Interviewing and Dialogue in Sophomore English
Bill Ouellette


Students on their own have read two stories:

1. "The Rain Came" by Grace Ogot (Literature Without Borders 575)

2. "The Spell and the Ever-Changing Moon" by Rukhsana Ahmed (539)

Begin with a demonstration of interviewing. The teacher interviews a student, then debriefs with the class. Discuss goals and ideals of the interview experience, primarily that an interview should lead to new knowledge and understanding on the part of both the interviewer and the subject. The interviewer makes this happen when s/he not only questions but also restates; when s/he listens closely for cues the subject gives to probe and elaborate; and when s/he uses the questioning to clarify, to amplify, to challenge, to qualify assertions, and to expose assumptions.




Day One:

1. Assign an A or B designation to students; A's will be interviewers; B's will be subjects.

2. A interviews B about the end of the story, "The Rain Came." (5 minutes)

3. Both A and B freewrite about the story. (2 minutes)

4. B interviews a different A about the end of the story. (5 minutes)

5. Both A and B freewrite again. (2 minutes)

6. Debrief as a class:

a. What new or interesting ways of looking at this story did you consider in your interviews?

b. What worked and/or did not work about this process?

Homework: Prepare for a text-based discussion about the story, "The Ever-Changing Moon" by annotating the story.

Day Two

1. Preparation:

a. Send a paper around the room asking students to create a seating chart

b. Briefly conduct a call and response about the story: What intrigued you or bothered you about this story? What questions did it raise for you? Post these on board as entry points into an analysis of the story.

c. Check to see that students have annotated the story.

2. Remind students of goals and best practices for text-based discussions. (I code their involvement on the seating chart. I devise my own codes and use this as one way to offer feedback. As an alternative, I may divide the class into two groups and do fishbowl discussion.

3. Students conduct the discussion.

4. Teacher gives feedback and debriefs the process. (My feedback varies; it may be individual (process notes) or it may be with the whole large group: listing questions, listing of synthesizing statements, listing of passages the group considered.)

5. Culminating Performance of Understanding: Write a dialogue between Nisa, the main character of "The Spell and the Ever-Changing Moon," and Oganda, the main character of "The Rain Came". Let these women talk to each other about their stories, not simply retell their stories. You may invent a reason that they meet; as the writer you control such circumstances.

Sample Student Responses