Student Writers Unleashed: Character Interviews 101

Character interviews are an essential tool for teachers who strive to empower their student writers in creating authentic, relatable, and engaging characters. By introducing the concept of character interviews in the classroom, you enable students to delve deep into the psyche of their characters, understanding their motivations, desires, fears, and idiosyncrasies. With your guidance, your students can unleash the full potential of their characters and bring them to life on the page.

The Art of Crafting Compelling Questions: A Guide for Teachers

To conduct a successful character interview, it’s crucial to ask the right questions. As a teacher, you can help your students develop thought-provoking and insightful questions that will allow them to gain a deeper understanding of their characters. Here are some tips to help you guide your students in crafting compelling questions:

Encourage open-ended questions

Open-ended questions inspire more detailed and thoughtful responses, providing valuable insights into the character’s personality and backstory.

Cover a range of topics

Ensure that the questions touch upon various aspects of the character’s life, including their background, relationships, goals, and challenges.

Promote self-reflection

Motivate your students to ask questions that encourage the character to reflect on their experiences, beliefs, and feelings.

Creating a Supportive Classroom Environment for Character Interviews

To make the most of character interviews in your classroom, it’s essential to create a supportive and inclusive environment that encourages creativity and self-expression. Here are some strategies to consider:

Promote active listening:

Teach your students the importance of listening attentively to their characters’ responses, as it will help them gain valuable insights and develop empathy for their creations.

Encourage collaboration

Facilitate group discussions or pair work, allowing students to share their characters and interview experiences with their peers. This exchange of ideas can lead to new perspectives and a deeper understanding of the characters.

Celebrate diversity

Emphasize the importance of creating diverse characters that reflect the world we live in. Encourage your students to explore different cultures, backgrounds, and experiences to enrich their stories and create more inclusive narratives.

Provide constructive feedback

Offer specific, actionable feedback to help your students refine their character interviews and improve their writing skills.

Incorporating Character Interviews into Lesson Plans

Character interviews can be seamlessly integrated into your lesson plans to enhance your students’ writing skills. Here are some ideas to get you started:

Warm-up exercises

At the beginning of a writing session, ask your students to select a character from their current writing project or create a new one. Then, have them write a brief character interview where they ask their character three open-ended questions and respond from the character’s perspective. This exercise will help students quickly engage with their characters and set the stage for further exploration during the writing session.

Example:

• Question: What is your most cherished childhood memory?
• Character’s response: My most cherished memory is when my grandma taught me how to bake her famous apple pie. The smell of cinnamon and apples filled the kitchen, and we bonded over our shared love for cooking.

Writing prompts

After your students have conducted character interviews, create writing prompts that encourage them to expand on the insights they gained. This will help them explore their characters’ perspectives and experiences in greater depth.

Example:

• Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your character confronts a fear or challenge that was revealed during the character interview.

Peer review

Organize a classroom activity where students exchange their character interviews with a partner. Each student should read their partner’s interview, provide feedback on the character’s depth and believability, and suggest additional questions to explore. This fosters a sense of community and collaboration, as well as offering students the opportunity to learn from their peers’ work.

Example:

• Peer feedback: “Your character’s response about their biggest fear was very relatable. I’d like to know more about how this fear affects their daily life. You could ask them how they cope with or try to overcome it.”

Creative projects

Use character interviews as a foundation for larger creative projects that challenge students to further develop their characters and weave them into a narrative.

Example:

• Project: After completing character interviews, have students work in groups to develop a script for a short play or film featuring their characters. Encourage them to incorporate insights from the interviews into the dialogue and plot, ensuring that each character has a distinct voice and contributes to the story.

Free Downloadable Lesson Plan

Final Thoughts on Character Interviews

By incorporating character interviews, you can help your students unleash their creativity, develop empathy, and hone their writing skills. In turn, you will be nurturing a new generation of confident and skilled student writers.