The Art of Conversation
So, you've heard several interviews conducted about war experiences, are you ready to conduct your own interview? In order to write the article your editor needs for the Veteran's Day edition of your school newspaper, you will need to actually interview a veteran of a foreign war yourself.
You'll need to decide whether you personally know a veteran whom you can interview, or if you'd like your teacher to set up an interview for you. Your teacher will give you the appointment times for all of the interviews. They will take place in our computer lab so that you can easily record your conversation.
Remember to use the assignment handout the correlates to the "Listening" and the "Conversation" portions of the WebQuest.
While you are conducting the interview, you'll make an audio tape of the conversation using Audacity.
Following is the list of questions you will ask the veteran you are interviewing:
1. What war(s) did the veteran take part in
2. Where the person was stationed
3. Their roles/ responsibilities during the war
4. The veteran’s personal feelings about the political / government philosophy for fighting the war?
5. Did they agree that the United States should have been / should be fighting in this war? Why or why not?
6. Who were the family members they left behind?
7. How often did they communicate with loved ones at home and through what means?
8. What is the most positive memory of their war experience?
9. What memories do they have about returning home to the United States?
10. What are they doing now?
Using Word, write a personal reflection about the interview which includes, but is not limited to:
* A physical description of the person you interviewed
* The answers to the interview questions
* Compare and contrast their experiences with those of the characters in the novels we’ve read.
* Your own personal feelings about this veterans’ experience
Convert the audio tape of the interview to a .wav file using Audacity. Upload your .wav file to the hand-in folder in class. Your teacher will post all of the interview .wav files to this curriculum web.
