NEWS

Effort encourages multigenerational conversations

Anna Jeffries
Reporter
Kyle Clark, 15, left, and Christian Gossett, 16, both sophomores at Licking Valley High School, brainstorm questions for the Story Corps project, The Great Thanksgiving Listen, Thursday in Eric Comeras' journalism class.
  • The Great Thanksgiving Listen encourages people to record an interview with an older relative.
  • Using the Story Corps app, students and adults can preserve interviews with family members.

NEWARK - Most days, Eric Comeras asks his students to put their phones away during class.

But last week, he introduced a project in which cellphones would play an important role.

Although his journalism students typically use their phones to communicate with their peers, Comeras encouraged them to spend Thanksgiving break using their phones to connect with older relatives

A teacher at Licking Valley High School, Comeras is one of several local educators asking students to participate in the Great Thanksgiving Listen.

Organized by the oral history organization Story Corps, the project encourages middle and high school students to interview an older relative or family friend over Thanksgiving break.

Participants can record their interview on the Story Corps app and upload it into a database, where is will be archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

"It's up to them and their families if they want to share the interviews with Story Corps," Comeras said. "But I want them to learn how to ask questions and get a better sense of their family's history and their place in it."

Founded in 2003, Story Corps started recording interviews in booths placed around the country, giving people the opportunity to tell their stories.

Excerpts from some of the interviews are broadcast weekly on National Public Radio.

This year, Story Corps founder Dave Isay received the 2015 TED Prize, an unrestricted grant to change the world, said Kate Duff, program director for the Great Thanksgiving Listen.

He decided to use the funding to create a Story Corps app, giving anyone with a smartphone the ability to record and upload an interview anytime, anywhere.

The app gives users directions and tips for how to have a successful interview, Duff said.

"It’s basically a new way to have the Story Corps experience," she said.

The Great Thanksgiving Listen was created to encourage more people to use the app, but also to get young people involved with recording history, Duff said.

"Doing it over Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to listen to people and express gratitude to people in our lives through the power of conversation," she said.

Although anyone of any age can participate, Story Corps is hoping students studying English, history, social studies, journalism or political science will get involved, Duff said.

"This project gives them an opportunity to create a primary source," she said. "It also gives them the opportunity to learn that history is not just in our textbooks. It's in our communities and neighborhoods and inside our classrooms."

When Heath High School teacher Kat Fields heard about the project, she thought it was a perfect fit for her creative writing class and her college and career readiness students.

"When you really listen to someone, you connect to them, and that connection allows us to be empathetic and understanding," she said.

When her creative writing students complete their interviews, they'll be asked to take what they've learned and turn it into a creative writing piece.

Students can talk to grandparents, family friends, aunts, uncles or even their parents.

"I think the most important part is, sometime kids are overwhelmed and stressed about navigating the world, and this might help them realize that people in their family who have come before them have navigated the same things and have wisdom to give," Fields said. "The world has changed so much, and many teens think the adults in their lives don't understand. When they listen to these stories, they can see it's not so different."

Another Heath teacher, Jeannine Dix, decided to share the project with her senior English class.

"I think it's important for students to realize every person has a story," she said. "I hope they will look at people in the community in a different way."

Although Heath senior Cheyenne Farris doesn't have any living grandparents, she's hoping to interview her mother and share memories of her grandfather.

"I hope this makes people appreciate their grandparents. It's a gratitude thing," she said. "People our age don't think they can connect with someone from a different generation, and this shows that you can."

Senior Tatum Thompson is planning to interview her grandmother, who she describes as a strong woman.

"When I have kids, she might not be around, and it will be cool for them to know what she has to say and interesting to know what things were like when she was growing up," she said.

She's planning to ask her grandmother about her childhood and what her father and aunt were like when they were young.

"When this first got assigned, no one was excited about homework over break, but the more you think about it, the cooler it is," she said.

ajeffries@newarkadvocate.com

740-328-8544

Twitter: @amsjeffries

Learn more 

Anyone with access to a smartphone can participate in the Great Thanksgiving Listen by downloading the Story Corps app from the Apple app store or Google Play. 

The app includes a variety of resources including sample questions, directions for uploading interviews and an opportunity to record a practice interview.

Anyone participating in the project is encouraged to share their experience on social media using the hashtag #thegreatlisten.

For more information, go to storycorps.me/about/the-great-thanksgiving-listen/participate.