The Great Thanksgiving Listen is a technology-based assignment originally developed for high school students studying American history, social studies, English, language arts, journalism, drama, ESL, media and technology. It has also been applied successfully as an extracurricular and community-building opportunity in classrooms, OST (out-of-school) environments, community centers, living rooms, and kitchens across the country.
Young people – and people of all ages – create an oral history of the contemporary United States by recording an interview with an elder, mentor, friend, or someone they admire. Interviews become part of the StoryCorps Archive at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Via the StoryCorps website, the complete interview is also shareable with teachers, friends, and family.
If the conversation will be taking place between two people in the same place, it can be recorded using StoryCorps App. If the conversation will be taking place between two people in different locations, it can be recorded using a web-based platform, StoryCorps Connect. Both tools are free to use.
**This resource has been updated for 2021**
