This year I have been supporting the New Media and Digital Journalism classes for high school students. In both courses students focus on creating content using a variety of digital tools for authentic audiences. Writing for authentic audiences is a great way for students to be more accountable for their published work. Recently I found a great article that provides several project ideas when writing for an authentic audience.
Angela Stockman created an incredible list with links to resources to help students write for authentic audiences. Some of my favorite ideas are below:
- Blogs are still highly accessible. I’m told that all the cool kids hang out on Medium now. I’m trying, too. Teacher Ashley Bayles explains why this matters here.
Blogs are a great way to have students document their learning. Edublogs is a great tool that provides features to sort by tags, author, and categories. On the class blog we use tags for topics (ie digital citizenship, bias, propaganda, digital well being, etc) and the categories to sort classes / school years.
- Memes are funny, and that’s why they go viral. Kids love making and sharing them, too. Sharon Serano shares good ideas and perspective here. Mashable offers six tools here.
Adobe Spark’s graphic tool is an easy way to create memes with images and texts. Memes can be incorporated into blog posts as well.
- Comics and Cartoons can be used to express information, arguments, and stories. And there are a bunch of digital tools that enable digital (and beautiful) design and social sharing. Here are a bunch of tools and apps.
Storyboard That is an easy tool to create digital comics. The free version allows you to create comics with up to six panels and you can create up to 3 comics a week.
- Podcasting is hot, and kids enjoy making them. Anchor is a great place to begin.
Podcasting has exploded in popularity over the past few years. There are great episodes from NPR on Listenwise you can use an examples. Tools like Soundtrap (paid) and BandLab (free) make it easy for students to create podcasts.
- Book Trailers are a blast to create, and writers could make them for their own work or for other books they’ve read. Adobe Spark is great here, too.
As Angela writes, Adobe Spark is an easy to use tool to create videos. For more advanced projects WeVideo provides additional tools to make videos.
- Lists (like this one) tend to appeal to wide, wide audiences. Writers can publish them across many platforms, for many purposes. Here’s why list posts work and a few tips for creating a good one.
Websites like BuzzFeed are very popular for their list articles. Having students create their own list articles is a great way to create content for an authentic audience.
- Take a Stand. What’s unfair? Who is being harmed? Write a letter to the editor. Speak at an event. Rally.
Again, Adobe Spark is a great tool for creating web pages, graphics, and videos about issues. Adobe Spark videos also provide templates with prompts which are helpful for students.
These are just some of the excellent examples from Angela Stockman’s post about writing for authentic audiences. Check out her blog post for more great ideas.
Source: [101 Ways Young Writers Might Publish for An Authentic Audience(http://www.angelastockman.com/blog/2019/09/28/101-ways-young-writers-might-publish-for-an-authentic-audience/)
Photo: Mediamodifier / Pixabay