Rogers Education Consulting

K-12 Literacy Professional Development

Writers’ Workshop: Writing for Authentic Audiences

The importance of authentic audiences is crystal clear as I work with classrooms around the world. When I begin work with a class of “new to me” students, I always ask them to write. This is usually greeted with groans, sometimes tears! There are a multitude of reasons for these groans and many different remedies, but one easy way to reenergize writing is to provide an authentic audience. Students are tired of writing solely for the teacher, who simply puts a grade on the paper. By nature, writing is social, so put the social back into the assignments! After all, the goal of writing is to communicate in the real world.

Here are some ways you can get started right away:

  1. Blogging! I know it’s scary to throw your students out into the world with a blog, but there are few other things that are quite as authentic and real for students. You can even have them vlog (video blog)! Don’t be frightened! There are lots of safe blogging platforms designed for schools with extra security and the option for teacher oversight. Before you begin with your students, think about all your fears, create rules around them and explicitly teach those rules to your students. Trust me – it’s worth it.  Have students:
    • Decide on a topic, goal, brand for their blog.
    • Once a week, write a post to the blog. This post would be a piece of writing that has gone through the entire writing process based off mini-lessons.
    • Share the blog with family and friends.
    • Possible platforms:
  2. Letters. I am going to assume we all have a letter writing standard or unit. Make it real! If students are writing friendly letters, set them up with a pen pal (try Students of the World). They can communicate via e-mail or snail mail, but each letter should go through the entire writing process. Students will need to learn how to build a letter sharing about themselves and asking questions that will elicit a response. If students are writing formal letters (complaint, complement, requests, or persuasive) they should write to a company or professional. When I was in the classroom, we had just completed a chocolate unit and my students wrote a letter to the president of their favorite chocolate bar company. We worked hard on the letters and mailed them. Within weeks my students had responses and free chocolate! If you ever want to motivate your students – write to chocolate companies!
  3. 6 ways to make writing authenticReviews. Similar to blogs, we live in a world dominated by reviews. Think about Amazon reviews, Yelp reviews, Google reviews, etc. Have students analyze these reviews and think about what is helpful and important as they read the reviews. What type of writing is strong and what makes you quit reading before you finish? Have students write their own review of a place, product, or movie/book.
  4. Contests. Contests are not for everybody (some kids just don’t like competition), but for those who do, this is the perfect authentic audience. You can locate contests in “the real world” or you can create your own. My son won his campus’ writing contest for scary stories in October. He was impressed with himself even though it never left the campus. However, if you want to explore other options, here are some ideas:
  5. Publishing. Have students publish an actual book. When I taught second grade and fifth grade, I had all my classes create a class book using Student Treasures. While the process was sometimes stressful, I never regretted the decision. When we were finished, parents had the opportunity to buy the book. It is a really nicely bound book. This company mailed me two copies. I gave one copy to the school librarian, who put it in the system and it was the most checked out book EVERY YEAR! Plus, I kept the book in my classroom library and year after year, it was the most loved book.
  6. Activism. It’s me – you didn’t think you were going to get a whole post without mentioning students finding their voice for a cause! Have students choose something that is important to them and create a multimedia project (movie, infographic, storyboard, brochure, etc.) that illustrates a point. Invite parents and community members in to hear and listen to the student! Take a look at Pen Pals World.

How do you provide authentic audiences for your students?

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