For about three weeks, my students composed interview narratives. They first had to interview someone who had attended a four-year college, two-year college, trade school, or military academy. While they were conducting the interview, they recorded the audio and later wrote a transcript. Then they used the transcript to compose a narrative.
When the transcripts were due, I was disappointed that about two-thirds of the class did not turn it in. Excuses varied from “My interviewee cancelled” to “I didn’t feel like doing it” to “I forgot.” I immediately began calling parents, relying on a few responsible students to translate my message to Spanish. The next day, two-thirds of the class had their transcripts. Victory…until it was time to turn in the narrative rough draft. Again, one-third of the class had their drafts; the other two-thirds had their garden variety excuses, the same blues songs they had sung to me a few days prior. I then did something I had never done before: I randomly selected one of their papers, blotted out the name, made photocopies and workshopped it the next day.
I was pleasantly surprised at how engaged my students were in reading their secret peer’s paper. They were generous and honest when they shared what worked well in the narrative, and they were thoughtful and direct when they shared their suggestions regarding character description and development, the sequence of events, transitions, and point of view. A few days later when the final drafts were due, about two-thirds of my students turned in their paper. In my period six, nearly ninety percent turned in a paper. Victory.
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