Yearbook Questions to Ask
Interview questions for yearbook staff collecting quotes and student profiles, arranged from easy openers to the reflective ones, with notes on what tends to produce a printable answer.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What is the first thing you tell people about this year?
Why ask it
Whatever comes out first is usually the honest headline, and it gives you the angle for the rest of the interview. It also warms up a student who is nervous about being quoted.
Where did you spend your free periods, and who was usually there?
Why ask it
Specific places date a yearbook better than any general reflection: the loading dock steps, the band room, the corner table. Follow the names too, because this is how you find students nobody has photographed yet.
What was the running joke in your group this year?
Why ask it
Good for atmosphere, but check whether it makes sense to someone outside the group, and whether it could be read badly in print. If it needs three sentences of explanation, use the explanation instead.
What class surprised you, for better or worse?
Why ask it
The word surprised gets you past "my favorite class was history." Answers about a class that turned out badly can be printed if you keep them about the subject rather than the teacher.
Which teacher changed your mind about something?
Why ask it
More specific than asking for a favorite teacher, and it produces a story rather than a name. Ask what the mind change actually was, because that sentence is usually the quotable part.
Which club, team, or job took up most of your time?
Why ask it
This catches the students whose main commitment happens off campus, at a paid job or caring for a sibling, which yearbooks routinely miss. Ask how many hours a week, and the answer often startles both of you.
What did you get noticeably better at this year?
Why ask it
Almost everyone can answer this, including students with nothing to point to on a trophy shelf. It also produces a different quote from every person you ask, which is what makes a spread readable.
What is the hardest thing you pulled off this year?
Why ask it
Better than asking for their proudest accomplishment, which invites modesty and a shrug. If they name something small, ask why it was hard, and the answer stops being small.
What is something you worried about in September that turned out not to matter?
Why ask it
This is the quote that helps a nervous reader next year, which is half of what a yearbook is for. It works especially well with seniors, who have enough distance to laugh at it.
What would you tell someone on their first day here?
Why ask it
Ask for advice to one person rather than to a whole grade and you get something concrete, like which door to use, instead of "be yourself." Push back gently on any answer that sounds like a poster.
What is one thing you would change about this school?
Why ask it
Expect complaints about lunch and parking, which are fine and true. Decide in advance with your adviser how much criticism the book will print, so you are not editing a student's words after promising to run them.
Which small tradition here do you hope survives after you leave?
Why ask it
Turns up the customs that never appear in official school material and would otherwise disappear with the class. Get the details right, since this is often the only written record of them.
Who should get credit for getting you through this year?
Why ask it
The answer is often a bus driver, a cafeteria worker, a sibling or a coach, rather than anyone with a page in the book. Check name spellings twice, and ask whether the person is comfortable being named.
What is something about you your classmates would not guess?
Why ask it
The one question that makes a profile worth reading, and the one most likely to produce something a student later regrets. Confirm before you leave that they are happy to see it printed.
What song will bring this year straight back to you?
Why ask it
Short, easy to lay out beside a photo, and unusually good at dating a book years later. Ask why that song, because the reason is often the better caption.
What is the funniest thing that happened that you are willing to have printed?
Why ask it
The last clause does the work: it hands the decision to the student instead of the interviewer. If they hesitate, that is the answer, and you should ask for a different story.
What are you doing in September, and how do you feel about it?
Why ask it
The second half is the part that reads honestly, because plenty of students are more nervous than excited. Avoid printing plans as certainties if the student is still waiting on a decision.
What is something you will miss that you did not expect to?
Why ask it
Ordinary things surface here, a walk to school, a particular hallway noise, that produce far better copy than the obvious answers about friends and football games.
Where do you want to be at your ten-year reunion?
Why ask it
Reads as a time capsule when the class actually reads it back, which is the main reason to include a future question at all. Keep the wording open enough that a student with no plan can still answer.
What do you want your classmates to remember about you?
Why ask it
A closing question that lets a student write their own caption, so it belongs at the end after they have relaxed. Sit with the silence: the first answer is usually a joke and the second one is the quote.
Interviewing for the yearbook
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Running the interview
Ask four questions, not twenty
You need one or two printable sentences per student, and a short interview gets better answers than a survey. Pick the questions that suit the person in front of you and follow whichever one they light up on.
Write the quote down exactly, then read it back
Reading it aloud catches mishearings, lets the student fix their own phrasing, and settles consent in the same moment. It takes fifteen seconds and prevents most of the complaints that arrive in June.
Get names right at the time
Ask the student to spell their own name and the name of anyone they mention, and note the grade. Misspelled names are the error people remember for decades, and they cannot be fixed after printing.
Leave silence after the answer
Most students give a short first answer and then a better one if nobody fills the gap. Count to three before you ask the next question.
Consent and sensitivity
- Say up front that the quote may be printed with their name and photo, and that they can decline.
- Ask permission before naming a third party, especially a teacher or a family member.
- Check your school's policy on quotes, photo permissions and any student whose image cannot be published.
- Handle a death in the school community, or a student who has lost a parent, through your adviser rather than in an interview.
- Do not print an inside joke you cannot explain, and do not print anything that reads as a dig at a named person.
- Keep your notes until the book is printed, in case a quote is questioned later.
Coverage the book usually misses
Track who has been quoted
Keep a list as you go. Without one, the same twenty visible students end up on every spread and a third of the class appears only in the portrait grid.
Interview outside the obvious groups
Students with jobs, caretaking responsibilities, long commutes or online classes are the hardest to reach and the most likely to be left out. Ask staff who is worth talking to.
Collect more than you need
Expect to lose quotes to layout, to a student changing their mind, and to a page count that shrinks. A surplus is what lets you cut without losing whole people.
Common pitfalls
Printing the paraphrase
Cleaning up a quote into a smoother sentence usually removes the voice that made it worth printing. Trim for length, keep the words.
Asking only seniors
A book made entirely of graduation reflections has no record of what the year was actually like for everyone else. Mix in students who will be back.
Collecting quotes at the last minute
Late interviews get rushed answers and no time to check spellings or consent. Start collecting months before the deadline, when students still have the year in front of them.