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.

Saturday, February 10, 2018

Roots With Wings Returns!

A New Semester and Teacher

Did you miss us? We are back again for the 2018 spring semester! Radford University students and Floyd County High School students have begun the twelfth year of Roots with Wings: Floyd County Place-based Education Oral History Project. Melinda Wagner, Catherine Pauley, and Kathleen Ingoldsby, Floyd Story Center at the Old Church Gallery volunteers, returned to show us the process of this high-impact experience. Mr. Kevin Law, FCHS, and students from his Video and Media Technology Class welcomed a hands-on opportunity to interview Floyd County residents. This year our Radford University class has six dedicated mentors leading the way to an interactive semester.

On our visit, Thursday, January 25th, the mentors and students were given an informative history lesson about Roots with Wings, its origins and how the project has grown. The session transitioned to a fun (and educational) game of mentor-student speed interviewing. Speed interviewing is a chance for the mentors to learn as much as they can about the students, while also giving FCHS students time to ask questions about about college experiences and class majors. 

Catch up with us next week when we'll be practicing with recording equipment.
Posted by

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)