Sunday Summary: Authentic Audience on #slowchated

You can relive the entire week's chat with the Storify archive!

From hanging work in the hallway to having my students publish their own book blog, giving kids an authentic audience has been a powerful force in my classroom this year. I was happy to jump in and moderate #slowchated this week to find some other perspectives on authentic audiences.

I started the week with this question:

I was surprised by the wide range of answers. This one matched my initial thoughts on the topic:

A1 #slowchatED Audience is authentic when the teacher is not the audience. Big #tlap ? if Ss did not have to be in class, would they?
— Mr.Allard (@MrAllardSS) March 9, 2015

 But these ones made me realize that there might be more to choosing a truly authentic audience:

A1: "Authentic" = no connection to Ss, no reason to hide real praise or criticism. #slowchated
— Samantha S. Bates (@sjsbates) March 9, 2015

A1: a logical consumer of discipline's product. Ss are historians then reviewed by historians. If public history then the public #slowchated
— Adam Powley (@MrPowley) March 9, 2015

I've been successful at giving my students an audience they have no connection with. I often share our book blog on Twitter tagged with #comments4kids As a result, my kids have received feedback from teachers I know in other parts of the country along with others who have absolutely no connection to me or our school. When we've discussed it as a class, everyone agrees that they take more care with their writing when they are truly publishing it for the world. We don't know who will read it.

I really like the idea of using people with expertise as an authentic audience. When I invited judges for my school's Invent Idaho competition, I asked a friend who is an accomplished tinkerer to view the projects. With his experience in electronics projects and scale modeling, he was able to give students feedback on their projects that I wouldn't have considered. Our district technology coach also judged. He has judged at many of these competitions, so he was able to offer yet another perspective. Going forward, I want to find more opportunities for my students to present to "logical consumers."

A2: Love bringing admin, town leaders, etc. to hear/judge ideas (world religions campus education campaign, use psych to tutor) #slowchated
— Becca S (@rschouvieller) March 10, 2015

There are so many appropriate audiences for students, the key is getting their work in front of someone. The background photo above is a poster some of my math students made after learning about scale drawings. It's been hanging in the hall facing our playground for months, giving my students an authentic audience for their work each time students go in and out the playground doors.

A2 Without audience awareness, Ss sometime err in believing that others are like themselves and that same choices work for all. #slowchated
— Barbara Larochelle (@BarbLarochelle) March 10, 2015 

I hadn't directly thought about the benefits of audience awareness before. But, I have seen my students go from assuming everyone knew all about the characters in Harry Potter and other popular series to understanding that they needed to provide that information in their book reviews. I think building audience awareness leads to developing greater empathy. It's definitely an idea worth exploring further.

A few of our slow chatters shared some great things they've done with their students. These were two of my favorites. Please follow the links to see some great student work!

A2.1: Our S-run newspaper @TheTornadoNews has Ss running the feed. Steady stream of news that the group deems necessary. #slowchated
— Ross LeBrun (@MrLeBrun) March 10, 2015

A2: Unveiled class blog 4 Pre-AP Eng 9! 1st post-from diary of Romeo+Juliet - http://t.co/v4Cd57psBB #INelearn #slowchated #DLday @ahsnation
— Chantell Manahan (@cmanahanahs) March 11, 2015

A2:The classroom becomes the most immediate authentic audience. We start there. 1st sem is almost all public sharing w/in class #slowchatED
— Seena Rich (@SeenaRich) March 11, 2015 

Although most of our discussion was about reaching out, this was a great reminder that our classrooms have a built-in audience. When work is shared with classmates rather than created for teacher eyes only, our students get many of the benefits of having an authentic audience. Doing it successfully, though, often requires teaching what it means to be a good audience, as described in the tweets below.

A3 Ss have to be coached to comment appropriately and usefully on each others' blogs. Otherwise all 'Cooool!'. We use a rubric #slowchated
— Barbara Larochelle (@BarbLarochelle) March 11, 2015

#slowchated A3 constructive feedback,even if its negative not putdowns,asking questions that are relevant and show a depth of understanding
— eric fieldman (@mrfieldmanchs) March 11, 2015

I've been able to incorporate an authentic audience in my English/Language Arts classes with our book blog, but I really want to give my math students more opportunities to put their work in front of others. Here were a couple other places suggested for authentic audiences.

A4 Anything from narratives, digital storytelling, Prezi projects & more.Having an authentic audience encourages quality results.#slowchated
— Elisabeth Bostwick (@ElisaBostwick) March 12, 2015

A4:Ss do TED style talks...just to class. If I could set up a public showing I'm certain it would up the performance/content #slowchatED
— Seena Rich (@SeenaRich) March 12, 2015 

During Day 4, Mark Crotty suggested that it was worth examining how the structure of school affects authentic audiences. I decided to use his question for our 5th day of discussion:

A5 Open doors-bring more of community in not just once year read w/ kids day-provide Ss w/ audience 4 presenting & working with #slowchated
— Ben Dickson (@BDicksonNV) March 13, 2015

Q6 Imagine class on a street corner, passers-by compelled to stop, so intrigued they stay for awhile and even engage. #slowchated
— Mark Crotty (@crottymark) March 14, 2015

I love this idea - a school so engaging that the community wants to be a part of it. By opening our doors and sharing the great work of our students, it can become a reality.

A6 I don't have an answer, but think this Q perfect to ask Ss. #slowchated
— bark (@teylaramsey) March 14, 2015

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in this week's #slowchated discussion of authentic audience. I'm excited to use what I've learned from this week's chat in my classroom. And I'll keep you updated as I continue to experiment and refine...