STEP 1: Find a married couple between the ages of 20 and 40 who is unrelated to you to interview. Keep their information confidential by using pseudonyms. Include a short introduction detailing their gender, approximate age, occupational status, and cultural background. If your interviewees are willing to be recorded for the interview (and they understand their videos will be shared and no longer anonymous), you may include the video or audio recording, although this step is not required.
Ask them the following questions, plus add in at least two of your own questions and responses. Ask each person in the couple to respond separately to each question. Ask probing questions, and write the responses in as much detail as possible, so that your classmates can get a good feel and understanding for this couple’s relationship.
- How did you meet? What attracted you to each other?
- Were you in other serious relationships prior to your marriage?
- How long did you date? What was a typical date like?
- When did you decide to get married? Did you live together first?
- What do you do together for fun?
- Describe each of your roles in the relationship. How did you come to have these roles?
- What are your biggest arguments about in your relationship?
- Do you have children? If you do, how did you make the decision to have children and how has having children changed your marriage?
- Do you work? How do work responsibilities impact your family life?
- What is the biggest strength of your relationship?
- <add question>
- <add question>
STEP 2: Post the interview and responses to the discussion forum.
STEP 3: After looking at your own interview and the others posted, pick at least one other interview to compare with your own. Focus on these two as you write a post between 250 and 500 words discussing what you’ve learned from these interviews. Compare and contrast the two marriages. Do you see any patterns? How does gender affect some of the answers? What did you learn? Were there any answers that surprised you? How do the responses in the interview tie in with or confirm the things you learned about in this module?
STEP 4: Return to the discussion to comment on at least ONE other post (in at least FIVE sentences). Expand on a classmate’s post in a value-adding, topic-related way. Promote a collaborative, supportive community, and advance the dialogue through follow-up questions. Reply posts cannot be one-liners, off-topic posts, vague statements, unsupported opinions, inadequate explanations or simply say, “I agree” or “good job.”
| Criteria | Proficient | Developing | Not Evident | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Presents a coherent post between 250-500 words | Writes in clear, descriptive sentences with no or few grammatical errors. The post is well organized and complete, and addresses observations and trends from the interviews. | Does not provide enough detail in the post about connections and observations from the interview, or post contains several grammatical errors. | Incomplete post or difficult to understand. | __/10 |
| Shares complete interview of the married couple | Copies and pastes the entire interview in the discussion board, and it includes two original questions. | Shares a partial interview or does not share enough detail in the interview responses. | Does not include interview or interview includes only yes or no answers. | __/6 |
| Posts at least one reply to the discussion | Posts a value-adding and related comment that contributes to discussion about marriage and early adulthood. | Includes a weak or off-topic comment on another post. | Does not post a value-adding and related comment that contributes to discussion about marriage or early adulthood. | __/4 |
| Total: | __/20 | |||