Tape TV and Radio Interviews.

Tape TV and radio interviews from CBC North Radio or TV or APTN and use them with the literacy group to develop awareness of interviewing techniques. Talk about the different types of questions you hear and the responses those questions get. Discuss which style of interviewing people like best and why.

Listen to previously recorded oral history interviews.

If you can’t find any in your community library, you may be able to borrow recorded interviews from the Nunavut Research Institute, CBC, educational resource centres, museums or archives. Talk about the style of interviewing in these interviews. How is it different from the TV and radio interviews? Who does most of the talking? Talk about the kinds of questions you hear in different interviews and different ways of asking them. What kinds of responses come from different ways of asking questions?

Identify the people you plan to interview.

Find out something about their backgrounds and what they are interested in talking about. Write this information on index cards or type it on the computer, so the interview teams have access to it. People that you interview might suggest other people in the community that are knowledgeable about your theme.

Plan how you want to conduct the interview.

Will oral history teams do the interviews, with each team responsible for interviewing one person? Or will you conduct the interviews in front of the whole literacy group, with one interview team doing the work and the rest of the group as the audience?

Consider a suitable location for the interview.

Quiet is very important in getting a good quality recorded interview. Choose places where the interview won’t be interrupted by phones, TV or radio, children or other family members, noisy appliances or noise from the road. Think about electrical outlets for recording equipment and light if you are videotaping. Think about where the storyteller will be most comfortable. If you decide to have the whole literacy group watching and listening to the interview, everyone will have to agree to be very still and quiet throughout the interview.

Plan questions to guide the interview.

The process of planning the questions is valuable for the literacy group. It gives them a chance to bring together all their knowledge so far and to think critically about the theme.