Life Stories & Legacies

One of the main goals at Oak Lake Community School is to foster a relationship with our community members. One of the greatest resources in our town is our citizens, and what better way to celebrate community and promote Education for Sustainable Development initiatives than to share and present the life stories of our local elders. As an extension of our school’s philosophy of community building, our grade 8 class will complete the Life Stories & Legacies project, presenting biographies on local seniors. Students will be engaging in developing personal relationships with these local senior citizens, learning from the experiences of the past so that they can make positive decisions in the present.

Students will select an elder, and conduct a formal interview gathering facts for a written biography. They will also conduct background research relevant to local, national and international events that took place during the elder’s lifetime. Pictures, maps and diagrams will be used where available and appropriate.

A bound anthology of biographies will be published. A copy will be presented to each elder. As well, a copy will be added to our school’s library collection and presented to our Oak Lake Museum.

As a closure to the project, these life stories will be presented at a special event hosted by the school. This will be our opportunity to honor our senior’s achievements and formally present them with their biographies. All students will be actively involved in every aspect of the project, from developing initial questions for their first interview session with the elder, to the hands on planning and organization of the final event. Students will be encouraged to work together throughout the writing process, as they edit and provide feedback on each other’s work. They will be making democratic decisions as a group to complete this exciting social-action, community project.

Update (April 14, 2016)

We are thrilled with how our Life Stories & Legacies projects are progressing. Our students are working very hard researching their family history and interviewing their elders. Many of our students have selected a special grandparent, and the stories being shared are not only interesting, but heartwarming as well. The students are enjoying learning more about their grandparents, and the elders are appreciating the time they are sharing with the young people.
Students are connecting with the parents and grandparents to learn about their family history.

The class has completed their first drafts. They will continue editing following the Writing Process as they create second drafts. We will be working on publishing final copies over the next couple of weeks and submitting an electronic copy of the complete anthology to the publishing company. These bound anthologies will include each student's biography project, cover, table of contents, photos, etc. We have planned our Life Stories & Legacies celebration for the first week in June, and are very much looking forward to bringing the elders together for this special event at the school. We will be inviting extended family, community members and local dignitaries to our celebration. Each elder will be presented with their own copy of the anthology. Anthologies will also be added to our library and local museum collections.

Update (May 13, 2016)

We have completed the writing process for the biographies, and a working on the master edit for the anthology book. Projects have been judged as part of our school's Heritage Fair, and the top two projects will also be creating videos for the Young Citizens Program. A date will be set very soon for the Life Stories & Legacies event, at which all of the elders will be presented with their very own copies of the anthology history book.

Update (June 22, 2016)

On Thursday, June 16, 2016 the grade 8 class presented its Life Stories & Legacies biographies to each of their grandparents / special family friends. 17 life stories were completed and bound into an anthology book. This Heritage Fair event was well attended by families and community members.

At Oak Lake Community School we aim to foster a relationship with families and community members. One of the greatest resources we have in our town is our citizens, and what better way to celebrate community and local history than to share and present the life stories and childhood memories of our students' grandparents.

The main goal of the project has been to provide the opportunity for young people to connect with their elders and encourage an understanding and appreciation for these individuals' roles in Canada's heritage. Our elders are a rich resource; their life stories are interesting and inspiring. Recording these memories and celebrating this history has been more than a school project - it is a learning experience that truly connects our young people to their history.

The participates must be acknowledged for generously sharing their time to help our students complete the project. We thank them for their candor and for allowing themselves to be questioned so extensively. Our students must also be commended for all of the hard work put into completing the books. Many drafts were written and edited , through the writing process.

Students completed their projects in Character Education classes, which follows the Manitoba Education for Sustainable Development Curriculum, with an emphasis on English Language Arts. Copies of the books have been shared with families, cataloged in our school library and submitted to the Oak Lake Museum.

We very much appreciate the generous support we received from the Canadian Teachers' Federation. This Imagineaction grant is a valuable resource that has helped make our project possible.