The Grade 6’s love doing our weekly broadcasts on 105 the Hive. They are eager to share their learning in so many different subject areas using this online radio station. While there’s always lots of students happy to participate, often students question if anyone is really listening to them. Today, the class knew that they had an audience.

This morning, I received an email from one of my students. She was at home sick, but she knew about today’s radio show, and she wanted to join in. She asked what time we would be broadcasting, and the address of our Today’sMeet Room. I replied with the details. Sure enough, at just before 2:00 today, this student started chiming in with her posts in the room. The Grade 6’s were thrilled! Now they knew someone was listening to them at home.

A Recording Of Today’s Radio Show

It was interesting, as her joining in started a conversation about others that have done the same:

• another student that was sick also listened from home.
• one student was away on vacation in the Philippines, and he listened to the broadcast and tweeted his contributions.
• students even shared that their parents listen from home or from work.

Knowing the audience is real can make a real difference. Students knew that their thoughts were being heard, and they really wanted to share them. This makes me think of what other ways I can give students an audience for their work and their discussions.

How do you give students these “real audience” opportunities in your classroom? I hope that we can all share our ideas here!

Aviva