10 Questions
Wednesday, July 30th by carla
Time magazine published its “10 questions” interview with Toni Morrison in May. (I recommend the video so you can hear her voice.)
In the interview Morrison talks about how she started writing, about the impact of her father’s death, and about why she chose to endorse Senator Obama.
As I listened to this and other interviews in the series, I found myself wondering about using the 10-question format for book reports. Students would have to choose the questions and construct the answers, responding to their reading as the character. If your classroom has a camcorder, students could tape and critique their work. Students in literature circles could make a group project of it. The best of the projects could be posted to a class website or blog.
Possibilities:
- 10 questions for Nick Carroway from The Great Gatsby
- 10 questions for Jim from Huck Finn
- 10 questions for Meg Murray from A Wrinkle in Time
- 10 questions for Brian Robeson from Hatchet
- 10 questions for Jenna from Jingle Dancer
- 10 questions for Denver from Beloved
- 10 questions for Abigail Williams from The Crucible
- 10 questions for Stanley Yelnats from Holes
- 10 questions for Bud Caldwell from Bud, not Buddy
- 10 questions for Annemarie Johannesen from Number the Stars
July 30th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
I love this idea! I’m teaching a workshop tomorrow on Lit Circles and will be sure to share it. Also, I’m including a link on my wiki. Thanks for sharing.
July 31st, 2008 at 3:28 am
Good luck with your workshop, Lisa! Glad to make a small contribution.
July 31st, 2008 at 6:12 am
Our ninth graders are to read four books independently each year and create a log booklet for each one (that I fiercely insist is NOT a book report). Each booklet consists of their choice of four activities|genres from over 40, so they customize their response to their book. We offer a lot of genres for analysis of character, but I really like the ten questions idea. I especially like that there are models to look at. Ninth graders can be very timid about venturing into new territory, and knowing exactly what things are supposed to (or can) look like, helps a lot. Thanks again, Carla, for a great idea. Dawn
September 25th, 2008 at 12:09 am
[…] In an earlier blog I mentioned a 10-question interview as a possible book report format. Here, in no particular order, are other possibilities: […]