Study Unit II Fieldwork Basics for Teachers

Stage 1 Preparing for Fieldwork

1. Work with students to identify what they will collect and study. As fieldwork proceeds, students often find areas of interest widen, so allowing a certain amount of flexibility and letting students follow their interests can create better research and products. In the guide to classroom video projects Learning From Your Community, folklorist Gail Matthews-Denatale recommends letting students contribute significantly to fieldwork and product development (see Unit II Resources). "Perhaps the most important feature of a project like this is that the students play an integral and active role in all phases of the documentary and decision-making process. . . . Instructors may be tempted to modify the script to accommodate their own 'teacher aesthetic.' There is also a danger that the video product will become more important to the instructor or school than the learning process. Our experience. . .suggests that it is better to conclude the project with a less-than-polished product that is entirely student-made than to create a 'perfect' video."

2. Determine how students will work, whether individually or in teams. Students of all learning abilities take to fieldwork enthusiastically. Working in non-conventional settings and manners especially benefits students who do not excel in traditional classrooms and allows students to use all their multiple intelligences.

3. Decide upon documentation methods: notetaking, tape recording, still photography, video recording. Consult your school media specialist as well as students in considering methodology. No matter what methods you choose--and you may choose more than one--modeling and practicing are essential (see modeling, below). This choice will be important in developing a project budget, which could be a math component for students. If you will need money for film or a tape recorder, for example, think of local funding sources, starting with the PTA, businesses, local media outlets, arts councils, or historical societies. Remember that fieldwork does not always require spending money, however. Students can use just pencil and paper.

4. Identify the population or folk group to interview. Examples may be as simple as talking with classmates or other students or seeking various age ranges, folk groups, neighborhoods, and so on for formal interviews. Some social scientists are moving away from using the term interviewee to describe the interviewee--since contemporary folklorists often consider their fieldwork a collaboration with a community or individual. This guide uses both terms interchangeably. You and students may decide upon the term you want to use. As students begin their interviews, they may find that one interviewee leads to another. Decide upon a minimum number of interviews as part of the fieldwork rubric, which students should have a copy of. You may need to identify individuals for students to interview. If so, contact senior centers and volunteer agencies or ask students and parents for leads. Use the list of Suggested Folklife Subjects. Remember that some students will need alternative adults to interview during family folklore projects (see Stage III Planning and Problems).

5. Design a research instrument to elicit the information students are seeking. Again, this may be a simple list or a detailed survey (see guide samples, below, and in several of the resources listed in Unit II Resources). Collaborating with students on this design creates greater interest. Needing to adjust the survey during fieldwork is normal (see Modeling and Practicing, below).

6. With students, develop a project schedule and a checklist of things to do and remember during fieldwork (see sample checklist). This can be part of the rubric (see Sample Rubric).

Modeling and Practicing

Modeling and practicing interviewing and using equipment are crucial to successful fieldwork. Even experienced folklorists find their photos underexposed, tape recorder batteries dead, or videos dubbed over. Interviewing is more unnerving than it seems, so practicing will reduce butterflies, improve diction and listening skills, and build confidence. Try a couple of techniques, such as asking students to critique your model interview of a student or another teacher, pairing students off to take turns questioning and answering, using the scripts below to prompt student critiques, and reporting on interviews conducted at home. Through practice, students learn to improve their questionnaires, listen to responses; follow up interesting leads, and share stories of their own to give the interviewee some examples and "prime the pump" to elicit answers.

For a more detailed discussion of modeling, refer to the Talking Gumbo workbook and You've Got to Hear This Story video listed in Unit II Resources.

Script 1: How Not to Conduct an Interview

Objective:

To allow students to see the value of listening, courtesy, and preparation in conducting an interview.

Procedure:

Select two students to play the roles of "Reporter" and "Guest." Give each a copy of the script and ask them to play the roles in front of the class. They and the rest of the class are told that the reporter is interviewing a tourist in Baton Rouge. After the interview, ask the class to explain what was wrong with the reporter's approach. Write the responses on the board as students offer them.

You can find a printable student copy of this interview here.

Interview:

Reporter: Hey. Hey you....

Guest: Who, me?

Reporter: Yeah, you... come here. I have to ask you some questions. Get over here.

Guest: Yes, what would you like to know?

Reporter: What's your name?

Guest: Gary.

Reporter: What?

Guest: Gary.

Reporter: Really? Gary? I hate that name. Hey... where are you from?

Guest: Shreveport.

Reporter: Are you married?

Guest: No.

Reporter: What's your wife's name?

Guest: I said I'm NOT married.

Reporter: Oh. Are you here on vacation?

Guest: Yes.

Reporter: Where are you from?

Guest: As I said, I'm from Shreveport.

Reporter: Shreveport. . . that's where they have the Jazz Festival.

Guest: No, that's New Orleans. I'm from Shreveport.

Reporter: Is your wife from New Orleans?

Guest: Shreveport, ... and no, I'm not married.

Reporter: Don't blame me. So, what have you seen so far in Baton Rouge?

Guest: So far I've seen the State Capitol and the Governor's Mansion.

