Family Interview
In Search of Self- Identity and Sense of Self
Student Page
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Key Concept:

Events that happen in our lives may affect the way we see ourselves and where we end up in the long run. The significance of an event may be different in everyone's eyes. After interviewing a parent, guardian, or close family friend to see what events they believe have impacted your character the most, you will compare their events to the events you believe have changes your life.

Objectives:

You will be able to
- speak to share thoughts, opinions, and feelings
- write for a variety of purposes including to reflect, clarify and explore ideas
- recognize writing as a process of constructing meaning for self and others
- confer with peers and teachers
- demonstrate the ability to trace a coherent thought pattern to a suitable conclusion

Resources:

- reflective journal
- evaluation guide

Teacher-Learning Strategies:

you begin writing your comparison/contrast paragraphs describing the significant events in your life, you must establish what those events are.

Task One: Significant Events in Our Lives

Complete the following tasks:

1. Write down three significant events that have occurred in your life and explain the outcome that each event has had on who you are today.

2. Generate a list of 10 questions that you would like a parent, guardian, or family friend to answer about you and your life so far. You will use these questions to conduct an interview.

Be sure to include a question asking your parent, guardian, or family friend to list three events they feel have impacted your life and how they feel each event impacted the outcome of who you are today.

an interview, it is important to take notes so you can refer to them later. While you are interviewing your subject, jot down the phrases they use to describe you, the three events they believe have changed you, and the ways in which the events changed you.

Task Two: Interview

Conduct an interview with your parent, guardian, or family friend.

Once you have written down the three events your subject felt were important, you may want to share your own thoughts on which events were significant.

You have just gone through the first steps of the writing process, prewriting. You have generated your own ideas and asked others for ideas. Now, you are ready to begin writing your comparison/contrast paragraph.

Task Three: Writing it Down

Comparison/Contrast Assignment

1. Now that you have the three events that you have chosen and the three events that the person you interviewed gave you, you are going to see if there are any similarities or differences in the choices.
2. Read these notes on writing a comparison/contrast paragraph.  You will write a comparison/contrast paragraph explaining the event and the outcome of the event from both your point of view and the person you interviewed point of view. 
3. You may want to review the notes on writing an effective paragraph.
4. Your paragraph is going to focus on the significant events, as well as the outcomes of these events have had on your life. 
5. You will hand in your paragraph, as well as your answers to the interview questions.

It is always important to review the evaluation guide to see how your teacher will be marking your assignment. 

Once you have completed your rough copy, you may want to have another student peer edit your assignment using the following paragraph editing checklist.  You may then complete your good copy. 

you have handed in your assignment, you should spent some time considering how differently or similarly you see yourself compared to how others see you.

Task Four - Considering it All

Use your reflective journal to answer the following question:  What most surprised you about the answers you received in your interview?