This collection offers a number of opportunities for students to enrich their language arts experiences. Creative Writing Students can develop a short story or poem based on one of the interviews. They can use photographs, newspapers, and other sources to illustrate contemporary parallels to the themes or concepts described in the interview. The interviews often capture local vernacular.
Students can study the influences and evolution of speech and language in our country.
Students might search for immigrant narratives that reflect the influence of people's native languages. They might search for words that are no longer used in common parlance today. Then, students can write a definition for these older words using the context of the interview and other sources. For example, Search on scalawag , carpetbagger , or desperado. The life histories, in combination with fictional novels, can engage students in the study of themes such as loss of innocence, consequences of failure, corruption and its consequences, and loss and recovery.