"That's My Best Friend": The Social Work(ings) of Middle Schoolers' Writing for Hybridized Audiences

• In Event: Millennium Hotel Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: From Hybridized Audiences to Feeding Forward: Approaches to Writing Assessment and Feedback

Abstract

School writing is notorious for lacking an audience beyond the teacher. Pedagogies with a focus on online and real world writing often encourage writing for broader “authentic” audiences beyond classroom walls. In this analysis of how Chicago middle schoolers wrote, performed, responded to, and reflected on spoken word poetry in-person and on a class blog, we document a nuanced and robust understanding of a classroom community--including peers, a teacher, and other adults--as an “authentic” audience. We found that writers accomplished intentional social work with their peers, including performing friendships and repositioning themselves. Ultimately, we argue that creating hybridized spaces for youth to engage as writers and audiences moves beyond the teacher as primary audience/evaluator, inching us closer to justice.

Authors

• Becca Woodard, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Emily Machado, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Andrea Vaughan, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Rick Coppola, University of Illinois at Chicago