I met via videoconference with David P. Cline from my living room in Catalonia, Spain and he in his study in Southern California to discuss how history and the words we read and write about history connect students with past events. David is Professor of History and the Founding Director of the SDSU Center for Public and Oral History . What historians do, how words matter to historians, types of sources and how to work with them, argumentation, orality and oral history. We began by talking about what historians do and how words impact their work.

An edited version of this transcript will appear in the 2nd edition of Literacy in the Disciplines: A Teacher’s Guide for Grades 5-12 to be published by Guilford Press in late 2023. Link to the 1st edition: https://www.guilford.com/books/Literacy-in-the-Disciplines/Wolsey-Lapp/9781462527922