Reporter: I think the State Capitol is stupid. It's a big waste of money. It's just like this giant candy box, so it's supposed to be totally awesome or something. AS IF. You should see the Governor's Mansion instead.

Guest: Well, as I said, I HAVE seen the Governor's Mansion.

Reporter: Cool. Are you going to see Mount Rushmore?

Guest: Well, I might some day, but Mount Rushmore isn't in Louisiana.

Reporter: Whatever. Okay, I'm done, you can go.

Script 2: The Reluctant Guest

Objective:

To show students the value of asking follow-up questions and questions that elicit meaningful responses.

Procedure:

In this interview the teacher should play the part of the reluctant guest. A team of students should act as reporters and together draft ten questions to ask the teacher about his or her role as a teacher. Students should question the teacher in front of the class. They are told they may ask follow-up questions based on the teacher's answers. The teacher should answer the questions offering as little information as possible, using one-word answers, for example. The rest of the class should take notes on the teacher's answers, critiquing the reporters' good points and mistakes. Start with the sample interview below to get students started on developing a list of questions and strategies for eliciting answers and following up leads.

You can find a printable student copy of this interview here.

Interview:

Reporter: Do you like teaching?

Guest: Yes.

Reporter: What do you like most about teaching?

Guest: Students.

Reporter: What was your worst experience as a teacher?

Guest: The fire.

Reporter: How long have you been teaching?

Guest: A long time.

Reporter: Do you keep in touch with any of your students?

Guest: The astronaut and the zydeco musician who won a Grammy Award.

Reporter: Well, thanks for your time.

Guest: Sure.

 

Ask students what they might do to elicit more interesting responses. Their responses should include the following:

Ask the teacher to give specific examples.
Ask "how" and "why" questions that require description and explanation, not just "what," "when," and "where" questions that draw only "data responses."
Follow up missed leads, such as "the fire" or "the astronaut and the zydeco musician."

Students should also gain confidence with equipment such as cameras and recorders and learn how equipment can get in your way or be a great blessing. A middle school art teacher took her husband to help her video a Cape Verdean basketmaker at the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife on the National Mall in Washington, DC, and carried a 35mm camera with color print film as well. Not only did the camera and tripod fall over, but her husband forgot to release the "pause" button, so he recorded nothing during the long, hot afternoon. Despite that disaster and coping with three different translators plus a heated political disagreement in Portuguese, she returned with a good set of prints that documented the entire process and arranged them on poster board for her oral presentation. She said she would never grade her students as harshly after experiencing such trials.

By tackling your own fieldwork, you will realize how much you and your students will learn. Choose a topic or person you're interested in and follow the steps above to get a feel for what students will experience. You might ask a colleague about her hobbies, a neighbor about a craft, a relative about a recipe. Make this a simple investigation to practice your own interviewing and technical skills. You might use results to model fieldwork for your students, who can critique your work and tell you what went well and what was missing. A 4th grade teacher documented her first fieldwork attempt, taking slides of the equipment she was using and asking others to take slides of her as she began her work. She created a slide show with the slides and overheads that provided checklists and opportunities for students to discuss her work. She then modeled the steps with students in the classroom in subsequent periods, letting them handle equipment in teams and practice interviewing and critiquing one another.

Improving Listening Skills

After hours of staring at television, computer screens, and video games, students may need to tune their ears. Improving listening skills is a key lesson learned in fieldwork. Interviewers learn more by staying silent than by jabbering or rushing interviewees. An assignment as simple as playing a short recorded story will test students' listening tolerance. Do they fidget, do eyes wander, can they relay what they heard? Discuss with students whether they enjoyed the experience and how it differed from watching a movie. Reading a story aloud is another way of measuring students' attention to listening. If you're interested in improving listening skills, here are some further ideas.

Ask students to remain perfectly quiet. Challenge them to stay quiet for as long as possible, timing them with a clock or stopwatch. Initially you can restart two or three times. Make this part of the daily routine, posting the previous day's time as a mark to be beaten. At first, students will not be able to stand the silence. Self-conscious students will giggle and class clowns will simulate digestive distress. Over time they will become more comfortable with silence, and even come to appreciate it.

Ask students to listen carefully and write down all the sounds they hear in the surrounding environment.

Play a traditional Louisiana song (see Videos and Films on Louisiana Traditional Cultures and Louisiana Music a Select List) and ask students to do one of the following: listen for a particular instrument, describe lyrics, draw a picture that conveys the song's meaning to them, write a short dialogue the song inspires, or write questions they'd like to ask the musicians.

Set up a classroom listening center and require students to listen to tapes and log their responses. Include a variety of tapes--poetry, traditional narratives, professional storytelling, various types of music, history, and short fiction. Invite students to share their own tapes of favorite stories and music. Remember to screen them first. Add students' stories recorded in classroom presentations, as homework, or from fieldwork.

Record radio newscasts on audio cassettes and play them for the class. Play a newscast twice, then give a short-answer quiz of about five questions on the content. Recording the newscasts is easier than you might think. Most boom boxes record directly from the radio. Just drop in a cassette before the newscast (usually at the top of the hour on public and commercial stations) and press "record" and "play" at the same time. (Some machines allow you to record by simply pressing the "record" button).