Authentic Audience

As a teacher of writing, the importance of having an authentic audience for the students has become extremely clear to me.

The effort that goes into writing and the enthusiasm and excitement levels about writing directly correlate with whether or not the students in my class believe that someone else is going to read, and care about, their writing.  When students realise they have a purpose for their writing, and that they are portraying a message through their writing that is going to be heard they want to do their best, not to impress me as their teacher, but for themselves.  They want to write something that they will be proud of and that they know their friends and families would be proud of also. 

At times it can be difficult to ensure that each child always has an authentic audience for their writing with the crazy timetable that comes along with being in a Year 6 class. However, none of my students are out on Friday mornings and so we have now dedicated a time on Fridays to celebrating and sharing our writing.  During this time each child reflects on whether or not they have achieved their writing goals during the week and leads discussions with me if they believe that they should be/want to be working towards a new goal as well.  Once this reflection on our success is completed, we share our writing using the two stars and a wish model. Each Friday each child finds a new partner to share their writing with and discuss in pairs, and then in groups of four what they thought was successful in their partners writing that week and what they believe their partner needs to work on.  I find this a very successful way to ensure that feedback and feed forward is not coming solely from me, and my students absolutely love it.

Last Friday the students asked if they could make a film about it to share with their families and friends and so we have put together a short film with some students discussing what they have been doing and why they like it.  Please enjoy and comment and let me know your thoughts about how I can continue to develop an authentic audience for my budding authors.

Room 3 - Writing - Goals and Two Stars and a Wish