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Instructions for Diary Day and Student Interview Tool
This process is most instructive when students are interviewed who vary across race and ethnicity, gender, and class. It is also helpful to include interviews with individuals who vary across other dimensions such as:
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- students with experience across the full range of high schools in the district (different types of schools with different profiles of performance over time)
- recent immigrants, students who arrived in this country early in their lives, and native-born students
- students who vary in their current levels of achievement, as measured by grades and test scores as well as other forms of excellence (e.g., arts, debate, athletics, community service)
- students who have dropped out at different points in high school for different reasons and who have followed varying paths since dropping out
- students with a range of family and work responsibilities
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How are the interviews conducted?
The interviews are done with individual students and last approximately 30 minutes. With elementary students, the interviewer and the student make some notes together about their activities on the prior day. Middle and high school students are provided blank Diary Day forms ahead of time in order to make their own notes prior to talking with the interviewer. The interviewer uses the following prompts:
Prompt 1
Tell me the story of your learning up until now. Where have you gone to school? What kind of learning have you done outside of school? (The interviewer will need to supply some examples: from your family, at your church (or other place of worship), music lessons, sports camp, etc.)
Prompt 2
Let's look at what you did yesterday. Describe your major activities. Include what you were doing and thinking, and who was with you. If you were doing something different from – or in addition to – what you were meant to be doing, include both activities (for instance, if you were reading while taking care of your little brother, or doing your math homework while riding the bus).
Rate each of these activities for what it did for you as a learner:
- 0 – This activity was a waste of my time. I didn't learn or change at all.
- 1 – This was a routine activity that was important and necessary to do. It may have involved practicing or polishing skills or learning that I already had.
- 2 – This activity gave me new skills and understandings.
- 3 – This activity made a big difference to what I can do or understand. It changed how I see myself as a learner or a contributor to my community.
Prompt 3
Are there classes or activities that you wish you had either at school or elsewhere? What are these? Why haven't you been able to do them? Why do you want them? Printable Diary Day and Student Interview Tool.
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