorder, or they can conduct an unrecorded interview. They should still use the worksheets and, to complete the assignment, turn in a proposed title, summary, and keywords for their interview, as well as the length of time of their interview. Please see Mr O'Neil for more details.
  2. Choose a relative to interview. I recommend that you interview the oldest living relative that you can speak with.
  3. Prepare 10 to 15 questions to ask your relative. Use the Great Questions handout or Great Questions Generator in the app. If you are able to, give your relative a list of these questions when you interview them.
  4. Complete the The Great Thanksgiving Listen Interview Worksheet and Permission Form.
  5. Review the RECIPES FOR SUCCESS ON INTERVIEW DAY handout.
  6. Conduct your interview. After you interview, ask your relative whether you can shared the interview in the QCHS Community Archive Website (and the Library of Congress). If your relative wants to keep your interview private, submit a file of the interview to Mr. O'Neil.

YOU HAVE TO "SHARE" YOUR INTERVIEW FROM THE APP AND EMAIL ME A LINK TO THE INTERVIEW

  1. Finally, you must complete the Interview Debrief to receive your bonus points