1) The Yearly Round

• This seasonal approach is appropriate for interviewing rural people.
• The general idea is to prompt the narrator to recount a year of life in terms of seasonal activities.
• NOTE: Don’t use this too early in the interview. First, establish a rapport.
• METHOD: Determine the period (childhood years). Tell the narrator your selected period (childhood years). Then ask when, considering seasonal activities and their rhythms, the year began. Prompt the narrator to proceed through the year, expanding on activities in each season, moving forward as discussion of each is exhausted.
• This technique is very useful when interviewing members of the same family or community. The narratives can be compared, contrasted, or integrated.

2) The Memory Map

• This technique is particularly effective with narrators in whose lives specific places and spatial relationships appear to have been important.
• Use of the memory mapping technique is participated when in the course of an interview the interviewer senses its potential.
• Method: The researcher must be prepared to produce a sketchpad and pencils for the narrator’s use (In some cases it may be necessary for the interviewer to sketch for the informant). Continue the interview as the mapping is being done. Encourage the narrator to talk about what they are sketching and determine the time and situation they are sketching. The interviewer should use the map as a prompt for the recollection of descriptions and events associated with the objects depicted. KEEP THE MAP.

3) The Cemetery/Landmark Walk

4) The Family Album

"Landmark Walk" Emil E. Schaffer