Often we ask students to produce work which will only ever have one audience: the teacher. Sometimes work will be displayed and sometimes it will be peer assessed but the majority of schoolwork remains pretty much unseen.
Ron Berger, author of An Ethic of Excellence, is the expert in Project Based Learning, and one of his key beliefs is that students must work with a real audience in mind. In this video, students present to a real audience, having interviewed real people.
When there is an authentic audience for work, there is a transformative effect not just on the final product but, more importantly, the whole process.
Improving quality and redrafting
With authentic audiences, the work has to be good enough to present to that audience. If it isn’t, it has to be improved. It can be hard to impress upon students the power of redrafting when it is only for the teacher. Often, students will rewrite things with a few words changed and a few spelling errors fixed but they won’t achieve mastery. Having a real audience in mind helps students to focus on the minutiae of improvement but also makes them more receptive to critique.
Thinking like professionals
When you make a piece of work real, you change the role of students in the class. Students can legitimately label themselves in the professional terms of the subject. If, for example, students are producing a scientific report on the energy efficiency of the school building, then they actually are scientists. With this viewpoint, it is easy to say ‘what would a scientist do?’ if a student is struggling. You can even get in experts to speak to students or to act as regular ports of call.
While this approach is often a part of project based learning, it has its part to play in our more traditional lessons too. Here are 10 ways to ensure that students’ work has an authentic audience:
1) Display
Often, display can be used to showcase only the best work from students. This is not in itself a bad thing but look at the video below of High Tech High in San Diego, where every student’s work is displayed without exception.
2) National competitions
At any given time there are many competitions which can be a great motivator for students’ work. Our food technology students entered ‘Cook for the Queen’ last year. We have entered videos for ‘Lights Camera Parliament’ and entered a mock trial competition. I am sure there are more. For example, the Royal Mail have just launched this design a stamp competition for primary schools. STEM regularly organise competitions as do many other subject-based organisations.
3) Letters and emails
There are so many opportunities to send letters and emails. Write to local MPs, to authors, to newspapers, to local businesses. It isn’t hard to change a task so that the work will be sent to someone when it is finished.
4) Blogs
Because I am writing my thoughts down on this blog, I have to ensure that what I say is appropriate, meaningful and reasonably literate! The post takes many forms and goes through many drafts before I press ‘publish’. Then I wait for people to read it and comment. The thought that people read this is both rewarding and terrifying. Through the blog, I have also had helpful comments, constructive criticism and lots of feedback. It should be no different for students. Students can be given their own blogs or they can post on a central class blog. Either way, they are then able to share their work with a wider audience. These posts will get you started:
http://misstiggr.wordpress.com/2013/06/09/setting-up-a-student-blog/
http://misstiggr.wordpress.com/2013/06/15/setting-up-student-blogs-getting-them-started/
5) Skype
Skype education has a massive scope. You can search for students/ educators/ institutions offering lessons, you can sign up to deliver a lesson or you can forge links and just set up chats. For example, if a Spanish teacher wants students to speak about their hobbies, why not get them to speak to a school in Spain? Jon Tait explains how to use Skype in the video below:
6) Videos made by students for students
You can ask students to create videos for other students. This is a helpful activity because a) it allows students to summarise their learning b) it motivates them as they know it will be seen and c) the students who get to see the presentation learn from their peers. This could be particularly helpful in those subjects with carousels e.g. Science, Technology where students could summarise their learning in the form of a video to introduce the topic to the next class. Sixth form students can easily record videos for younger students. You could even build up a Youtube playlist over time like this one on Biology from CrashCourse. If this interests you, have a look at this blog from Mike Gunn: http://failingtolearnbetter.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/10-ways-to-use-youtube-channel-in.html
7) Create for another subject
Our Construction students designed and built this version of the Globe Theatre for us to use in English. Music students could create for Dance lessons. Art students could create for Drama lessons.
8) Community
Every school exists in a unique community. There are always interesting historical and cultural stories but often people don’t see that the school exists in a particular context. There are so many members of the community who would be able to play a role in your lessons and so many potential audiences for students’ work. At our school we have worked with local primary schools, local O.A.P. groups, the local Victorian Baths, accountancy firms etc.
You can see some examples of student projects involving the community such as this project on San Diego Bay, this on the Charles River, or this on birdlife in Cramlington.
This is another fantastic project where a shop was used to exhibit student work.
Note: You can see many more examples of student work from Ron Berger’s Expeditionary Learning here: http://elschools.org/student-work
9) Commissions
It needn’t just be about starting a piece of work you would normally do and then thinking about a relevant audience. Sometimes there are real projects that can be commissioned and which can act as the starting point for your work. For example, why not speak to your local council about surveys that they might like completing? Speak to charities about jobs they need doing. Speak to newspapers about articles they need writing. Do local businesses need advertising- a jingle?
10) School Events
Schools are abuzz with events. Visitors are forever in. There are parents’ evenings, performances, sports fixtures, staff meetings. There are so many opportunities. Even if this is just to capture the audience to display work.