Interviewing has a long tradition as a primary tool for inquiry and understanding between individuals and communities. The study and practice of interviewing can serve the same purpose for our students and our schools. The English word “interview” comes from the French, s'entrevoir, “to see each other.”
For the Fall 2016, two English teachers from City Neighbors High School and The Park School of Baltimore developed an inter-school collaboration that harnessed the power of inter-viewing as a way for their students to deeply view, or look into each other. In their shared project, students used the interview to develop essential inquiry and composition skills while deepening their understanding of themselves, each other, and our world. Funded by EE Ford, the two student groups met four times over a semester to learn the art of the interview, to capture each other’s stories, and to present edited versions of their stories to each other.
In this session, Sean Martin and Patti Porcarelli will discuss the rationale behind the project, direct participants to pair up and interview each other, and run a discussion where we talk about the implications and applications of this powerful tool in a public school-private school partnership.
As David Isay says in his book, Listening is an Act of Love:
...Our stories--the stories of everyday people--are as interesting and important as the celebrity stories we are bombarded with by the media every minute of the day.
That if we take the time to listen, we’ll find wisdom, wonder, and poetry in the lives and stories of the people all around us.
That we want to know our lives have mattered and we won’t ever be forgotten.
