Course Requirements

Discussionrubric

The consent form must be signed by the interviewee – this is not an option but a requirement for the final project. Please click below to download and print out a copy.

Consent form

Questions should be open-ended, and allow students to go beyond a surface-level understanding of the text. In other words, the goal of the discussion is to get your classmates to analyze and connect the assigned text.

Analyze – author’s main argument and supporting evidence. What are some other possible opinions or perspectives? What parts are useful for the oral history project?

Connect – author’s ideas with other readings from other classes; comparisons or connections with previous classes; connecting Vancouver to the Americas

A week before the discussion, students leading the discussion must prepare 1-2 guiding questions and send them to the instructor. These questions do not have to be the same as ones you use during the discussion. Be creative – get your classmates to debate or make arguments; break them up into small group; ask them to use evidence.

Course syllabus

DiscussionSchedule

The written analytical component should support your film product.
Tell me what you want me to notice, and where you placed your efforts.

It should contain the following 3 elements – aim for 250-500 words for each of the 3 elements:

About my project – the significance and purpose of your project (why should this story be told?); scope of work; what historical problem you are addressing; choice of your interviewees (how representative are they?); choice of sites. Justify why your approach is a good one – e.g. how carefully you chose your interviewees; how your project goes beyond “an interesting story about a particular person” to address larger issues; how the oral history interviews are able to fill in the gaps in our understanding of history and tell previously untold stories.

Historical context – how your story fits within the larger picture; how the interviewee’s life is one example of larger historical trends. Past research done on your topic; historical sources consulted. You can use Lee’s book as a starting point, but will need to search beyond this – at least 2 more secondary sources (e.g.chapters in a book, academic articles) in addition to Lee’s book. You may of course include more secondary sources as well as primary sources as you see fit. Connecting is the key here, so you are free to incorporate visual aids and timelines to illustrate your point.

Self-reflection – questions asked (self-assessment of how appropriate they were), interview bias (your assumptions, values, and attitudes), how you listened, how you posed your questions, and other factors that influenced the interview


1. Do the readings yourself, ahead of time.
2. Think of the major points or problems you think are worth discussing.
3. Think of the major points or problems you think people ought to know, know about, or have thought about by the end of the discussion.
4. Make a list of questions you think would be interesting to discuss (this is *not* the same as make a list of questions to which you think you know the answers).
5. LISTEN to what people say. Listen actively. Listen to understand. Do not listen to react, to contradict, to inform. You may ask follow-up questions if you wish.
6. When you ask a question, wait at least six seconds before talking again yourself.
7. Do not answer your own questions.
8. Think of small group questions that will help bring about your desired results.
9. Think of active learning projects that will help bring about your desired results.

Adopted from “Engaged Learning through Student-Led and Student-Graded Discussions,” Memo to the Faculty 82, published by the Faculty Teaching Excellence Program of the University of Colorado Boulder.