The clincher! Student's voices can now be heard in ways we never dreamed of as elementary students. The audience piece goes hand in hand with the collaboration piece, so there may be some repeated info here. The basic premise is that we all work better when the work is valued and real, which requires an authentic audience and a real purpose for the work. Author Daniel Pink says that all people are driven by the need for Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose. We strive to provide this for our students.
One of our best examples of audience and purpose revolves around an iPod grant some of our students wrote a year ago. The kids were involved in our technology leadership club, and they decided that they wanted some iPods to record video and help with reading fluency. They wrote the grant together on an etherpad page. Etherpad is gone now, but you can still use very similar tools like TitanPad. At any rate, the students did ALL of the work. It took week to get it done, and it took almost a year before the grant was awarded. The work was incredible. We believe it was because the students had a real audience an purpose for the work. You can read more about the grant in the links below.
iPod Article Number One
iPod Article Number Two
We have definitely learned to love Mr. Ferlazzo's lists. In the post below, he outlines some of his favorite places for students to write for an authentic purpose. Ferlazzo List
If you are looking for a large international audience, you should at least consider ePals. It is a large network of folks looking for partnerships and is a great place to start.
Skype Education is another network of teachers and classrooms who are just waiting to get in touch with you and your students.
#Comments4Kids was the way we began to get comments on our student blogs. It is a great idea that originally started with Mr. William Chamberlain.
Speaking of comments, there is a fair amount of debate about "grading" these days, and blogging is an interesting thing to grade, especially if you try to grade collaboration and/or commenting. Here are some comment and blog grading ideas:
Blog comment rubric
Blog comment rubric two
In the end, it really does not matter how you go about finding an audience and a purpose for the work of your students. It only matters that you do it. And no excuses! If kindergartners can do it, so can you!
