One of the first projects students undertake in my classroom is a partner interview. But before we conduct the interviews, we review open-ended and closed questions through a brainstorming process. In small groups students, brainstormed as many questions as they could dealing with this focus: getting to know a classmate.
The brainstorming process continued after students had been divided into partnerships, and they independently brainstormed a list of questions they wanted to ask their partner. Once the first interviews had been conducted, the students then had to narrow their focus in order to write a paragraph about their partner. Instead of including everything they learned in their first interview, students had to choose ONE topic from their original interview and go through the whole brainstorming process again, this time focusing their list of questions on the one topic they wanted to know more about. We are now drafting and revising paragraphs, taking pictures of partners, and using these elements to create a mini-poster in Pages.
What I most enjoy about this particular activity is watching the kids engage as they interview their partners; kids are nodding their heads, smiling, politely jotting notes, and asking follow up questions. I've used this activity for several years (an activity I picked up from a fellow Dakota Writing Project teacher-consultant), and each year we build community through this interview process. The other thing that I appreciate about the activity is that being able to ask questions are the foundation of many other things we do in English language arts, including research projects, book clubs, and Socratic Seminars.
The first seven days of school have definitely zipped by as my students and I get to know each other. So far the kids are doing well as they get back "into the swing of things" (and I believe most have those locker combinations down). : ) Thank you for supporting your students as they begin the new year. If you have questions about anything, please don't hesitate to contact me: [email protected] .
The brainstorming process continued after students had been divided into partnerships, and they independently brainstormed a list of questions they wanted to ask their partner. Once the first interviews had been conducted, the students then had to narrow their focus in order to write a paragraph about their partner. Instead of including everything they learned in their first interview, students had to choose ONE topic from their original interview and go through the whole brainstorming process again, this time focusing their list of questions on the one topic they wanted to know more about. We are now drafting and revising paragraphs, taking pictures of partners, and using these elements to create a mini-poster in Pages.
What I most enjoy about this particular activity is watching the kids engage as they interview their partners; kids are nodding their heads, smiling, politely jotting notes, and asking follow up questions. I've used this activity for several years (an activity I picked up from a fellow Dakota Writing Project teacher-consultant), and each year we build community through this interview process. The other thing that I appreciate about the activity is that being able to ask questions are the foundation of many other things we do in English language arts, including research projects, book clubs, and Socratic Seminars.
The first seven days of school have definitely zipped by as my students and I get to know each other. So far the kids are doing well as they get back "into the swing of things" (and I believe most have those locker combinations down). : ) Thank you for supporting your students as they begin the new year. If you have questions about anything, please don't hesitate to contact me: [email protected] .