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 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 7/8 class will complete the Life Stories & Legacies project, presenting biographies on local seniors.

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 seniors’ 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 citizenship-building project.

Update (April 11, 2012)

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.

We have been able to access a community volunteer who is spending additional time with the students, helping them research family history, local history and uncover extra details and interesting facts for these biography projects.

The class has completed their first drafts, which have been edited following the Writing Process and have handed in their second drafts for feedback. (The attached photos are of these 2nd drafts.) We will be working on publishing final copies over the next week 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 May, 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 (June 7, 2012)

On Tuesday, May 15th the grade 7/8 class formally presented their “Life Stories & Legacies” biographies to each of their grandparents. This Heritage Fair event was well attended by families and community members alike.
At Oak Lake Community School, we aim to foster a relationship with families and community members. One of the greatest resources in our town is our citizens, and what better way to celebrate our community than to share and present the life stories and childhood memories of our students’ grandparents.

The main goal of this project has been to provide the opportunity for our young people to connect with their elders and encourage an appreciation for these individuals’ role in Canada’s heritage. Our elders are a rich resource; their life stories are fascinating and engaging. Recording these memories and sharing this history has been more than a school project – it has become a valuable learning experience in which our young people have connected history with real life!

We would like to acknowledge the generosity of each of these participants who allowed their stories to be shared. We thank them for their candidness and willingness to spend time answering questions and sharing precious memories for these biographies. We hope they feel honored with their stories included in this special anthology of Life Stories & Legacies, and hope that each of their families will cherish this book and share it with future generations.

Our students should also be commended for the hard work and effort they have invested in these special projects. Not only have they created fine biographies chronicling the childhood memories of their elders, but they clearly enjoyed spending this extra time with their grandparents and connected with them on a new level.

We would also like to acknowledge Mrs. Barb Smith, Oak Lake’s own genealogical enthusiast, who very generously volunteered countless hours working with the students, providing kind words, encouragement, and assisting them with the development of research and interview questions.

This project was completed in our character education classes as part of our community school program. Grant funds were also generously provided by the Canadian Teachers Federation Imagineaction fund, Fort la Bosse School Division Middle Years Experiential grant, and Canada’s History Historica Fairs program.