What makes a life well-lived? Students in English 12A at CHS, in October, are partnering with the Chelsea Senior Center to ask this thoughtful question. The elderly play a big role in inspiring how the new generations shape the course of their lives. Understanding the values people obtain in life and how their past impacts them is vital for students to better prepare themselves for the future.
Valerie Johnson, the only English 12A teacher at CHS, planned this interview assignment. From crafting interview questions, practicing the follow-up questions, to interviewing senior citizens about their lives, there is plenty to be done.
“We are working on creating a mini documentary, and it is inspired by an actual documentary called ‘Lives Well Lived' by Skye Bergman, where 40 senior citizens are interviewed, asking the question, ‘What makes a life well lived?’” Johnson said. “We are partnering with the Chelsea Senior Center, along with Jon Van Hoek (the Assistant Director of the Chelsea Senior Center); he and I have paired groups of students with a senior citizen who is coming in to be interviewed.”
Students are learning to look beyond what is written in the books. Senior students are transitioning from what they have been most exposed to (the things that they have read about), to real-world application by hearing individual stories from primary sources speaking right to them!
“It has been all about storytelling, and we've looked at storytelling through nonfiction, specifically with memoirs. We looked at it through verbal storytelling with our mouths. And so this project is kind of taking all of those components and thinking about the real-world skill of how people tell stories, and what storytelling looks like in the real world,” Johnson said.
Working together and getting ready for future job skills are the hopes of Johnson's interview assignment. Students are staying on top of things and learning all about independence.
“It's helping them be collaborative. They're taking ownership of their own group. I have little to nothing to do with the choices they're making as filmmakers and documentarians, and so they have to collaborate with each other in that way to put together this documentary. So they're learning all the things that kind of go hand in hand with what's expected of them as employees in the work world,” Johnson said.
Understanding the assignment is important. Being a new experience for most, students are excited to interview senior citizens and learn how to use a camera.
“We’re learning right now about how to work the camera angles… It's fun to have a video project because we don’t normally have those in school,” Giovanni Bickel (‘26) said.
Sophia Getty, a senior in Johnson's English class, explains that they haven’t begun the interviews and are still preparing. With plenty of different steps and learning opportunities, she finds this project interesting.
“It’s going really good…we watched a documentary for inspiration. We have some strong questions, and we made sure to prioritize the ones we want to talk about the most,” Getty said.
Getty has high hopes for the interviews and believes that there is a lot that she could get out of them. Opening up ideas and future plans, she is finding it very helpful.
“It’s made me think a lot about the choices I’m gonna make soon, going to college and stuff…..these people have had so many different experiences and careers, and they probably have a lot of wisdom to give me about that…its a really good project, and I’m excited to actually interview my person to learn more,” Getty said.
