Interviewing Story Characters to Develop Critical and Creative Thinking

By Patrick T. Randolph

A Story Character Interview Using Wilbur from Charlotte's Web

Journalist: What did you like most about your friend?
Wilbur: You mean Charlotte?
Journalist: Yes, that's right.
Wilbur: That's hard...she had so many amazing qualities.
Journalist: Can you name a couple?
Wilbur: E.B. White, our creator and the author of the book, said it best. So, I'll quote him. He said this, and I agree with every fiber of my pig body and soul. "She [Charlotte] was in a class by herself. It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both."

Introduction

What is a sure-fire way to get our English language learners (ELLs) to develop an understanding of different academic topics from multiple perspectives? How can we help students dig deeper into the content of their reading and become more creative in the thinking process? The answer? By interviewing story characters! I will thus demonstrate a very powerful multi-skills activity that employs student-generated interviews with characters from short stories or novels as a way to develop critical and creative thinking skills. In this article, I first offer significant reasons why the “story character interview” is an important tool to help students develop multiple perspectives in their academic work. Next, I explain the process I follow to get the students to write these creative writing-based interviews.

Essential Reasons for the Activity

ELLs who enroll in English-using institutions of higher learning in the United States need to make in-class presentations, participate in debates, and write papers and reflections about multiple topics from various perspectives and points of view. Such academic rigor is not an easy task and often creates frustration and anxiety. One effective activity that addresses this issue is to have the students create interviews with characters of the stories they have read. This helps ELLs understand the reading material on a deeper level, builds critical and creative thinking skills, promotes ownership of the material, increases vocabulary acquisition, and fosters an enjoyment of going deeper into a subject of study. By having students become journalists and interviewing the story characters, and by having other students adopt the roles of the story characters, ELLs gain an intricate and unique understanding of the subjects covered in the interviews. Moreover, they develop ways in which to think deeper, and they develop more insights about the characters as they create both questions and answers for the interviews that are based on their knowledge of what they have read, discussed, and thought about in the short stories or novels.

I have long been a proponent of using creative writing to enhance academic writing and critical thinking skills (Randolph, 2012; Randolph & Ruppert, 2020), and I have found support for this in various discoveries within the neuroscience community (Immordino-Yang, 2016). According to neuroscience and cognitive psychology, personalizing the material, finding an interest in it, and employing the emotions and senses are some of the most important factors that help learners encode, learn, and effectively use language.

During the course of their academic careers, our ELLs will need to write narratives, compare and contrast essays, and argumentative and persuasive papers; in addition, they will have class discussions and formal debates about a wide range of topics. All of the aforementioned will necessitate thinking, research, and analysis of the topics from various perspectives. Being able to argue and debate the pros and cons of an issue and the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments are basic requirements for any undergraduate program and most certainly imperative for any graduate program.

Having students create interviews with story characters is an effective activity because it:

is a natural way to review the stories and the ideas within the stories
encourages the students to create interesting responses to the interview questions
promotes creativity, which is a crucial tool for helping them become involved in both the topic and their language development
increases their vocabulary knowledge and use
nurtures an awareness of particular grammar constructions and sentence patterns.

In short, this activity deepens their understanding of the story, the characters, and promotes our initial goal of having students entertain topics from various points of view. The result of this is that they can critique and analyze ideas, situations, and topics in multiple ways. In addition, this activity is very effective because it can easily be used with all levels of ELLs. Let us now look at how I implement this activity in class.

The Interview Activity

DAY 1: Modeling and Preparation

First, I write the title of a story that we have recently finished on the board, and then I ask the students to summarize the story as best they can. Next, I ask the students to list all the characters. This includes primary, secondary, and tertiary characters. So, for example, if we had read Charlotte’s Web, they could list Wilbur, Charlotte, Templeton, and Fern. Students could also include the barn as a character because it plays a significant role in the story and acts as the central place where Wilbur and Charlotte develop their friendship.

We, then, make pairs, and I have each one choose a point of interest from the story; this can be either an important major event or a subtle but significant point. I explain that this event will be the focus of the interview between the journalist and the story character. Before they begin, I model an example story character interview for the whole class. I either read both roles, or I share the roles with a student. We, then, discuss the interview and see if the descriptions and answers of the story character reflect his/her/its personality in the story. For instance, we might read a short dialogue between the Journalist and Templeton. Templeton is the rat in the story who helps find words for Charlotte.

