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You will interview an elder (75 years +) about his or her
life.  The person can either be a well-known
grandparent, or someone you met for the first time.  You will ask about the person’s infancy,
childhood, adolescence, and early/ middle adulthood.  You will ask about family, loves, health,
hopes, dreams, disappointments, and lifestyle choices.   You will then write a paper that will:  summarize the person’s life, apply the
literature/theory, and reflect on your own emotions and insights about the
assignment.  
This
assignment will help you appreciate the many factors that make up the many parts
of a person’s lifecourse. You will develop interviewing skills as well as practice
applying theory in action.
Both
the Multidimentional Approach and the
Life Course Perspective require that
we view clients in the context of environment and time.  Therefore, before you interview your elder, you
must review the history, culture and/or social-political environment of the
times. 
PRE-INTERVIEW
PREPARATION
Prior to meeting with your interviewee,
you need to familiarize yourself on the elder’s environment (geographic
location, cultural traditions, customs) and time (historical events).  For instance, if your elder was influenced as
a child by the Great Depression, then research this historical time in
America.  If your elder is a Korean War
veteran, then learn about this war.  If
your elder is a Mexican immigrant from the Bracero Program, then find out about
policies of the Bracero Program.  If your
elder experienced the death of a child, familiarize yourself with the research
and literature on this topic.  If your
elder has a disability of some kind, what kind of background information might
you need to know? The purpose of preparing in this way is so that you can ask
sensitive and meaningful questions.
The
more background information you have, the better your questions will be and
consequently, the richer your interview will be, for you and your interviewee.  This interview might take up to 3 hours.  If this is the case, you need to decide if
you should meet more than once.
Note: For help with your questions, refer to the accompanying sheet
called “Life History Questions.” Do not ask all these questions. When you are
with your elder, do not drill him or her with question after question.  Part of the lesson of this assignment is to
practice interviewing skills ask relevant, thoughtful questions in a manner
that is considerate of the elder, and listen and engage with their answers.
Some questions on this sheet will not be appropriate.  Be sensitive to the emotional nuances of the interview
and to the needs of the interviewee.  Use
the skills you have learned in Social Work 140A to increase the effectiveness
of the interview.
GUIDELINES
FOR THE PAPER
ORGANIZATION OF PAPER: Divide your paper into four sections:
I. PRE-INTERVIEW PREPARTION, II. THE INTERVIEW PROCESS, III. THREE
RELVANT THEORIES, IV: SELF REFLECTION. Use a title/cover page, insert page
numbers, use 12-point font and use 1” margins.
PAGE LENGTH: Maximum page length, including your cover sheet and reference
page, is 10 pages.  Do
not go beyond this. It takes
longer to grade and will make me angry. 😊
Most papers are 8 to 10 pages. So, 6-8
pages of text.
USE APA CITATION FORMAT: You can find information on how to do
this at http://csus.libguides.com/c.php?g=768155&p=5510615
or
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/general_format.html
NUMBER OF SOURCES:  Have at
least five “academic” sources on your final “References” page. Feel free
to use more. You can use the required books for the class. If you choose
to use general websites or blogs, these will be allowed but not counted
towards your five sources. It will cost you points, however, if the
content in those non-academic sources is faulty.
Your other sources should be from academic sources.  If you need help with this, go to the library
(i.e., that big tall building in the center of campus J) and find
the Social Work reference librarian, Bill Christy.  He will help you find sources that are “peer
reviewed” and/or written by scholars in the field. 
NUMBER OF IN-TEXT CITATIONS IN THE PAPER: Have at least seven in-text
citations in the paper.
REWRITES: After the due date, there will be no re-writes of this
paper. 
LATE PENALTY: .5 points per day starting at 9:00am. (half a point)
GRADING CRIERIA: This paper is worth 90 points. The grading
criteria are outlined on the grading rubric (found on Sac CT).
PART OR
ASPECT OF PAPER
POINTS
Pre-Interview Preparation
10
The Interview Process
20
Three Relevant Theories
25
Self-Reflection
10
Use of the Literature and APA
15
Clarity of Writing
10
Total
90