Oral history is a valuable tool for education, community building, and advocacy. Sharing first-person stories from people—in their own words—illuminates issues and events in a powerful way.
Voice of Witness creates oral history resources to support individuals, organizations, and classrooms with ethical storytelling, community-based oral history projects, and human rights education. We have seen firsthand how they resonate with participants of all kinds, inspiring connection and belonging, empathy, and community engagement. All of our lesson plans are free and Common Core-aligned.
Learn more about the benefits of oral history and the impacts of oral history education.
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Benefits of an Oral History–Based Course: A Case Study
What are the unique benefits of an oral history-based course? Read our case study that evaluates the short- and long-term impact on student learning.
Reports • Grades 6-8 • Grades 9-12
Refugee Hotel Curriculum
The lessons incorporate photography, visual art, and critical thinking, as they examine the assumptions that come with the label “refugee.”
Lesson Plans • Grades 9-12
Surviving Justice: America’s Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated Curriculum
The lesson plans for Surviving Justice explore the flawed and complicated nature of the U.S. criminal justice system through the first-person stories of wrongfully convicted and exonerated individuals.
Lesson Plans • Grades 6-8 • Grades 9-12
Voices from the Storm: The People of New Orleans on Hurricane Katrina and Its Aftermath Curriculum
The lessons provide an opportunity to examine this disaster through the lens of race and class in contemporary American society.
Lesson Plans • Grades 9-12
Out of Exile: Narratives from the Abducted and Displaced People of Sudan Curriculum
In these lesson plans, the stories and discussion questions for Out of Exile create an opening for students to explore firsthand the internal and external struggles that exiled persons or refugees face.
Lesson Plans • Grades 9-12
Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives Curriculum
The lesson plans help students explore aspects of the “American Dream,” myths and facts about immigration, and encourage students to develop their own responses to this human rights issue.
Lesson Plans • Grades 6-8 • Grades 9-12
Inside This Place, Not of It: Narratives from Women’s Prisons Curriculum
These accompanying lesson plans allow students to examine intersectionality and gender bias as well as reproductive rights within the context of the U.S. criminal justice system.
Lesson Plans • Grades 9-12
Patriot Acts: Narratives of Post-9/11 Injustice Curriculum
These accompanying lesson plans bring home these realities in a personal and relatable way, allowing students to grapple with the human costs that lie at the heart of this pertinent contemporary issue.
Lesson Plans • Grades 6-8 • Grades 9-12
