Warm-Up Interview Narrative Exemplar #1: Day One. Read the interview narrative below. Annotate it using the five strategies we ve practiced in class.

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1 Name: Teacher: Class and Period: Date: Warm-Up Interview Narrative Exemplar #1: Day One Read the interview narrative below. Annotate it using the five strategies we ve practiced in class. Write the topic / event at the top of the page. Circle it. Box unfamiliar words/phrases. Then 1. Use either context clues or a dictionary to determine the meaning 2. Write the meaning in the margin Underline important details related to the topic Write personal reactions in the margin These could include -questions -connections -predictions Write ONE NOUN-VERB- WORD summary. (Ex: Nemo gets lost. Belle loves Beast.) The Iceman Cometh Chuck Liddell, a recent UFC champion, did more than turn heads when he walked through the door. He turned entire bodies. People craned around to see The Iceman as he walked to my table for an interview. Liddell had agreed to talk to me about his coming of age: his years in college. Liddell graduated from California Polytechnic State University in Possibly to the surprise of his fans, his degree was in accounting. Numbers have always come easy to me, he explained. However, he wasn t always so sure of his college path: Originally, PE was the major I wanted, but my grandparents didn t see it as a real major. I think being a PE coach is a real job, but that s just me. Meanwhile outside the classroom, Liddell was developing skills for his future as an MMA fighter. He used football and wrestling to build physical strength and endurance. I played football my first year, and I wrestled for all five. You start football before school starts, and when you re done with football, wrestling has already started. Surprisingly, despite Liddell s commitment to athletics, he claims he wasn t as committed to school. He says, I guess I was a bit of a slacker. I was a procrastinator. Today, Liddell reigns as one of the greatest UFC fighters of his generation. However, he knows that his origins as a fighter and as The Iceman have roots all the way to his days at Cal Poly.

2 Rubric Checklist Insightfully describes one or more incidents that influenced the interviewee s coming of age Use the rubric checklist to evaluate the work. Your teacher will use this same checklist to evaluate you! Did the author succeed? Explain! Provide examples whenever possible. Uses vivid examples of character description Develops an engaging and authentic character and presents that person s unique point Follows the structure of the genre with well-sequenced events Uses effective transitions to link ideas and events Demonstrates a consistent point of view Uses descriptive language, telling details, and vivid imagery to convey a strong sense of the interviewee s voice Smoothly embeds direct and indirect quotations Demonstrates error free spelling and use of standard English conventions. Based on this example What is one thing you WILL do in your paper? What is one thing you WILL NOT do in your paper?

3 Name: Teacher: Class and Period: Date: Warm-Up Interview Narrative Exemplar #2: Day Two Read the interview narrative below. Annotate it using the five strategies we ve practiced in class. The Positive Power of Failure Sitting on our tan couch in a dated Florida Gators t-shirt, Johnathan Lott wears a relaxed, unassuming expression. And yet, I also sense a bit of preoccupation. I ve been troubleshooting this connectivity issue for ten minutes. How did a hard reset not rectify this? It s bizarre. Johnathan straightens his wire eyeglasses and moves towards an internet router through the mess of wires I hid haphazardly in our entertainment center. He soon looks back to me as I sit waiting at my computer. Oh, the inteview. Of course! Meh, I ll fix this issue later. As I remind Johnathan that the focus of our interview is college as a coming of age experience, he skeptically raises an eyebrow. I was never very good at that kind of thinking. Coming of age. I just did what I had to do in college. I press Johnathan, a summa cum laude Economics and Political Science graduate, for details. Well, sure, I changed in college, he explains, I just never sat around thinking, Oh! I must be maturing! Instead, I always focused on identifying and learning from my mistakes. Although, now that I think about it, I guess that thought process led to a lot of growth. At first glance, Johnathan, who held a 4.0 GPA and was named the University of Florida s Outstanding Male Leader, seemed to not make many mistakes as an undergraduate. He insists that perception is wrong. I made lots of mistakes, he claims. Then he pauses and adds with a smile, Just like I m making lots of mistakes with this router! But more seriously, he continues, I had one major coming-of-age experience or whatever hippy thing you re calling it my freshman year. I started college as a Saxophone Performance major, and although I loved playing and writing music, some of the corollary music skills were a struggle for me. I remember my sight-singing exam. I was a saxophonist not a singer! but I had to appear before my professor and sing a piece of music I had never even seen before. Johnathan pauses to take a deep breath befitting a saxophone player before he continues. I sang the piece. I knew it was bad, but I was relieved to have gotten through it and figured that I couldn t have totally flunked it. Well, then Professor Reed turned to me and asked something I ll never forget. He asked me whether I was tone deaf. Johnathan slowly shakes his head as he smiles. My professor thought my singing was so bad that I was tone deaf and had to have been a percussionist! I knew at that moment that even though I loved saxophone, music might not be the best academic path for me. I realized that I could still love saxophone and love music but that I should pursue a degree and a profession that made better use of my skills. So I did. And now I m here, and I never have to sight sing! Today, Johnathan s college coming-of-age experience has helped him enjoy the best of both worlds: he puts his law degree to use as legal clerk, but he keeps his saxophone under the bed for impromptu practice sessions and at-home performances. For all his skepticism about coming of age, Johnathan gives a quick shrug before summing up the lesson he learned: Failure helped me a lot that day. I never gave up on music, but I fixed the problem of aligning my strengths to my career path. Johnathan slowly stands up as he closes our interview. And now, I ve got another problem to fix: this internet router! Clearly, in the case of Johnathan Lott, good things come to those who work, and so he continues to work on his career, his concerns, and our wireless connectivity.

