Posting Comments on Blogs

The fifth and sixth graders just started blogging about their thoughts on current events for their social studies class.  I wanted to see the power of a blog - rather than it being just a place for their teachers and classmates to see, it is a place where they can have a worldwide audience.  So, after the students' first posts, I taught them about commenting.

Many times when reading student blog comments, I see unproductive comments such as "Great blog" or "Hi".  Those comments do not move the conversation forward for the reflective conversations that blogs really encourage, so it was essential to teach the students about appropriate commenting on blogs.

We watched this video on creating productive comments (created by some elementary students) and then made a list of the expectations for commenting.

Expectations for commenting on blogs

1.  Read previous comments to make sure you are adding something new to the conversation.
2. Compliment the blogger in a specific way about their post
3. Add new information about the topic
4. Make a connection
5. Ask a question to the writer to keep the conversation moving forward
6. Proofread

The students took these expectations to heart!  I was impressed with the transformation in the quality of comments just from having these expectations in front of the students.

Before the lesson, I would see comments such as the one below.

These are a few examples after today's commenting lesson: