Our Next Assignment: The Interview

Do you like asking questions and digging deeply into the heart of a story? Then you're going to love our next assignment! (I'm trying to make my opening as great as some of your personal narrative openings, but I think you beat me...)

My name is Renee Lunsford, and I am Olivia Lunsford's mom. Here is your new writing assignment: The Interview!

1. Find an interesting person to interview. I suggest that you try to make it someone whose life is very different than yours, a person who is much older than you (like over 65), or someone who has done something interesting or unique.

2. Write out a list of questions you'd like to ask that person. See the links below if you'd like some help thinking of questions.

3. Contact the subject of your interview and request permission to ask some questions and write a paper about his or her life or experiences.

4. Meet with or call the person. Use good manners! It might be helpful to record the conversation, but if you can't do that, at least take good notes. If you can, write down a few direct quotes you can use in your paper. Make sure you thank the person you interviewed when you are done.

5. After the interview, write an essay using some of the information you gained from that person. Write it in narrative style; do not include the questions you asked. It could be a biography, a description of a certain meaningful event in that person's life, or it could focus on a certain part of his or her life, like early childhood, young adulthood, or even what it feels like to be an older person.

6. Post your essay to this blog and enjoy reading about all the fascinating people in everyone's lives!



Parents, I suggest we make "posting window" due date like we did last time during October 23-26. Let me know if you disagree. That will give the students over two weeks to fulfill all the steps in this assignment. It may take a little time to work with other people's schedules and get those interviews done.

I couldn't find middle-school-aged samples of the finished interview essays. I did a lot of searching and didn't find quite what I was looking for. However, the following links may be helpful:

Tips for turning an interview into an essay:
http://writingwithsharonwatson.com/interview-into-narrative-essay/

Fifty questions for family history interviews:
http://genealogy.about.com/cs/oralhistory/a/interview.htm

More interview questions:
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~usgwkidz/query2.htm