Most importantly, developing an interview from research and information requires students to determine the questions that should be asked. As Sara Armstrong explains, "Effective inquiry skills are essential for success in our rapidly changing world." In a world of near-constant testing, so often classrooms are focused on getting the answer correct. Paying attention to questions helps us think critically about information as well as prioritize.

Wouldn't it be more fun to learn about Paul Revere's famous ride from his horse? or listen to Chief Pontiac himself? 

Asking students to share their historical learning through an interview with a person living at the time is not only an engaging performance task but is a great way to keep students from copying and pasting boring facts from their note-taking.

After completing a unit on owls during a larger unit about endangered species, third-grade students at Krieger Schechter Day School in Baltimore, Maryland, were challenged to interview an owl. They worked in teams to research an owl, write questions, develop a script, illustrate their interview, record it, and create an interview movie.

Crafting an interview with a character from a book they are reading helps you evaluate student comprehension. It is also a great way to get students thinking more deeply about a character's traits and motivations and how they experience events in the story.

 

Historical artifacts, like documents, buildings, artwork, and household objects,  are a great way to learn about life in the past. Students can help bring these artifacts to life and make history more personal by interviewing the objects. Interviewing helps students identify the perspective of a historian as they personify the object with human characteristics. 

When Pat Leslie and her students at Robert Hunter Elementary in Flemington, New Jersey, were learning about the experience of immigrants at Ellis Island,  recent immigrants visited the classroom to share their stories. Students listened, asked questions, and responded to what they learned through visual representations and a class movie on their Journey to Freedom. As Leslie so eloquently shares, "When the collected oral histories were transformed into a digital story, it provided deeper understanding of the recent past."