An Interview Activity

Adapted fromFulwiler, Toby. Teaching with Writing.  Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 1987 (page 98)


Research is a process that relies on active learning and communication.  To introduce research as an active process, we want you all to try the type of exercise you might easily adapt for your own students.  It highlights writing, listening, and speaking while asking students to think about how they will design questions and process information.

Divide into groups of three: one to interview, one to be interviewed, one to observe.  Ask the interviewer to conduct a five-minute interview on one of the following topics:

Please write about what just happened: which questions produced good responses, which did not, etc.