ABSTRACT
After students have completed their personal history projects, Tina Reynolds begins a
unit on family history by reading The Patchwork Quilt, a book in which a girl and her
mother discover meaning in the way a grandmother’s quilt “tells stories” about the
family’s past. Tina asks students whether their relatives have ever told them about the
past, and nearly every hand is raised: One boy tells about his uncle who was in “the war”;
a girl relates how her grandmother talks about the old things she owns; another student
explains that his grandmother’s World War II factory badge is in an exhibit at a nearby
museum. The rest of the lesson focuses on the concept of “generation”—which relatives
are in their own generation, which in their parents’, and so on. The next day, Tina
introduces students to a new assignment, creating a family history based on interviews
with their grandparents. Although students can do a “Family History Chart” as an
optional assignment, their primary task is to give a presentation that focuses on the
differences between their grandparents’ lives and their own. Tina assigns several
questions for students to ask in their interviews and works with them to develop several
more of their own. She also spends an entire lesson modeling how to conduct an
interview, as well as how to take notes. Sharing the results of these interviews takes
several days, as students feel compelled to share as many of the things they’ve learned as
possible.
