Activities

Family HiStories of Migration

Applied Strategy: Peer Instruction & Think-pair-share

By Diane Shea, Dawson College

At a Glance

Discipline

History

Instructional Level

College & CEGEP

Course

Western Civilization - General Studies
History

Tasks in Workflow

Social Plane(s)

Individual
Group

Type of Tasks

Collecting & seeking information
Revising & improving
Writing
Presenting

Technical Details

Useful Technologies

Low tech AL classroom

Class size

Small (20-49)

Time

Multiple class periods (2-3 classes)

Instructional Purpose

Application & knowledge building
Consolidation & metacognition

Overview

In this activity, students interview two members of their family to collect information about their family history and present it in class.

In class, the instructor provides the students with guidelines for the assignment and introduces students to oral history methodology, how to conduct an interview and some central ethical concerns. Students then conduct the interviews, asking questions to the instructor if they need clarification. They then write down the information they collected as a story, which they will present in class to the other members ...

Instructional Objectives

For students to understand the impact and relevance of history for their own lives;
Foster community and engagement within the class;
Encourage an awareness of diversity
Encourage an awareness of human migration throughout history, which is a theme of the class

Workflow & Materials

Activity Workflow

View on CourseFlow

Document

Let's Role Play the French Revolution! - Activity Workflow - CourseFlow

Diane Shea

Contributor's Notes

Benefits

UDL – to make it more accommodating for more types of learning (have a look at the website)
Students exposed to a broad variety of histories;
The assignment is very engaging for students as it is relevant to all their lives
Presenting the stories in class creates bonding and a sense of community between students;
The instructor gets to read interesting and diverse work

Challenges

Occasionally students feel or find their family history is not very interesting or do not have much contact with their family, so have to look for other people to interview.

Tips

As each student presents, other students have to write down what they found to be most interesting and something new they learned about history. This keeps them engaged as others talk and has them asking more questions;
Be careful when presenting examples as the questions students should be asking are highly dependent on the context of their interviews so they should be encouraged to come up with their own
If a student feels their family history is uninteresting or their family members don’t have much to say, then can ask questions in regard to the change of women’s role through the years, or can interview a family friend or a friend’s family instead.

Applied Strategies

1
Peer Instruction & Think-pair-share

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Published: 13/08/2019

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