Subject: Journalism I: Introduction to Journalism Unit: Interviewing Skills Lesson: Partner Profile Name: Elise Taylor Grade: 9th-11th

Time Frame: Two Weeks Rationale Why are you teaching this lesson? What is the purpose of this learning activity? Where might this lesson fall in the context of a larger unit? This particular lesson encourages teenagers to develop communication and social interaction skills by going beyond their comfort zones to retrieve essential information from firsthand sources. Students will understand how high-quality interview questions help create a high-quality news article/story. This lesson will help students gain confidence in asking questions to unfamiliar people. It will also serve as practice for evaluating information and determining useful information from filler material. Objectives Communicate a clear idea of what the student should be able to do, understand, or care about. Students will be able to: 1. Interview with confidence and ease 2. Compose a unique writing portrait about an unfamiliar person 3. Observe a source and analyze their verbal and nonverbal cues, as well as make sense of the surroundings of the interview 4. Ask open-ended questions and develop meaningful conversations to obtain information 5. Distinguish between valuable information and filler material in order to write compelling, unique stories Questions to Consider: 1. What makes a persons story unique? 2. How do we use observations to make sense of the world around us? 3. What is the difference between open-ended and closed-ended questions? Resources: This lesson will require paper, notebook, or other recording device; Sequencing What is the sequence of the lesson? How will you introduce concepts or texts to students? How will checking for student understanding? How will you support the needs of individual students in learning your objectives? How will evaluate student learning?

Students will be given a list of 21 interview questions to use while interviewing a partner in class. This will be the first official interview for this class. Students will be encouraged to enhance or modify certain questions as the interview develops, as well as add additional questions not already provided on the list. Three additional follow-up questions must be asked, based on the subjects responses. As a class, weve discussed the importance of using truthful information, including the use of multiple sources in a story. Based on the information gathered from the initial classmate interview, the interviewee will provide the interviewer with one or two personal contacts (a friend, parent, sibling, teacher, etc.) to verify/add to their information. Interviewers will be required to contact at least one additional source to be included in the final assignment for this lesson. For the final part of this lesson, students will write a brief story about their partner. This assignment will need to be at least two pages, double-spaced, with size 12 font. Students are expected to evaluate the worthiness of their gathered information and determine what is important to include in the story based on the chosen angle. Closure Statements or actions to bring to an appropriate conclusion and help students make sense of what they've learned. Assessment Specify methods used to determine student learning. May be formal or informal. Should assess each previously specified objective. Students will be assessed through: 1. Ability to ask more open-ended questions than yes/no questions 2. Ability to distinguish valuable information to include in the story (students will be asked to turn in their interview questions and answers, along with any rough drafts) 3. Ability to conduct the interview in a professional, mature manner 4. Quality and number of follow-up questions asked during interview 5. Including additional contact(s) in story 6. Completion of the partner profile