Overview

Part of covering trauma includes interviewing trauma survivors. Most journalists will have to interview a trauma survivor at some point in their careers. It’s vital for journalists to understand how to do it efficiently. The mock interviews in today’s lesson will encourage students to become a compassionate interviewer.

Goals for Lesson:

Students will be able to:

* gain confidence in performing trauma interviews

* learn how to accept constructive criticism from the class

Class Length: 80 minutes

Materials/Resources:

1. Peer review on interview (C:\Users\kpeters\Desktop\Grad School Work\master's project class\Indentifying Trauma Worksheet.docx)

Lesson Step by Step

1. First 5 Minutes – Briefly go over any questions from the last lesson.

2. Next 5 Minutes – Explain to class they’ll be receiving a handout where they will give feedback to their classmates during each interview session. The class

will fill out the handout after each interview.

3. Next 60 Minutes (could vary depending on class size) – Interview Activity

The teacher will play the trauma survivor. If the teacher is uncomfortable playing the trauma survivor, they can identify another journalism teacher or a drama student at the school who would be comfortable playing the role. Each student will be given 3-5 minutes to conduct their interview. Students will be interviewed according to their trauma scenario. They will go in the following order:

A. Survivor of natural disaster

B. Survivor of fatal car accident,

C. Survivor of mass shooting

D. Domestic abuse survivor

4. Next 5 Minutes – Debrief

Questions teacher should ask students

• What did you think of the exercise?

• What was the hardest part?

• What’s one thing you wish you would have known before doing the interview?

5. Next 5 Minutes – Pass peer reviews back to the student

6. Next 5 Minutes – Assign homework

Students will take home their peer reviews and read them. They will then have to come up three ways the interview could have been better.

Let students know they will be having a guest speaker for the next class. They are to come up with at least three questions each to ask the speaker.