History in Our Everyday Lives

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 15.03.07

  1. Unit Guide
  1. Introduction
  2. Rationale
  3. The Bones of the Unit: Enduring Understandings, Essential Questions, Objectives, and Assessments
  4. Public History: An Overview
  5. Historical Context: The Development of Landscaped Urban Parks
  6. Aural Storytelling and Podcasts
  7. Teaching Strategies
  8. Key Activities
  9. Common Core Standards
  10. Bibliography
  11. Notes

Telling Stories: Place, Space, and Memory in Chicago's Parks

Elizabeth M. Miller

Published September 2015

Tools for this Unit:

Aural Storytelling and Podcasts

There are exciting opportunities accorded to the modern historian or student of history thanks to advances in technology and the ubiquity of personal computing devices (including smartphones). As such, we can tap into them to celebrate, share, and archive histories that may otherwise fade. I am not suggesting that we create a fixed, immovable history. But, the opportunities the average person has to contribute to the historical record are vast and grow exponentially with the passage of time. I think of stories now accessible, on-demand-- that wouldn’t otherwise gain traction or that can benefit from the medium of audio storytelling or “aural” history. As this is a key component of the final assessment for this unit, it is necessary to discuss the opportunities that separate an aural story from the printed word or other forms of historical documentation.

For the National Seminar, we listened to the story of Seattle’s Edith Macefield, a “holdout” who, in 1995, refused to sell the house she’d owned for 50 years to corporate developers in Ballard.26 So, the developers built around her, continually offering her more money for the house as time passed. They assumed she would sell; but she did not. Macefield’s story was about a physical space, and yet we didn’t need to actually see the place to know it. The story-- which incorporated an overview of Macefield’s life through her death in 2008-- came alive through rich sensory details, including an audio track that heightened the placement of a small house in the midst of urban sprawl. In the end, I was more satisfied as a listener of Macefield’s story than I was when I watched a CBS news piece on the same topic. There is immense power in audio storytelling.

People who create audio stories, as historian Charles Hardy III writes, must “learn to think in sound.” 27 Hardy contends that “the spoken word is only one element in effective sound communication” and highlights Dmae Roberts ‘docuplay,’ Mei Mei: A Daughter’s Story as an example. This story, produced for radio, used spoken word interwoven with complementary music that served to move the narrative forward. Furthermore, the post-production opportunities the author was able to use via editing enhanced the story. The medium can only succeed when the authors, that is-- the creators, make use of the opportunities. All historians-- amateur and professional-- can take advantage of this accessible and visceral technology.

There is also power in giving individual voice to stories, which is what students participating in this unit will have the ability to do. Again, most students have easy access to technology via cell phones, even students of poverty. And, if not every student has access, it is possible to team students so that technology is evenly distributed. Put simply, if the student has access to something with a microphone and an app store, he or she can be in business to create a rudimentary podcast. With greater access to technology, some even more produced aural stories can be created; but one should not mistake a stylized narrative for a substantive one.

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