Journalist: I see that Charlotte, the wise old spider, asked you to find a word to help save Wilbur's life.

Templeton: Yes, I'm her little word slave. She thinks I must do whatever she asks.

Journalist: And do you?

Templeton: I suppose I could decline. I suppose I could disobey her, but then she would make me leave the barn. She is pretty powerful. I am, after all, just a rat. I need the food that is in the barn, especially Wilbur's food. It's delicious.

Journalist: So, you are aware of your own limitations.

Templeton: Yes, a rat is limited and is a slave to his own desires, like food. I love food. I need food. Charlotte knows that, too. So, I help her. In a way, helping her is actually fun.

In their pairs, I have the students simply conduct their interviews orally without writing anything down. This oral preparation is an effective way to get the students to think freely and yet lay the foundation for their writing and their ideas. During this preparation time, I first have them make lists of the characters’ personality traits and the characters’ strengths and weaknesses. I also ask them to make notes on how to solve or correct the characters’ weaknesses and develop their strengths. (See the above dialogue and how Templeton’s character mimics his personality in the novel.) This part of the activity helps promote a better understanding of the characters and their role in the story, and it encourages the students to grow as thinkers—both creatively and critically. The homework for the next class is for the journalists to think up more in-depth questions, and for the story characters to prepare character-influenced and interesting answers for the possible questions.

DAY 2: Thinking and Writing

We begin the second day by reviewing the activity and asking the pairs to review the previous lesson’s oral interview. Next, I have the students write down a developed dialogue. They can now use their oral interview with the more detailed ideas from their homework. Here, each student takes turns as they work together to write questions from the journalist and answers from the story character. I usually monitor the class and help with vocabulary, grammar, and with offering natural ways that conversations often flow.

Once the dialogues are complete, I have the students exchange them with another pair in the class. The pairs then read the dialogues and evaluate them based on a rubric I hand out to the students. This includes (1) character development; (2) insightful questions; (3) use of the story; (4); genuine dialogues; (5) vocabulary use; and (6) grammar. These are rated with “three” for excellent; “two” for good; and “one” for needs improvement. The homework, then, for DAY 2 is to revise the dialogues. This is also done in pairs.

DAY 3: Performance and Evaluation

We use DAY 3 to read and perform the dialogues. The student audience also has a chance to submit grades and comments on the revised dialogues. These evaluations follow the same rubric as mentioned above. Once all the dialogues have been performed, the students submit their work for a grade. The final evaluation includes the student audience grades and comments as well.

Conclusion

Writing and debating ideas from various perspectives is not an easy task; however, if students learn to have fun by interviewing story characters, the challenge of thinking from different perspectives becomes enjoyable and intriguing. By learning how to look at ideas and situations from different points of view, students gain a stronger sense of the “other” and gradually develop confidence as language users and critical and creative thinkers. Using this interview activity is also very convenient because it can be implemented at all levels of language development and for different genres—from nonfiction to fiction. The more this activity is done, the more students build confidence and interest in understanding the English language and promoting its uses.

References

Immordino-Yang, M. H. (2016). Emotions, learning, and the brain. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company.

Randolph, P. T. (2012). Using creative writing as a bridge to enhance academic writing. New horizons: Striding into the future: Selected Proceedings of the 2011 Michigan Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages Conference, 70-83. Lansing, MI: Michigan Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages.

Randolph, P.T., & Ruppert, J.I. (2020). New ways in teaching with creative writing. Alexandria, VA: TESOL Press.

White, E.B. (1980). Charlotte's web. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers.

Image from www.pixabay.com.

Patrick T. Randolph specializes in vocabulary acquisition, creative and academic writing, speech, and debate. Patrick has been awarded three “Best of TESOL Affiliates” (2015, 2018, and 2021). He has also received two “Best of CoTESOL Awards” for his 2017 and 2018 presentations on observation journals and creative writing. Recently, Patrick received the “Best Session Award” from MinneTESOL (2019-2021), and he has published New Ways in Teaching with Creative Writing (2020). Patrick lives with his wife, Gamze; daughter, Aylene; cat, Gable; and puppy, Bubbles, in Lincoln, Nebraska, USA.

*I would like to acknowledge Ferit Kilickaya for introducing this story character interview activity to me in 2016.


Interviewing Story Characters to Develop Critical and Creative Thinking By Patrick T. Randolph A Story Character Interview Using Wilbur from Charlotte's Web Journalist: What did you like most about your friend? Wilbur: You mean Charlotte? Journalist: Yes, that's right. Wilbur: That's hard...she had so many amazing qualities. Journalist: Can you name a couple? Wilbur: E.B. White, our creator and the author of the book, said it best. So, I'll quote him. He said this, and I agree with every fiber of my pig body and soul. "She [Charlotte] was in a class by herself. It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both." Introduction What is a sure-fire way to get our English language learners (ELLs) to develop an understanding of different academic topics from multiple perspectives? How can we help students dig deeper into the content of their reading and become more creative in the thinking process? The answer? By interviewing story characters! I will thus demonstrate a very powerful multi-skills activity that employs student-generated interviews with characters from short stories or novels as a way to develop critical and creative thinking skills. In this article, I first offer significant reasons why the “story character interview” is an important tool to help students develop multiple perspectives in their academic work. Next, I explain the process I follow to get the students to write these creative writing-based interviews. Essential Reasons for the Activity ELLs who enroll in English-using institutions of higher learning in the United States need to make in-class presentations, participate in debates, and write papers and reflections about multiple topics from various perspectives and points of view. Such academic rigor is not an easy task and often creates frustration and anxiety. One effective activity that addresses this issue is to have the students create interviews with characters of the stories they have read. This helps ELLs understand the reading material on a deeper level, builds critical and creative thinking skills, promotes ownership of the material, increases vocabulary acquisition, and fosters an enjoyment of going deeper into a subject of study. By having students become journalists and interviewing the story characters, and by having other students adopt the roles of the story characters, ELLs gain an intricate and unique understanding of the subjects covered in the interviews. Moreover, they develop ways in which to think deeper, and they develop more insights about the characters as they create both questions and answers for the interviews that are based on their knowledge of what they have read, discussed, and thought about in the short stories or novels. I have long been a proponent of using creative writing to enhance academic writing and critical thinking skills (Randolph, 2012; Randolph & Ruppert, 2020), and I have found support for this in various discoveries within the neuroscience community (Immordino-Yang, 2016). According to neuroscience and cognitive psychology, personalizing the material, finding an interest in it, and employing the emotions and senses are some of the most important factors that help learners encode, learn, and effectively use language. During the course of their academic careers, our ELLs will need to write narratives, compare and contrast essays, and argumentative and persuasive papers; in addition, they will have class discussions and formal debates about a wide range of topics. All of the aforementioned will necessitate thinking, research, and analysis of the topics from various perspectives. Being able to argue and debate the pros and cons of an issue and the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments are basic requirements for any undergraduate program and most certainly imperative for any graduate program. Having students create interviews with story characters is an effective activity because it: is a natural way to review the stories and the ideas within the stories encourages the students to create interesting responses to the interview questions promotes creativity, which is a crucial tool for helping them become involved in both the topic and their language development increases their vocabulary knowledge and use nurtures an awareness of particular grammar constructions and sentence patterns. In short, this activity deepens their understanding of the story, the characters, and promotes our initial goal of having students entertain topics from various points of view. The result of this is that they can critique and analyze ideas, situations, and topics in multiple ways. In addition, this activity is very effective because it can easily be used with all levels of ELLs. Let us now look at how I implement this activity in class. The Interview Activity DAY 1: Modeling and Preparation First, I write the title of a story that we have recently finished on the board, and then I ask the students to summarize the story as best they can. Next, I ask the students to list all the characters. This includes primary, secondary, and tertiary characters. So, for example, if we had read Charlotte’s Web, they could list Wilbur, Charlotte, Templeton, and Fern. Students could also include the barn as a character because it plays a significant role in the story and acts as the central place where Wilbur and Charlotte develop their friendship. We, then, make pairs, and I have each one choose a point of interest from the story; this can be either an important major event or a subtle but significant point. I explain that this event will be the focus of the interview between the journalist and the story character. Before they begin, I model an example story character interview for the whole class. I either read both roles, or I share the roles with a student. We, then, discuss the interview and see if the descriptions and answers of the story character reflect his/her/its personality in the story. For instance, we might read a short dialogue between the Journalist and Templeton. Templeton is the rat in the story who helps find words for Charlotte. Journalist: I see that Charlotte, the wise old spider, asked you to find a word to help save Wilbur's life. Templeton: Yes, I'm her little word slave. She thinks I must do whatever she asks. Journalist: And do you? Templeton: I suppose I could decline. I suppose I could disobey her, but then she would make me leave the barn. She is pretty powerful. I am, after all, just a rat. I need the food that is in the barn, especially Wilbur's food. It's delicious. Journalist: So, you are aware of your own limitations. Templeton: Yes, a rat is limited and is a slave to his own desires, like food. I love food. I need food. Charlotte knows that, too. So, I help her. In a way, helping her is actually fun. In their pairs, I have the students simply conduct their interviews orally without writing anything down. This oral preparation is an effective way to get the students to think freely and yet lay the foundation for their writing and their ideas. During this preparation time, I first have them make lists of the characters’ personality traits and the characters’ strengths and weaknesses. I also ask them to make notes on how to solve or correct the characters’ weaknesses and develop their strengths. (See the above dialogue and how Templeton’s character mimics his personality in the novel.) This part of the activity helps promote a better understanding of the characters and their role in the story, and it encourages the students to grow as thinkers—both creatively and critically. The homework for the next class is for the journalists to think up more in-depth questions, and for the story characters to prepare character-influenced and interesting answers for the possible questions. DAY 2: Thinking and Writing We begin the second day by reviewing the activity and asking the pairs to review the previous lesson’s oral interview. Next, I have the students write down a developed dialogue. They can now use their oral interview with the more detailed ideas from their homework. Here, each student takes turns as they work together to write questions from the journalist and answers from the story character. I usually monitor the class and help with vocabulary, grammar, and with offering natural ways that conversations often flow. Once the dialogues are complete, I have the students exchange them with another pair in the class. The pairs then read the dialogues and evaluate them based on a rubric I hand out to the students. This includes (1) character development; (2) insightful questions; (3) use of the story; (4); genuine dialogues; (5) vocabulary use; and (6) grammar. These are rated with “three” for excellent; “two” for good; and “one” for needs improvement. The homework, then, for DAY 2 is to revise the dialogues. This is also done in pairs. DAY 3: Performance and Evaluation We use DAY 3 to read and perform the dialogues. The student audience also has a chance to submit grades and comments on the revised dialogues. These evaluations follow the same rubric as mentioned above. Once all the dialogues have been performed, the students submit their work for a grade. The final evaluation includes the student audience grades and comments as well. Conclusion Writing and debating ideas from various perspectives is not an easy task; however, if students learn to have fun by interviewing story characters, the challenge of thinking from different perspectives becomes enjoyable and intriguing. By learning how to look at ideas and situations from different points of view, students gain a stronger sense of the “other” and gradually develop confidence as language users and critical and creative thinkers. Using this interview activity is also very convenient because it can be implemented at all levels of language development and for different genres—from nonfiction to fiction. The more this activity is done, the more students build confidence and interest in understanding the English language and promoting its uses. References Immordino-Yang, M. H. (2016). Emotions, learning, and the brain. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company. Randolph, P. T. (2012). Using creative writing as a bridge to enhance academic writing. New horizons: Striding into the future: Selected Proceedings of the 2011 Michigan Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages Conference, 70-83. Lansing, MI: Michigan Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. Randolph, P.T., & Ruppert, J.I. (2020). New ways in teaching with creative writing. Alexandria, VA: TESOL Press. White, E.B. (1980). Charlotte's web. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers. Image from www.pixabay.com. Patrick T. Randolph specializes in vocabulary acquisition, creative and academic writing, speech, and debate. Patrick has been awarded three “Best of TESOL Affiliates” (2015, 2018, and 2021). He has also received two “Best of CoTESOL Awards” for his 2017 and 2018 presentations on observation journals and creative writing. Recently, Patrick received the “Best Session Award” from MinneTESOL (2019-2021), and he has published New Ways in Teaching with Creative Writing (2020). Patrick lives with his wife, Gamze; daughter, Aylene; cat, Gable; and puppy, Bubbles, in Lincoln, Nebraska, USA. *I would like to acknowledge Ferit Kilickaya for introducing this story character interview activity to me in 2016.
Fall 2022 - Volume 50, Issue 2