To prepare for the Moving Stories interview, pair the students into partners. You might consider having students with different backgrounds and stories pair with each other. This is a chance to hear someone’s story that they don’t know very well. It could be eye-opening for two students, who do not feel that they have very much in common, to listen, respectfully, to each other.
The short video below offers some suggestions for conducting the interview. You might want to adapt the suggestions for your students.
Ahead of time, have students download the app on the phone they will use for the interview. In pairs, have students go to the My Interviews tab and fill in the details that students wish to share. They will have to complete the short bio information and the release form. (This should not take more than 5 minutes).
Together have students review the interview questions and review the questions they will discuss. Knowing their students, some teachers may choose a standard set of questions for all students to answer or they may allow students to select a set of questions for themselves.
Not every student will be familiar with their family’s history. To prepare for the interview ask them to prepare ahead of time (perhaps as a homework assignment) and consider:
- What do you know about your family’smigration history?
- What would you like to know?
- Who can you ask?
- Where else can they turn from information?
How much time should you leave for the interviews themselves?
Depending on your schedule, you can have a productive interview allowing as little as 25 minutes. In that scenario, you would have each student be interviewed for 10 minutes. During that time they will be able to answer 1-3 questions.
However, we would recommend allowing at least 40 minutes. That way each student would be able to tell a more complete story.
Tips for conducting interviews:
- Find a quiet, well-lit room for the interview;
- For better quality, use a tripod and a lapel microphone. If you don’t have a mic and tripod, find a place where you can steady your camera about an arm’s length from the camera, at the proper level;
- Ask the interviewee to begin their answer with a full sentence;
- Do not cut off or redirect the interview in the middle of an answer and try not to make noise or respond to their comments while you are recording.
Below is a second animated video with a few suggestions: