Despite the many technological advancements of our day, a good ol’ fashion orator still has a role in our society. Notwithstanding powerful arguments like those made by individuals such as Susan Cain, the ability to speak with others in an intimate setting and/or in front of a group matters deeply to the majority of employers, professors and future in-laws. The 21^st Century Framework encourages communication as one of the 4Cs, and is responsible for a shift in how many educators are viewing not only how we teach, but more importantly how students show what they have learned.

Similar to many of the Deeper Learning schools, New Tech Network schools require that students demonstrate their content mastery through oral communication (NTN elementary rubric). And while this skill in undoubtedly important for students-those presenting-what does it mean for the students in the audience? What are they taking away from listening to presentation? How are they engaged deeply in this process?

Merriam-Websters defines audience as “the assembled spectators or listeners at a public event, such as a play, movie, concert, or meeting”. This definition views those watching/listening as rather passive. I would argue that if we are thinking about deeper learning for all students-we need to consider the students who aren’t presenting-what do we want them to take away from the opportunities we are creating for others to build their oral communication skills? If an average class of 25 students provides each student with 5-10 minutes to present a concept, that’s 125-250 minutes potentially wasted for the remaining 24 students in the class if we are not asking more of them. We know that asking students to listen to say a lecture for this long is not engaging teaching and learning, yet we often ask our students to do something similar by listening to back-to-back presentations. How can we ensure that an opportunity for one student isn’t at the cost of a missed learning moment(s) for others?

Here are a few ideas to explore:

• Expand the definition of Presentation of Learning (POLs)-it can go beyond a Power Point or Prezi presentation. Think about exhibitions that engage the community (both in your school and beyond) and provide students with multiple opportunities to orally communicate what they have learned, in professional ways.
• If you are requiring students to do a PPT, have a game plan for what you want students in the audience to be doing and learning. If you want them to provide feedback on the presenters’ oral communication skills-have some sort of structured feedback form for this. If you want to expose them to new content being presented, have them do something with that content (consider questions from here: http://www.bloomstaxonomy.org/Blooms%20Taxonomy%20questions.pdf)-it can be as simple as an exit ticket with the visible thinking routine “I used to think…now I think…”.
• Maybe even evaluate students on how well they were an audience member-how thoughtful were the questions they asked the presenter, did they provide the presenter with feedback? how well they were engaged-did it somehow shift their thinking later? This could also be a great opportunity for students to self-reflect on their role as an audience member.
• Consider brining in what The Academy in Santa Ana calls “Authentic Audience Members”-these are people “from industry” that serve as panelists for presentations. You can break students into group to sit on panels with these professionals and then they can learn from the feedback that these real-world folks provide.

Like all things in the development of deeper learning, this requires a change in our thinking and in the culture of learning that we are working to establish in our schools. With a little bit of thinking about what makes for an audience in your classroom, we can begin to make small shifts that support an even richer learning experience for all students, at all times.

*If you have explored strategies that address this topic please comment and share- we are our greatest allies in this work!