During most of September we worked on identity projects, who we are individually. During October we started looking at how we fit into our community and our roles as citizens. As we began planning this unit, I started thinking about what would make it meaningful for my class and one thing I thought of was interviewing community members. It has been a huge success and after every interview I am reminded of the kind, caring and interesting children who I get to spend my days with!
We began this project by thinking about how to ask appropriate questions. Thanks to resources from Story Corps students learned about asking open ended questions and came up with this fabulous list of questions for our guests:
What made you think of doing this job?
Why would you stay at your job so long?
What is the hardest part of your job?
What is the best part about your job?
How many years of school did you go through? And what is the most important thing you learned?
What would you like to be remembered for?
The students prepare for the interview with pencil and paper to take notes, they are engaged and respectful. They make connections with our interviewee. The interviews engage the students because it provides them with real life examples of people in our everyday lives doing the work we are talking about in class. They are empowered by asking their own questions and doing the pre-interview work of asking open ended questions helps us to learn more deeply about each person we interview. It fills me with such joy and pride to see the learners do this work.
As I reflect on this project I think about how I have leveraged Zoom to my advantage in this work. In the past, to get a classroom visitor would have meant a good chunk of time from their schedule or a field trip on our part. Now zoom has really made community connections easier. Thanks to technology we have interviewed our principal, superintendent, mayor, and a local business owner. I am continually searching for more interview candidates to connect to this unit and others.
Do you want to be interviewed by Team Imagine? Connect with me!
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