Ten Audience Analysis Exercises - EFL Classroom 2.0

Ten Ways to Ask Students to Re-think the Classroom
1. Place your students in the future. It's the year 3098. A team of archaeologists
discovers your classroom, exactly as it is now. What do they make of their
discovery? How do they describe the space? What do they imagine happened in
the place? How do they support their findings--that is, what things in the space
support their conclusions? Students could form teams (writing groups) and work
in online InterChange conferences to gather ideas about the space. They might
write a group paper or individual papers reporting their findings to the
organization that funded their archeological dig. Or they could write a "newspaper
article" (whatever the equivalent to a "newspaper article" is in 3098). You might
even ask them to write about their discovery as an email message to a friend or
family member.
2. Ask your students to work as ethnographers in the classroom--explain the idea of
participant-observers, and have your students observe the community in your
classroom. What social structures exist? How do members of the community
interact? How do the physical structures in the classroom affect the community?
By comparison, you might ask students to observe the ways that computers work
in other places on your campus--what kind of community is built (or not) in
public access computer labs, around workstations in the library, and so forth.
Students might examine the differences: how does the community change, and
why does it change?
3. Make your students classroom designers. Give them carte blanche to rethink the
set-up and layout of the room--move the desks, tables, machines, and so forth.
Add equipment, furniture, and/or resources. If you have a drawing program on
your computers, they might even sketch out their designs. After their rethinking,
have students write a proposal to implement their changes--ask them to include an
explanation of the changes they would make AND a detailed justification for the
changes. For example, saying that they want to add a conference table to the room
isn't enough--ask them to explain why the conference table should be added and
how it will affect the learning that takes place in the space.
4. Enter an online discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of the computerbased
classroom. Ask students to use pseudonyms--Your discussion should
include campus administrators, teachers from other disciplines, family members,
politicians, teachers from other schools, alumni, and students from other schools
(including, say, high schools, other colleges, and so forth). You might assign roles
or have students choose for themselves, but work for a range of aliases. Urge your