Model Interview

Here’s a link to an interview by Dave Davies for “Fresh Air,” a radio show on NPR produced at WHYY in Philadelphia. For this activity, you will use a graphic organizer. You can save, download, and print this file.

Open the graphic organizer, and read over the instructions, and then listen to the interview embedded in the PDF or at the NPR website. Listen closely for the information you will need to fill in the organizer.

Listening to the audio and working with the graphic organizer showed you how an expert conducts an interview. Remember that several things are important to any interview situation:

• Listen to the answers you get and follow up when necessary.
• Do your homework. Find out what you can before the interview about both the topic and the person you are going to interview.
• Keep the person talking. Be curious. Demonstrate interest even if you just nod your head or use short verbal prompts.
• Change topics only when you feel the current topic has been covered, keeping in mind that a follow-up question sometimes provides the most interesting information when it seems as though the final word has been said.