Resources for Educators

Reckoning Inc.‘s resources for elementary, middle, and high school educators includes a searchable database of over 100 histories of formerly enslaved Kentuckians, as well as inquiry materials, aligned to the Kentucky Academic Standards for Social Studies. Educators will also find resources to support teaching responsibly with oral histories.

Access the resources below.

Oral Histories of Formerly Enslaved Kentuckians

Our source collection features a searchable database of over 100 oral histories. Each page includes a description, excerpt,  informational matrix, and links to access the full documents. 

See the oral histories.

Teaching with Inquiry

Teaching with inquiry is an effective and engaging ways for students to explore enduring questions of the past and present.

The Reckoning’s inquiry materials use the Inquiry Design Model (IDM). The IDM is a distinctive approach to creating instructional materials. It presents a one-page blueprint of the inquiry, from which teachers can create lessons for their classroom.

Teaching with Reckoning, Inc.'s Sources

Interview Context and Dialect

Most of the oral histories featured on the Reckoning website come from the WPA Slave Narratives collection.  Between 1936 and 1938, the Federal Writers’ Project, a part of the Work Projects Administration (WPA) collected over 2,300 first-person accounts of enslavement. 

Though these are oral histories, teachers should be highly conscientious about the context within which these narratives were collected and transcribed.

See more information about Teaching with Reckoning, Inc.’s Sources