We have been working on writing our Narrative Interview paper in class. The rough draft should be written onto A21 and is due on Friday. Below I am including the sample paper that Springboard supplies as an exceptional paper. It is not perfect, but serves as a good outline for what your paper might sound like.
LA Level 4 Unit 1
Embedded Assessment #1: Presenting an Interview Narrative
Exemplary: Embedded Assessment 1
Embedded Assessment 1
The faint smell of grilled chicken, the sweet, warm aroma of fresh brownies, the distant sound of rain on the roof, and the heat from the fire place on my back makes it a perfect fall evening. I sit in front of the fire with my pencil poised as my grandma sits down beside me. She is wearing one of her favorite sweaters, red with a pretty black floral print, black slacks, and pink hand-knit slippers. She has the sweetest face, with eyes that light up when I start asking her questions about her past and she recalls fond memories. She thinks of her friends and many involvements, her family and church.
Florice Moffitt was born in 1930 and grew up in a Christian home in Pipestone, Iowa and was the youngest of six children. She had four older brothers and a sister. “I love the way I grew up. We were all good friends and had the best times. I remember in the winter we would have chess tournaments. Other times we would take out or tools and shovels, and make tunnels in the snow.” She chuckles as she remembers all of the many snowball fights. She and her mother were also very close. She was her best play-fellow and friend. They could talk about anything. “I had a great childhood. The only negative thing I can think of was the fact that I could not learn the piano because my sister Irene was very ill for about a year.” Her face falls and gets a very serious look as she remembers that hard period of time. “My mother and sister were both really good piano players, but I never got the chance to learn because the sound of the piano annoyed Irene while she was ill.
“In order to get into high school, you had to take a pretty big test. I was second out of my whole school,” she proudly states. “Betty was first,” she admits. Her high school was nine miles away, which meant a lot of expensive gas back then, so she lived in town, away from her family during high school. Her freshman year she stayed with her Aunt Alice. Sophomore and Junior year she lived with her sister Irene who was still recovering from her illness. She had a place to live, and was able to watch her recovering sister. They grew very close during those two years, and if they hadn’t lived together they probably never would have because they were 15 years apart. Her senior year she and her good friend Eloise rented an apartment, and on the weekends her dad came and brought her home. She matured a lot and really learned how to be
independent because she lived away from her family. It was a big turning point. She was never sad that she had to live in town because she was happy that she was able to be independent. The experience of living in town on her own has really helped her become the person that she is. She is very independent and organized, and a natural leader. In the summers, she would work on the farm, stacking the hay and even driving a tractor, a new machine for farms in the area.
Because she lived in town, she was able to be involved in many things. “I was on the newspaper staff where I got to go around school and find out information and put it into a kind of booklet. I participated in many drama productions, and took a gymnastics class. One play I was in, I was the only girl in the cast. It was lots of fun. We performed for other cities and competed for the best play.” With a huge smile on her face and chuckling she remembers, “We definitely didn’t have the best.” She even tried a couple instruments, but didn’t stay with them long. In the 8th grade, her brother took her to a church youth group in Centerville. They made her one of the leaders in the group which was special for an 8th grader. At her school, she was the salutatorian when she graduated, the second best in her school. “I always had the goal of wanting to be one of the best students. Ha ha, I was second best!” she boasts.
I tried to take in everything she recalled and just listen to her. She loved her childhood so much. “If I could change anything that happened to me, I wouldn’t. It was always good. I realize that we have a lot in common. She was in drama, and so was I. She was on the newspaper, I am in yearbook. She went to a fabulous youth group, I do too. We both want to be the best we can be in everything we do. That would be amazing if I could be the salutatorian like my grandma, and I know she would be very proud of me. As I wrote down her last comments, I thanked her for her time and thought to myself that we just grew closer and I respect her even more for all that happened to her in high school. I hope that I can accomplish as much and as many amazing things as she had done in her life.
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