Doratha Smith Simmons and Will Smith
One of the most important skills in documenting oral hsitories is active listening. This lesson teaches students how to do a close listening of a conversation between a civil rights activist who helped raise her younger brother in a life in music. Students will be provided with an excerpt from Doratha Smith Simmons and Will Smith’s chapter in Talk That Music Talk. In groups of three, they will read the stories of civil rights organizing together outloud, focusing on remembering what they have read and heard. After doing a critical reading, they will work together to answer questions by directly highlighting the text. In the process, they will learn how well they were able to listen for the details that were important to the storytellers.