As families gather for Thanksgiving this year, some high school students will have a bit of extra homework from an unexpected source.

StoryCorps wants young people to spend time recording interviews with their grandparents. It's all part of an assignment they're calling The Great Thanksgiving Listen, and this idea "is really crazy," according to Dave Isay, StoryCorps founder and president.

A few months back, Isay won the TED prize, which offered $1 million to fulfill a dream. He used that money to build an app that allows people to record interviews that are uploaded to the Library of Congress. He wants teens to utilize their time with family over the holiday to record these interactions  — and help to double StoryCorps' collection of 65,000 interviews.

"It's exciting. I think we'd love to create a little American moment around listening and reminding one another of the beauty and poetry and the power and the grace in the stories we can find all around us when we take the time to listen," Isay said.

This is all implemented through teachers in the classroom. And yes, students will receive extra credit for participating. For more information about The Great Thanksgiving Listen, click here. 

To listen to the full interview, click on the blue audio player above.