Who’s New at Our School?

Discovering the Writing Process

through Interviewing

Lynn Wilterdink

August 9, 2006


Who’s New at Our School?

Stage 1 – Desired Results

Established Goals:

B.4.1 Create or produce writing to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.

B.4.2 Plan, revise, edit, and publish clear and effective writing.

C.4.2 Listen to and comprehend oral communications.

Understandings:

Students will understand that . . .

·  the interview process will help them gain information to write an informative paragraph about someone.

·  Inspirations will help organize their material in order for it to make sense.

·  their completed work will help to inform others about who works at their school and what they do.

Essential Questions:

1.  How confident am I in holding a conversation with an adult?

2.  How do I conduct an interview? What kind of questions should I ask?

3.  How is information organized onto Inspiration?

4.  How would you feel if you came to a new school and you didn’t know anyone? What could you do to make a new person feel welcome?

5.  What should I include in a paragraph about a person to make it interesting and informative?


Knowledge: Students will know . . .

what good questions are to ask during an interview.

what skills are necessary to conduct an interview.

that a paragraph needs a beginning, middle, and an end.

that a paragraph needs to be edited for correct punctuation,

capitalization, vocabulary and complete sentences.

Skills: Students will be able to . . .

interview an adult to gain specific information.

enter information onto Inspiration.

write an interesting paragraph from answers of an interview.

edit a paragraph for correct capitalization, punctuation, vocabulary and

complete sentences.

use a digital camera to take a picture.

Stage 2 – Assessment Evidence

Performance Task Scenario

You are a reporter for the Madison Messenger. You will interview one staff member to write an interesting, informative paragraph and take his/her picture to be included in the next issue of the Madison Messenger. You will determine what questions would be appropriate to gain the necessary information to write your paragraph. You will have a peer editor to check over your questions, and you will need to be a peer editor for a fellow coworker. You will also need to edit your coworkers’ paragraph for correct capitalization, punctuation, vocabulary and complete sentences to prepare it for publication.


Standards and Criteria for Success: You will self-assess whether you were effective in the interview process and successful in writing an interesting paragraph about the staff member you interviewed. You will use the same rubrics that the teacher uses to assess the performance task (interview rubric) and completed writing project (writing rubric).

Other Evidence

Vocabulary match of interview terms

Semantic web from Inspiration

Stage 3 – Learning Plan

Teacher Preparation:

The teacher will need to do the initial introduction and spend some time discussing what good interviewing looks like. He/she will need to locate some example interviews, so that children have a good idea of what kind of questions they need to ask. He/she will also need to run off the two rubrics (interview and writing). The children will need to be given someone from the staff to interview and a “peer editing” partner. The teacher should also notify the staff beforehand, so they know what to expect. The teacher will type each paragraph and print them on individual pages with the staff member’s picture. This information will be submitted to the secretary in order to be published in the school’s Madison Messenger. If the teacher chooses, he/she can make a slide show in iPhoto to be used as he/she sees fit.

Learning Activities:

1. The students will be given a staff member to interview and a “peer editor” partner. These will be set up by the teacher.

2. The students will be given the rubrics and will need to set up their interview time with their staff member. This will all be discussed as a class before they make the arrangements. After they set up their appointment, they will need to design an invitation reminder for their staff member.

3. While they are waiting for their interview date to come, they will be working on their interview questions, watching videos of good interviews and discussing appropriate questions to ask their staff members, then deciding with their “peer editor” which are good questions and which need to be thrown out. The students will also do some role-playing with each other in a simulated interviewing situation.

4. During the interview, the children will need to get all of their questions answered and take a digital picture of their staff person. This can be modified for students who have writing difficulties by using a tape recorder, or having the teachers write their answers to the questions down on paper. They will also have their staff person fill out their “interview” rubric and have it returned to their teacher.

5. The students will have three 30-minute sessions in the lab to put their information onto Inspirations and if this is not completed, they will be finishing up on one of the classroom computers. They will switch their webbed information into an outline and decide how to best organize their paragraphs.

6. After the interview the children will need to send a thank you to their staff member and then using their Inspiration outlines, write an informative and interesting paragraph. This rough draft will need to follow the rubric and will be edited by their partner. The teacher will type up each of the paragraphs.

7. If the paragraphs and pictures are made into a slideshow on iPhoto, the children will be able to view the project and share it with the staff member they interviewed.

Follow Up Activities:

This project could be made into an iMovie using a digital video camera. Record the staff member “in action” doing their job for several minutes, then have the students read their paragraphs to go along with the video clips. If the class does the entire staff, this could be on display during school functions, such as registration, parent/teacher conferences, PTO meetings, etc. You could also interview people out in the community.

Classroom Instruction:

To introduce the project and discuss what good interviewing looks and sounds like, approximately three 30-minute sessions should be used. The class will watch videos of interviews and have a discussion about appropriate interview questions. At this time the class will also be writing their questions and sharing them with their “peer editors”.

Interviews:

The children will need to set up a time to interview their staff member and then conduct the interview. This should take approximately a week from start to finish.

Rough Drafts:

Allow writing time each day for 30-45 minutes, for a week. In this time the children should

have their rough drafts finished and be ready to have them edited by their partner. Editing should

take one day. Rewriting a good copy is left up to the teacher’s discretion.

Computer Lab Time:

We will plan on three 30-minute sessions to work on Inspirations, typing and organizing the answers to the interview questions. Any other time that is needed will be done in the classroom on the computers.