Examples from the West Middle and West High community of teachers employing authentic audience in their classrooms

1. AUTHENTIC
AUDIENCE
Examples of Coaching in the classroom
Full post @ DrewMcAllister.net

2. A LOW-STRESS IMPLEMENTATION
Kelly Lautenschlager, West Middle comm arts teacher,
asked her students to compose their work using Google Docs.
Nothing out of the ordinary here. But what Kelly decided to do
next changed the way students approached the assignment: she
paired students with peers from other classes she teaches. Kelly
created authentic audience for her peer editing process simply by
connecting students in one of her classes to students in another.

3. ANOTHER LOW-STRESS IMPLEMENTATION
Corrie Meyer and Kristin Judd, math teachers at West
High, used an animation and presentation tool called Scratch to
introduce important elements of mathematical reasoning to
geometry students. What’s different about that? Instead of
asking students to download and “turn in” their projects, Corrie
and Kristin told them to post them online, in a gallery everyone
could view (even the “outside” world).

4. A COLLEGIAL IMPLEMENTATION
Donna Carter, gifted teacher at West Middle, has
embarked on a collaborative project with a colleague from
another Parkway middle school. Donna's students post their
own work to a wiki, a collaboratively created web site, and her
colleague's students simply view their peers work and leave
comments.

5. ANOTHER COLLEGIAL IMPLEMENTATION
Two Spanish teachers, Megan Schacht at West Middle and
Eileen Rodriguez-Kiser at West High, coordinated a project to
promote student participation in upper levels of Spanish.
Eileen’s Spanish 5 students did a cumulative performance event
that year, as they always did, but this time they did it for a real
audience – the 8th graders who would be joining West High the
next year. Skype joined the two classrooms quickly and easily.
Skype icon courtesy of YellowIcon

6. CONNECTING TO THE WORLD
Amy Cohen, science teacher at West High, recently began
a collaborative work with another teacher in Mexico, connecting
their students around the theme of medical sciences. These
students will correspond to one another through ePals while also
talking with one another through Skype.
This is an outgrowth of the work Eileen Rodriguez-Kiser
has been doing with another colleague at the same school in
Mexico. As we pursue authentic audience for our students, we
open up opportunities for others!
Skype icon courtesy of YellowIcon