4 Rubric Checklist Insightfully describes one or more incidents that influenced the interviewee s coming of age Use the rubric checklist to evaluate the work. Your teacher will use this same checklist to evaluate you! Did the author succeed? Explain! Provide examples whenever possible. Uses vivid examples of character description Develops an engaging and authentic character and presents that person s unique point Follows the structure of the genre with well-sequenced events Uses effective transitions to link ideas and events Demonstrates a consistent point of view Uses descriptive language, telling details, and vivid imagery to convey a strong sense of the interviewee s voice Smoothly embeds direct and indirect quotations Demonstrates error free spelling and use of standard English conventions. Based on this example What is one thing you WILL do in your paper? What is one thing you WILL NOT do in your paper?

5 Name: Teacher: Class and Period: Date: Warm-Up Interview Narrative Exemplar #3: Day Three Read the interview narrative below. Annotate it using the five strategies we ve practiced in class. Pride and Perseverance The dictionary defines pride as, a high or inordinate opinion of one's own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc. Kenny Stilwell defines it as the feeling that helped him survive the Divers Academy International. Pride was my biggest lesson in dive school. It drove a lot of my actions during my early 20s, and taught me how far I could push myself. I recently interviewed Kenny Stilwell about his coming-of-age memories. He said that his time in the academy where he learned to weld pipelines underwater (to the depths of 300 feet) really shaped him as a person. He said that sometimes it was scary. Mostly it was exciting. I asked him what experiences stood out during his training. The training was held in Camden, New Jersey. Related to this, he said: The first dive was a challenge. They dropped us 35 feet down in the Delaware River wearing hardhat dive helmets. It was an odd sensation to be able to breath freely underwater. The river was dark, dirty, and the whole situation seemed unnatural. On that dive, however, Stilwell was not scared or shaken. He was motivated. The first dive involved a competition. The instructors dropped pipe parts down with each of us, and we had to put together a functioning pipeline. I was too busy to be nervous; I just wanted to win and put the parts together first and I did. At that moment, Kenny Stilwell realized that his pride was would be a driving force in his career. That kid just had to impress people, so he didn t come unglued when his coworkers did. He didn t shy away from a challenge. He just worked it out. During our interview, I wondered about his coming-of-age realizations. Isn t pride supposed to be a bad thing?! In the short story, The Scarlet Ibis, it certainly isn t a helpful trait. Good thing it worked in his favor. Overall, Stilwell used pride to help him along the way. He rose to the top of his class at the dive academy. He quickly found employment at a small offshore dive company. He then helped build that company to be a major force in the offshore world. From 8 employees to 100! Impressive! He dove in chemical spills and hung out with sharks. He even rebuilt major bridges and pipes that got damaged in Hurricane Katrina. Pride. All because he wanted to excel, he wanted to be successful, he wanted to push himself to the limit. We learn a lot of lessons as young adults, and Kenny Stilwell learned that he was his own greatest motivator.

