This spring, Mid-prairie students took on real literature as part of an assignment for their American Literature class.

Teacher Tamara McClintock, in cooperation with Mary Bender, administrator at Parkview Manor in Wellman, devised an oral history project that would team students with residents at the home.

Students met with residents, asking about their lives and memories, then assembled the biographical material into written paper. Photographs of the student and their subjects were taken during the interviews.

Two weeks later, the students returned to Parkview with the completed reports and met with their interviewees in the south dining room at Parkview.

During the informal meeting, that featured refreshments, residents read about themselves and talked with the students.

McClintock says she believes that for both participants “

it was a wonderful experience. My students got a chance to find out a lot about a different period of history, and the residents were pleased they had people interested in hearing their stories.”

In the process, the students learned interviewing, writing and listening skills, she added.

Bender said that the residents appeared “quite happy” with the project and “enjoyed” talking with the students.

Oral history proejcts have been intiated in other schools in the country, incldung one in Kansas that resulted in a book and film.