STRENGTH-BASED INTERVIEWS

Ten Reasons to Do a Strength-Based Interview

1. Every learner is unique and needs ways to celebrate his or her uniqueness.

2. When students lose the belief in themselves, they cannot be successful.

3. Creative learning is never boring.

4. The responsibility for learning is the student's responsibility. But before students can take responsibility, they have to know what will work for them.

5. In order to take responsibility for learning, the learner must be metacognitive.

6. One teacher's strategies may not work for the student, even though they may work for the teacher.

7. Students who aren't effective in basic skills don't know what they need to do differently.

8. MI provides a reframe for students, a positive paradigm so they can have hope for success. "Just because you can't do it one way, doesn't mean you can't do it. You just need to do it your way."

9. Unsuccessful students are tunnel-visioned in their use of strategies. The regular way didn't work and no one gives them permission to do it in an alternative way.

10. Inappropriate behavior is often a signal of something the student is good at:

* The mover is demonstrating Body Smarts.

* The doodler is demonstrating Picture Smarts.

* The talker is demonstrating People Smarts.

* The one who says "let's get to the point" is demonstrating Number Smarts.

* The hummer is demonstrating Music Smarts.

* The arguer is demonstrating Word Smarts.

Your job is to help students identify strengths from their areas of competence, and teach them how to build bridges from those areas to the thinking we want them to develop.

The strength-based interview is conducted in five parts:

Part 1: Setting the Tone and Gathering Strength-Based Information

Part 2: Identifying a Problem

Part 3: Brainstorming with the Team

Part 4: Using Strategies Diagnostically with the Learner

Part 5: Following Up

Before You Begin

Put together a supply of materials or props that will help you conduct a strength-based interview.

The strength-based interview requires:

* Usually two sessions with the student, each approximately 20 minutes.

* A space where you are relatively free of distractions.

* A student whose primary issues are cognitive rather than emotional.

When you administer this interview, your job is to really listen. Listen not just to the overall content, but also to the wording and phrasing used, the verbs used, the way the learner describes his or her world. The questions below are meant to be options or prompts to get at the necessary information. You do not have to ask all the questions, nor use this exact wording. If you become stuck, the dialogue stimulators below are sure to work, but insert your own personality, your prior knowledge of the learner, or anything you have available to help you get at the key issues:

* How does this learner's brain work best?

* Under what conditions?

* Using which modalities?

* Using which intelligences or associations?

Part 1:

Setting the Tone and Gathering Strength-Based Information

Goals:

* Set the tone

* Identify the expert

* Have student verbalize individual strengths

* Structure the student into a metacognitive dialogue

* Record (tape or notes) the learner's perceptions and validate the learner's experiences

Breaking the Ice

First, open a dialogue with your interviewee: "Our reason for meeting today is to find out more about your brain and how it works. We all have different ways in which our brains are smart, and I want to find out more about your brain." Alternatively, you can say, "You are the expert on how your brain works. I am going to ask you a bunch of questions to get you thinking about how your brain works best. You are free to answer in words or pictures, or to build things with any of the materials on the table." Have materials available from the list on page 3 that may be helpful to the child, such as markers, white board, pipe cleaners, plastic brain, Koosh ball, or other props.

Strengths

Photocopy the form on the next two pages. Use this form to ask questions and to record the student's responses. These questions have been designed to elicit the student's self-perception as a learner. Again, don't feel as if you have to ask every question, but make sure you get enough information to really understand the learner.

If, after you have completed the interview, you have collected a tremendous amount of information, condense what you have onto a fresh page that can be used to share information and plan interventions.

If you are doing more than half the talking during the interview, you are not getting information from the real expert — the learner. Don't worry if the student talks about things that are not related to school. You are interested in the process of learning — when does it happen best and easiest. For example, the student who has already taken apart and rebuilt car stereos has learned a great deal of information, skills, and procedures. You just need to find out the magic formula for how the student learned it and how he or she remembers it. Later, you can help the student to translate that formula into school-related learning.

Introducing the Student to the Concept of Multiple Intelligences

Have the student use the eight toy props you collected (see page 3) to manipulate and organize responses. You may also use the eight Smart Part icons. You might read the first half of Brilliant Brain Becomes Brainy! as an introduction.

First, lay out the eight toys and let the student manipulate them.

Then introduce this material by putting the following quote into your own words.

"Here are eight symbols of the eight ways your brain is smart. All people have all eight of these intelligences in their brains. I want to make sure you understand how each one works, and then I am going to ask you to decide which one your brain is strongest at, and which ones your brain...