A group of Orange County fifth-graders isn’t only reading about history, they’re documenting it.
As part of the Fullerton School District’s narrative writing and listening curriculum, 100 students taking part in the “Story Angels” program have begun interviewing seniors and using technology to create digital biographies of their lives.
Marie Pletka, who recounted stories about playing Monopoly with her dad, a scrapper who moved his family every two years, was 65 when her interviewers were born.
Pletka's life story was one of more than a dozen biographies chronicled through smartphones, iPads and microphones.
“This digital world has so expanded their ability to connect, to synthesize, to summarize,” Pletka said. “And their ability to pay attention to many different things has gone far beyond childhood games.”
The project should be completed by Thanksgiving when the edited stories will be presented to the seniors at Morningside retirement community and placed on a YouTube channel called "Story Angels."
