Roots with Wings, a Floyd County Place-Based Education Project:: Intergenerational Connections

Floyd Story Center

Since 1998, a community oral history collection partnership of the Old Church Gallery, Ltd., Radford University’s Center for Social and Cultural Research, Honors Program, Scholar-Citizen Initiative, Appalachian Regional and Rural Studies Center, and Floyd County High School. Our archives now hold over 100 interviews.

In our Roots with Wings project, college mentors, high school staff, and community volunteers meet weekly during the school year to teach the discipline of oral history collection.


Students learn ethical, methodologically sound interview techniques, practice and complete several interviews, transcribe the audiotapes, create searchable content logs, archive interviewee resources and period photographs, learn the technology of audio and video recording, research historical backgrounds, acquire proficiency in iMovie and storytelling, and finally extract a theme from an hour long interview to create a seven minute movie production.

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Testing, testing!

Practice Interviews:

Begin with Help from Knowledgeable Friends 

It's already the middle of February, and Thursday, February 16th marked the fourth meeting of the Roots With Wings collaborators with two special guests, Dr. Lyman, Sociology Chair at Radford University and Mrs. Cox, FCHS Media Specialist. The two guests agreed to be interviewed by the students who brainstormed good interview questions for just this purpose. 

Through the lens! Dr. Lyman interviewed by Cyrus Walker
These interviews were a fun way to practice for the final interviews coming later in the semester. Students were assigned roles such as interviewer, videographer,  set stager, and recorder.  All other students became active listeners by taking notes on the strengths and weaknesses of the interview. When the formal interview session was over each student got the chance to ask their own questions, many of which showed genuine interest in the interviewee. Students asked about the interviewee's experiences growing up and going to school, as well as questions about personal learning experiences to share with us all.

After the questions were asked and information carefully recorded, students shared any interview strengths and weaknesses they observed. This was a great time for positive constructive criticism. Many things were done very well but there is always room for improvement and accuracy. This week was great practice and we continue to improve each meeting! 

Blogpost: Cara Myrtle

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