The Power of the Spoken Word · Weeks 19-27

The Art of the Interview

Developing active listening and questioning skills through professional and ethnographic interviewing.

About This Topic

The interview is one of the most practical communication tools students will use beyond school, yet it is rarely taught with the same rigor as written argument. Effective interviewing requires three integrated skills: designing questions that open productive inquiry, practicing active listening that allows real-time response rather than scripted execution, and recognizing how the interviewer's own assumptions and biases shape the narrative the interviewee produces. CCSS SL.11-12.1 and SL.11-12.3 ask students to initiate substantive collaborative discussions and evaluate a speaker's claims, both of which require exactly this set of active, analytical listening practices.

Open-ended questions are more demanding to write than closed ones. A question like 'What was it like to grow up during that period?' invites narrative, personal perspective, and complexity. A question like 'Were you affected by that event?' invites a yes or no. Students who understand this distinction can move from script-following to genuine inquiry, adapting their follow-up questions based on what they actually hear.

Interviewer bias connects this topic to research ethics. The questions an interviewer chooses, the follow-ups they pursue, and the narrative frame they apply to the responses all shape the interview's output. Active learning strategies -- where students conduct, observe, and critique real interviews in class -- make these dynamics visible in ways that abstract discussion cannot.

Learning Objectives

• Design a set of open-ended interview questions to elicit detailed narratives on a given topic.
• Analyze interview transcripts to identify instances of active listening and effective follow-up questions.
• Evaluate the impact of interviewer bias on the construction of an interview narrative.
• Critique a recorded interview for its adherence to ethical interviewing practices and effective questioning techniques.

Before You Start

Introduction to Rhetorical Appeals

Why: Understanding ethos, pathos, and logos provides a foundation for analyzing how interviewers and interviewees construct their messages.

Argumentative Writing and Evidence

Why: Students need to understand how to support claims with evidence to better grasp how interviews gather and present information.

Key Vocabulary

Ethnographic Interviewing	A qualitative research method focused on understanding the lived experiences and cultural perspectives of individuals within their natural settings.
Active Listening	A communication technique that involves fully concentrating on, understanding, responding to, and remembering what is being said, often demonstrated through verbal and nonverbal cues.
Open-Ended Questions	Questions that require more than a simple 'yes' or 'no' answer, encouraging detailed responses and exploration of a topic.
Interviewer Bias	The tendency for an interviewer's personal beliefs, opinions, or expectations to unconsciously influence the questions asked or the way responses are interpreted.
Follow-Up Questions	Questions asked in response to an interviewee's previous statement, designed to clarify, expand upon, or probe deeper into the information provided.

Active Learning Ideas

Think-Pair-Share: Open vs. Closed Question Workshop

Students receive ten interview questions on a common topic, five open-ended and five closed. Working individually, they sort them and rewrite each closed question as an open one. Pairs compare rewrites and discuss what makes some rewritten versions more effective, then the debrief identifies the structural features of questions that invite complex responses.

⏱ 25 min·Pairs

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Simulation Game: Live Interview and Observation Protocol

One student interviews a partner for three minutes on a structured topic while a third partner observes using a checklist covering eye contact, follow-up questions, and moments of active versus passive listening. Roles rotate. The debrief focuses on specific moments where the interviewer followed the script versus adapted to what they heard.

⏱ 45 min·Small Groups

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Collaborative Analysis: Bias Audit of Interview Excerpts

Groups receive two interview transcripts on the same topic, one from a clearly positioned interviewer and one that maintains more open inquiry. Groups identify specific questions or follow-ups that reveal the interviewer's framing assumptions and discuss how those choices affected the narrative produced.

⏱ 35 min·Small Groups

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Real-World Connections

Journalists use ethnographic interviewing techniques to gather in-depth stories for documentaries and long-form articles, such as those produced by The New York Times' 'The Daily' podcast.

Human resources professionals conduct interviews to assess candidates' suitability for roles, employing active listening to understand a candidate's experience and problem-solving skills.

Market researchers conduct in-depth interviews to understand consumer behavior and product perception, using open-ended questions to uncover nuanced opinions about new product concepts.

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

Common Misconception

An effective interview means asking all the questions on your prepared list.

What to Teach Instead

A prepared question list is a starting point, not a script. The most productive interviews follow the interviewee's most interesting responses rather than adhering to a predetermined sequence. Students who practice active listening in simulated interviews learn that the best follow-up questions come from genuine curiosity about what was just said, not from the next item on the list.

Common Misconception

The interviewer's job is to stay completely neutral and not influence the conversation.

What to Teach Instead

Complete neutrality is neither achievable nor always desirable in an interview. What matters is awareness of how the interviewer's presence and choices shape the interaction. Recognizing your own assumptions allows you to be more intentional about the kind of data your interview produces. Bias audit exercises make these dynamics concrete and discussable.

Common Misconception

More questions means a better interview.

What to Teach Instead

A short interview with two or three genuinely open questions and responsive follow-ups often produces richer material than a long interview that marches through a prepared list. Students who focus on question quantity tend to interrupt natural narrative flow. Practice simulations where students are limited to five questions and must use follow-ups to get depth consistently produce more interesting interview content.

Assessment Ideas

Peer Assessment

Students pair up and conduct a 5-minute mock interview on a pre-assigned topic. After the interview, students exchange their written questions and provide feedback to their partner: 'Identify two open-ended questions that worked well and explain why. Suggest one closed-ended question that could be rephrased to be more open-ended.'

Discussion Prompt

Present students with a short, edited transcript of an interview where interviewer bias is evident. Ask: 'What specific phrases or questions reveal the interviewer's bias? How might these biases have shaped the interviewee's responses? What could the interviewer have done differently to maintain neutrality?'

Quick Check

Provide students with a brief scenario describing an interview situation. Ask them to write two follow-up questions they would ask based on a hypothetical interviewee's initial response. For example: 'The interviewee states, 'That was a challenging project.' What are two probing follow-up questions you would ask?'

Frequently Asked Questions

How do open-ended questions make an interview more effective?

Open-ended questions invite the interviewee to provide context, narrative, and personal perspective rather than a simple yes or no. Questions beginning with 'how,' 'what,' 'tell me about,' or 'describe' tend to open productive inquiry. The best follow-up questions often come from listening carefully to the first answer and asking about something unexpected that emerged.

What is the relationship between active listening and follow-up questions in an interview?

Active listening means attending to what is actually said rather than waiting for your turn to speak. Effective follow-up questions arise from noticing what was interesting, surprising, or left incomplete in the previous answer. Interviewers who are composing their next question while the interviewee is still speaking miss the material that would produce the most revealing follow-ups.

How does interviewer bias affect the data collected in an interview?

An interviewer's assumptions about the topic, the interviewee, or the expected outcome shape which questions get asked, which answers get followed up, and how the resulting material is interpreted. This does not invalidate the interview, but any analysis of interview data should be transparent about the interviewer's perspective and the conditions under which the interview was conducted.

How does active learning help students develop interviewing skills?

Reading about active listening is far less effective than practicing it under observation. When students conduct interviews while a classmate uses a structured observation checklist and the class debriefs specific moments, the gap between asking questions and genuinely listening becomes immediately clear. Students who practice in class and receive peer feedback consistently develop more responsive technique than those who encounter interviewing only as theory.