In this post, we\u2019ll explore six effective ways to help your students connect with a genuine audience for their blog posts or online creations.<\/strong><\/p>\n An authentic audience is powerful. When students know someone beyond the teacher will see their work, they can be motivated to push themselves and work harder.<\/p>\n This is something Clive Thompson wrote about in\u00a0Smarter Than You Think: How Technology is Changing Our Minds for the Better.<\/p>\n \u201cStop saying hand it in, start saying publish it.\u201d This paradigm shift from an audience of one to an audience of the world will inspire more students to achieve up to their potential, while instilling a life-long passion for genuine learning.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Making schoolwork purposeful can really impact student motivation and engagement.<\/p>\n Furthermore, when students have an audience for their blog posts, readers can provide further information, opinions, suggest resources, seek answers to questions and so on. This can drive a cycle of further learning and development.<\/p>\n In the past, the teacher was<\/em> the audience. Now, the teacher can help their students find their own audiences.<\/p>\n This doesn’t have to be a daunting process. You can start small and over time build up to establishing global audiences that can offer diverse perspectives.<\/p>\n Let’s go through six options for finding an audience for students’ blog posts, starting with the simplest options.<\/p>\n If all or some of the students in your class have their own blog, one of the best starting points is to encourage the students to be an audience for each other.<\/p>\n Teach students about the give and take nature of blogging and being part of an online community. This involves producing content, reading content, commenting, reflecting, and perhaps even using insights from others to construct new blog posts.<\/p>\n You might do this informally and just ask your students to choose a classmate’s blog to read and comment on.<\/p>\n Alternatively, you might like to set up a more structured arrangement where students work in small peer groups to mentor one another. For example, some teachers create blog mentor groups where students are assigned to read and comment on each other\u2019s posts regularly.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re using a class management tool like My Class<\/a>, you can even generate participation reports<\/a> to track which students are engaging with their peers.<\/p>\n Many teachers also find success with peer editing activities, where students provide feedback on drafts before publishing \u2014 helping to build both confidence and writing skills.<\/p>\n Parents and family members can offer a ready-made audience for student work, however, some education and ongoing encouragement is very important.<\/span><\/p>\n In 2017, we published a\u00a0Guide to Involving Parents with Blogs.<\/a><\/p>\n Here are some key points:<\/p>\n Your ready-made audience doesn\u2019t only consist of parents, of course. There may be other family members, including grandparents, who would love to become part of your blogging community but just need guidance or encouragement.<\/p>\n Another great way to help your students build their audience is to form reciprocal relationships with other blogging classes near or far.<\/p>\n How many other classes you connect with is up to you. You might decide to just team up with one other class, although a popular choice is to collaborate with a group of four classes that take turns reading and commenting on one another\u2019s blog posts.<\/p>\n To get the most out of team blogging, you want to make a genuine commitment to read and comment on one another’s blog posts over a set period of time, e.g., a month, a semester, or a school year.<\/p>\n Often, the focus class is rotated each week. So if you have four classes, as demonstrated in the diagram below, each class will receive comments for one week and then write comments for the other three weeks.<\/p>\n Firstly, decide whether you’re looking for a class where every student has their own blog or there is just one class blog.<\/p>\n Next, you’ll want to consider what age range would be suitable to work with.<\/p>\n Twitter (X) is a great place for teachers to connect and find classes with similar blogging projects.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve found a class that looks like a good match, reach out to the teacher via Twitter or by commenting on a post on their class blog. They might even know other classes interested in joining in.<\/p>\n There are a number of structured projects you can join to help your students connect with others, build their network, and find an authentic audience for their work.<\/p>\n Here are a couple of great options:<\/p>\n There are many reasons why it’s great to have your own PLN (Professional Learning Network) as a teacher. The graphic below summarizes just some of the reasons. These are explained in more detail in this post.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n If you’re not familiar with PLNs or how to go about becoming a connected educator, we have a free, self-paced course<\/a> that can help.<\/p>\n Having your own PLN is a key way to also help your students connect with others and start developing their own networks.<\/p>\n What would this look like in terms of helping your students find an audience for their work? <\/strong>Here are just a few examples:<\/p>\n Outside of education, most people land on a website because Google sent them there.<\/p>\n For older or more advanced students, you might start having a discussion about finding an audience organically. Together you could explore how people who publish online outside of education go about this.<\/p>\n Students might even start creating content that people will be looking for in Google. To aid this process, you could:<\/p>\n As an active voice on the web, students can become part of rich conversations that are much wider than their classroom. They can learn that their insights and ideas are valuable.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Helping your students find an authentic audience for their work might take a little time and effort to set up but the rewards will be worth it!<\/p>\n Students can learn to think beyond grades and pleasing the teacher, and start contributing their voice, knowledge, and resources to a global community.<\/p>\n How do you find an audience for your students’ work online? If you have any tips or ideas to share, we’d love to hear from you!<\/strong><\/p>\n 50 New Blog Post Ideas For Students<\/a><\/p>\n![\"There](\"https:\/\/www.theedublogger.com\/files\/2019\/01\/How-To-Find-An-Authentic-Audience-For-Your-Students-Work-TWITTER-2eidlt3-259iyt4.png\")
<\/div>\nWhat Are The Benefits Of An Authentic Audience?<\/h2>\n
![\"studies](\"https:\/\/www.theedublogger.com\/files\/2018\/12\/Clive-Thompson-Authentic-Audience-quote-1g96uzr-1owktl4.png\")
Alan November<\/a> is also well-known for suggesting,<\/p>\nThe Role Of The Teacher<\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.theedublogger.com\/files\/2019\/01\/Authentic-Audiences-For-Students-The-Edublogger-12wy1n2-22ulua5.png\")
<\/p>\n1) Fellow Classmates<\/h3>\n
2) Family Members<\/h3>\n
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![\"Infographic](\"https:\/\/www.theedublogger.com\/files\/2018\/12\/Infographic-Get-Families-Involved-In-Blogging-2g4c4rs-1b1smf7.png\")
<\/p>\n3) Team Blogging<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"Team](\"https:\/\/www.theedublogger.com\/files\/2018\/12\/Team-Blogging-Example-Edublogs-1j970df-24cmgy3.png\")
<\/p>\nWhere to find classes to team up with?<\/h3>\n
4) Projects<\/h2>\n
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5) Your PLN<\/h2>\n
![\"8](\"https:\/\/www.theedublogger.com\/files\/2019\/01\/Why-teachers-should-build-a-PLN-Summary-Edublogs-Teacher-Challenge-yld5u0-ra0bbi.png\")
<\/p>\n\n
6) Make Sites Findable On The Web<\/h2>\n
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Conclusion<\/h2>\n
Related Reading<\/h2>\n
![\"There](\"https:\/\/www.theedublogger.com\/files\/2019\/01\/How-To-Find-An-Authentic-Audience-For-Your-Students-Work-PINTEREST-29f7w0t-svhft5.png\")
<\/a><\/div>\n