6 Rubric Checklist Insightfully describes one or more incidents that influenced the interviewee s coming of age Uses vivid examples of character description Use the rubric checklist on the next page to evaluate the work. Your teacher will use this same checklist to evaluate you! Did the author succeed? Explain! Provide examples whenever possible. Develops an engaging and authentic character and presents that person s unique point Follows the structure of the genre with well-sequenced events Uses effective transitions to link ideas and events Demonstrates a consistent point of view Uses descriptive language, telling details, and vivid imagery to convey a strong sense of the intereviewee s voice Smoothly embeds direct and indirect quotations Demonstrates errorfree spelling and use of standard English conventions. Based on this example What is one thing you WILL do in your paper? What is one thing you WILL NOT do in your paper?

7 Name: Teacher: Class and Period: Date: Warm-Up Interview Narrative Exemplar #4: Day Four Read the interview narrative below. Annotate it using the five strategies we ve practiced in class. Conquering College I arranged the interview with my father outside on our patio. I had already sat down as he was just coming out the door, striding toward me at his full six foot one height. It's kind of intimidating, but by now, I'm used to my dad towering over me. He smiles and says nonchalantly, "How long is this going to take? Because I've got a dinner meeting at twelve and autographs to sign at three." By now I'm used to his sarcastic comments, so I don't reply. Rather, I answer his question with a question. My dad has never struck me as the lazy type. Or even one to take the easy way out. But when he replied to me asking him what major he chose, the answer was shocking. "I wanted to major in the business administration. But I ended up in the hospitality administration because you did not have to take business calculus." Well apparently, there is more too my dad behind his mask of sarcasm, confidence, and kindness. He carries some actual regret. "Maybe that's the reason why I went back to college," he reminisces. "It's cause I felt like I cheated myself out of a my dream job." Before I could ask another question, my dad went on to say, "But just because of that doesn't mean I regret all of high school. That decision changed me to the way I am today. I realized my mistake, and it really brought me back to god." Earlier my dad had told me that, because he went to a catholic school, he thought it meant he didn't have to go to church. So his family stopped going to church from then on and for years to come. But anyways, my dad continues to say, "Actually, now that I think about it, that mistake in high school is one of the main reasons I became a pastor. To preach the word of God and tell people about my story and how God can also help them." My dad also said that one of the greatest things about college is the freedom, but it can also be one of the worst. "I chose to go to Florida State University because, at the time, I had been living in California and I wanted the challenge of moving away. During my time in college, I learned to live independently. The freedom you get is quite a learning experience. There are really fun times; like hanging out with friends at a football game. But there are also bad ones; like getting into trouble and not having your parents to help you out." Luckily my dad didn't get into too much trouble. He always studied hard for exams, which he states, "Studying for tests was probably my best attribute. I was most certainly not a procrastinator. And I went to every class because I was always afraid of missing an important lesson. (I was surprised that one doesn't HAVE to attend classes.) Outside of classes my dad was a working man. He helped out at a nearby Radisson Hotel. He told me that the job helped him become more flexible, balancing school and work; but it also helped him realize that he enjoyed serving others. "Maybe that's the reason I went from the hotel industry to being a pastor," my dad said. "I felt like I was helping people out the best way I possibly could." I stood up out of the chair, stretched, and turned to leave. But before I could, my father said, "There is one more thing college does to you, though. It revitalizes you, when you receive your diploma and earn your degree. You realize you conquered college and that you CAN do it. And nobody will ever take that away from you."

8 Rubric Checklist Insightfully describes one or more incidents that influenced the interviewee s coming of age Use the rubric checklist to evaluate the work. Your teacher will use this same checklist to evaluate you! Did the author succeed? Explain! Provide examples whenever possible. Uses vivid examples of character description Develops an engaging and authentic character and presents that person s unique point Follows the structure of the genre with well-sequenced events Uses effective transitions to link ideas and events Demonstrates a consistent point of view Uses descriptive language, telling details, and vivid imagery to convey a strong sense of the intereviewee s voice Smoothly embeds direct and indirect quotations Demonstrates errorfree spelling and use of standard English conventions. Based on this example What is one thing you WILL do in your paper? What is one thing you WILL NOT do in your paper?

Volume 11, Issue 01 January 2018 W

Volume 11, Issue 01 January 2018 W elcome to the January what there Hopes, Dreams and fears 2018 edition of The Noodle, are. We hope you will take a few written and published by the minutes out of your