Teaching Student Reporters to Interview for the School Newsletter

The difference between a student newsletter article that reads like a press release and one that reads like journalism is almost always the interview. Students who know how to prepare for an interview, ask questions that produce real answers, and follow up when the answer is generic produce content that the school community actually reads.

Teach Preparation as the Foundation

Students who arrive at an interview knowing almost nothing about their subject produce generic questions and get generic answers. Students who research the topic and the person before the interview ask specific questions and get specific, quotable answers.

Before any interview assignment, require students to complete a preparation checklist: what they already know about the topic, three things they want to understand better, and one thing the reader would want to know. That 15-minute preparation step produces dramatically better interviews.

Practice Open-Ended Questioning

A question that can be answered yes or no will be answered yes or no. "Did you like the project?" produces "Yes." "What surprised you most about the project?" produces a story. Students need to hear the difference between closed and open questions, practice generating open ones, and then hear the difference in the answers they get.

A classroom exercise where students interview each other using both question types, and then compare the answers, builds the intuition faster than any explanation.

Teach the Three Follow-Ups

Three follow-up questions work in almost every interview situation where an answer is too brief: "Can you tell me more about that?" "What was that like for you?" "Why do you think that is?" Students who know they can ask these questions, and who practice using them, get longer and more substantive quotes. Students who accept the first answer and move to the next prepared question rarely come back with enough material for a compelling article.

Build in Quote Verification

Before the interview ends, students should read their most important quotes back to the subject and confirm accuracy. This prevents the misquotation problems that damage the newsletter's credibility and the student's relationship with future interview subjects. It is also a habit that produces more confident student journalists.

Connect Interview Skills to the Final Article

The interview exists to produce material for the article, not as an end in itself. Students who understand the connection between the questions they ask and the article they are trying to write make better use of interview time. "If your article is about why the school changed the lunch schedule, your interview questions should produce quotes that explain the decision, the challenges, and what the subject expects the result to be." That level of purpose produces better interviews and better articles.