Keeping it Real! Establishing an authentic audience to provide meaningful learning for students

NOVEMBER 2016 (39) e-PUBLICATION SERIES

You walk out on the stage proud of what you have done.

But, there’s no one in the audience.

What do you do? … Stand tall and sing to yourself? Or walk back off stage?

Keeping it Real!

Establishing an authentic audience to provide meaningful learning for students

A

uthenticity is a word that is thrown around a lot these days. But what does it actually mean? In an education context, it means satisfying individuals or groups outside of the classroom or school. Back when I was at school, I don’t remember doing anything authentic or meaningful with the work I produced in class. The awesome piece I wrote about the magical carwash in Year 3 got nothing more than a scratch and sniff sticker from the teacher and a round of applause from my classmates before being returned back to my locker to sit between my scrolled up handdrawn family tree from last term’s art lesson and a rotting banana. In this day and age, the internet and a variety of emerging communication technologies now make it possible to offer students more authentic learning experiences and educators are now more than ever beginning to see the benefits of sharing student work beyond the walls of the classroom … they are finding ways to keep it real with meaningful opportunities for students.

Picture this for a moment … You are a performer.

You spend endless time writing and rehearsing songs. You are really good at what you do. You spend time in rehearsals refining and editing your performance so that it is flawless. It’s the night of your concert. You walk out on the stage proud of what you have done. But, there’s no one in the audience. What do you do? … Stand tall and sing to yourself? Or walk back off stage?

It was like this for me with my writing piece when I was in Year 3 and is also still like this for a lot of students today. I’m not sure about you, but if I walked onto a stage to perform and there wasn’t an audience member in sight, my ego would e-Teaching November 2016 (39) – researched and prepared for ACEL

by Fiona Stafford, Year 6 classroom teacher, Geelong College, Victoria

be deflated, my desire to continue would dampen and I definitely would quickly develop a what’s the point? mindset. On the flip side, if there was an audience clapping and appreciating the work I had done, I would feel valued and motivated to do even better the next time. The difference between the two performance scenarios is significant; one performer may as well be singing into their shampoo bottle in the shower, whilst the other has an audience which involves doing something with real-world relevance that can make you feel connected, motivated and empowered.

Why have an authentic audience?

Gone are the days where students come to school eager to win their teacher’s approval. Therefore it is vital to give them a sense that someone besides their teacher cares about their work. A teacher,

Also published by ACEL • e-Shortcuts – Wisdom for successful school leadership and management • e-Leading – Management strategies for school leaders • e-Technology – Technology in the classroom • e-Early Learning – Thinking on early learning Subscribe online at www.acel.org.au

How to get started: 1 Develop a purpose for a project: identify a focus that connects curriculum to a community.

2 Find an audience that would benefit from the project.

(NOTE: numbers 1 and 2 could also be done in reverse if you design a project around the needs of an audience) 3 Establish learning outcomes and curriculum links 4 Decide how to track student progress.

5 Share them with your target audience and other members of the school community.

With an authentic audience, students are driven by the knowledge that their work will leave the school, go out into the world, and be judged not for their ability to complete an assignment, but for their ability to reach other people.

Take the time to ask yourself: What are we doing?

Why are we doing it?

Who is it for?

If it isn’t clear, then the quality of the work won’t be as high, the motivation not as strong and the learning not as deep. Keep it real! like a parent, is an audience, but not necessarily an authentic audience (Steinkuehler, et al., 2012).

Authentic means real or genuine (Webster, 2016).

Having a real audience indicates to students that their efforts are taken seriously and have value beyond the classroom. An authentic audience changes everything; it means students need to have a vision of a product that matters and develop a connection with it. It’s not just something that they’ve created for the teacher ‘just because’ or for a grade. It’s a real piece of work that will be seen by real people in the real world. When student work culminates in a genuine product for an authentic audience, it makes a world of difference (Levy, 2008).

Examples of how I have used an authentic audience to motivate and engage learners: • Communicating with a local tourism company and establishing a brief for our students to create Promotional Films for the client to use on their social media outlets to advertise the local area through the eyes of kids. To successfully complete this task, students had to apply knowledge and skills in creating a product that served this community need.

• Designing a project where students had to find a need to fill within the community. This project was called #amaze_them. It involved the students having to research their immediate community and find their own target audience to cater for.

• Contacting the Melbourne Zoo and arranging for students to create a Conservational Film which involved them lending their voice to an endangered animal to raise awareness and inspire a call to action. This project was inspired by their Save Our Species Campaign.

• Creating Instructional Films to teach a specific audience a new skill. The students had to learn

When student work culminates in a genuine product for an authentic audience, it makes a world of difference (Levy, 2008).

Some ways to share your students’ work: • On social media outlets linked to school accounts like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter • Having an expo during the year to display student work • Online: school websites, parent portals and student blogs • Open days and parent evenings • Send it home as gifts to parents, grandparents and siblings

content and develop their own skills in order to complete the product.

• Publishing writing pieces in creative and purposeful ways. Students also make a Writer’s Gift, which is a collation of their best pieces of work that goes home with them at the end of the year as a gift to their parents. Some students also take their audience a step further and enter their published pieces into Writing Competitions.

In some instances, their work gets published on websites and other online media through the competition organisers.

• Writing posts and articles on passions and interests through Blogs and Websites. Not only does this form of writing energise students, but their words also reach an audience that cares about the same things. The blog sites allow for students to share their work and provide an opportunity for their audience to comment and give feedback.

With an authentic audience, students are driven by the knowledge that their work will leave the school, go out into the world, and be judged not for their ability to complete an assignment, but for their ability to reach other people. Without an audience they are simply just doing, so get onto more meaningful platforms and send a message out that what students are doing is valued. Let’s get the work out of the lockers because the audience is coming for the concert!

References

Levy, S 2008, ‘Giving Students Ownership of Learning’, The Power of Audience, vol. 66, no. 3, pp. 75–79.

Steinkuehler, C, Squire K, Bararb, S, 2012, Games, Learning and Society; Learning and Meaning in the Digital Age, Cambridge University Press, pp. 256.

Webster, M, 2016, Merriam Webster Publications, available at http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ authentic