Short Summary of Interview/Brief Analysis of Sources

January 26, 2011

Short Summary of Interview/Brief Analysis of Sources

Short Summary of Interview

For my upcoming informational report in ENG 102-42, I have been asked to conduct an interview with a professional in my future career choice. For me, that professional was Nichole Hutchins, a Kindergarten teacher for eleven years and an expertise in my field of elementary education.

Hutchins' passion for children and her profession had been obvious to me in the past, when I had a long conversation with her about teaching before I finally ended up choosing my major of elementary education. In the interview, her enthusiasm for her students---and even for the copious amounts of writing she admitted having to do---was evident in her optimism and cheerfulness about her work. “My favorite type of writing is for the parents and kids,” she shared, “the rest of it is a lot of busywork.” 'The rest of it', Hutchins had explained earlier, consists of a lot of regulatory work that is required by the state for school records, but despite such repetitive and often time-consuming forms to fill out, Hutchins still maintains her joyful attitude about the work, berating very little despite some of the difficulties such required work provides.

During my interview, I gained a deeper and surprising insight into how much writing teaching requires. A fellow student in my ENG 102-42 class shared before the interview with Hutchins, “My sister and mother are elementary teachers, and they do a crazy amount of writing.”, but it was only after my interview that I realized both the amount of writing and the many genres that teaching requires. From notes to children, forms for the district, and other writings, both formality and informality is used. Following the interview, such insights will definitely broaden and solidify the scope of my informational report.

Brief Analysis of Sources

For the three sources I have prepared for my informational report, I had difficulty at first choosing articles that related to my profession---elementary education---and how much writing or what genres teachers utilized the most. To structure my paper properly, then, for the requirements given in my informational report guidelines, I am using different aspects of each source to intertwine with the stronger details given to me in my interview.

Although I may use two newspaper articles, the first I will include will focus on the need for teachers to have strong and appropriate writing skills for their profession (Northeast Arkansas Teachers Explore Writing Development at Summer Institute; Targeted News Service). For this approach, I will also share details relating to teachers' writing included in the academic journal article I found, entitled, Teaching Writing to Elementary Students in Grades 4-6: A National Survey. The second newspaper article I will include will revolve around the written media now being explored that teachers often share in their classrooms (No More Pencils; The Village Voice). Lastly, for my website, I will be using the Kentucky Department of Education's webpage (www.education.ky.gov) to share the standards of writing children are held to, and thus, teachers must have as well. Combined, these articles will give a broader picture of the media, genre, and requirements a teacher must possess before being able to accurately teach themselves. With the combined information from my interview, I will also be able to accurately represent writing in the teaching profession.