Narrative Nonfiction for the News Workshop Energizes Teachers
On Saturday, October 15th, Julie Dugdale, Senior Editor of 5280 Magazine stood next to a table-cloth-covered piano at the front of the artsy cafe space at Swallow Hill Music School and casually welcomed teachers from across the Denver metro area. Behind her hung framed artwork of famous musicians like Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan.
The teachers dedicated their Saturday morning to learning--learning to write narrative nonfiction for the news.
Dugdale led teachers through a workshop that focused on the magazine writing process, understanding one’s audience (readership), the unique publication process of a monthly, how to pitch a story, and the techniques associated with writing newsworthy narrative nonfiction.
Dugdale noted that “magazine writing is about storytelling; it’s about grabbing the reader’s attention – making it impossible not to turn the page.” In describing the content of 5280 magazine and the ins and outs of writing nonfiction narratives, Dugdale gave teachers real-world writing scenarios that they could bring back to their classrooms and apply to their own personal writing as well.
The primary focus of the writing activities was on interviewing. “Your research is for gathering facts,” Dugdale noted. “The interview is about digging underneath – it’s about emotions.”
Using specific guidelines, teachers wrote interview questions for potential magazine stories and then participated in mock interviews. Some of the interview techniques associated with this activity included being a keen observer of the scene when the interview is in process.
When interviewing someone, the writer should record more information than the subject’s words, including the interviewee’s attire, facial expressions, and body language. Dugdale gave teachers the opportunity to make their own inferences about a subject’s personality based on his/her clothing, attitude, tone of voice, and posture.
Another focus of the workshop centered on writing quality interview questions. The questions you ask the interviewee matter tremendously. If you don’t approach the interview process with open ended questions, it can be a waste of time. “An interview should be like a [comfortable] conversation,” Dugdale explained. “If you are uncomfortable as the interviewee, they will be too.”
Participants designed our own interview questions and tested them out on another participant. Dugdale, then, challenged participants to write our their leads and profiles based on their interviews. When participants shared their own writing with the large group, everyone learned how powerful interviews can be to drafting a story that people want to read.
Here’s what the participating teachers had to say about the workshop:
“It’s good to be on this side of the equation – to participate in activities that I would have my students do. It forces me to think through writing activities in a different way.” – Sarah Doyle-Hendren, English Teacher
“For me it’s a matter of honing my collaboration skills. I got some great ideas for when classes come into the library and we want them to do nonfiction writing and make it interesting.” Mary Gelb, Teacher Librarian
“This workshop helped me wrap my brain around the structure of this type of writing. It helps me see that the things we teach in the classroom – hooks and leads etc. – do exist in the real world and we can provide those examples for our students.” – Kate Mulcahy, ESL Teacher and Member of the New Millennium Initiative Writers Guild
