In this activity, students will conduct oral history interviews about important baseball memories (either live or conveyed through radio or television) with family members, teachers, or other adults. Students will write blog entries detailing the results of their interviews.

Learning Objectives (Students will...):

• Develop strategies, scripts, and interview techniques for oral history interviews;
• Recognize trends and cultural benchmarks in baseball history that transcend the sport and are part of popular history;
• Synthesize interview responses into grammatically and structurally correct written responses that highlight the effects of baseball on the individual interviewed and American culture more broadly.

Estimated Time:

Two to three class periods, as well as outside time to find appropriate interview subjects and conduct oral history interviews.

About the Author

Michael Hutchison is Social Studies Department chairperson at Lincoln High School, Vincennes, Indiana, and has more than 30 years of teaching experience. He has written several lessons for PBS films, including “The Civil War,” “The War,” “Horatio’s Drive” and “Empire of the Air.” He is president of the board of directors of the Indiana Computer Educators and is a moderator for the NCSS Network and list editor for H- HIGH-S, a secondary social studies teachers’ listserv.