Blogging: Teaching Commenting Skills
21 02 2010I am currently in the process of introducing my Grade Two students to blogging. Our 2KM class blog is proving to be very popular with students and families.
As I have previously blogged about, I like to follow these steps when introducing blogging to students.
This is my third year of blogging with young students and I am still learning all the time. In previous years I believe I progressed much too quickly from having students comment on the class blog to writing posts. My students never really learned how to compose a quality comment and I believe I didn’t set my expectations of the students high enough! I was happy for them just to be commenting.
This year I am taking a different approach. Inspired by the amazing commenting skills of Mrs Yollis’ Third Grade students, I am putting a lot of effort into teaching my students how to write quality comments on posts before we move on to writing posts.
By “quality comments” I mean
- writing the comment like a letter (greeting, body, closing, signature)
- using correct spelling, punctuation and spacing,
- reading over the comment and editing before submitting,
- complimenting the writer in a specific way, asking a question, and/or adding new information to the post,
- writing a relevant comment that is related to the post,
- not revealing personal information in your comment.
I really wanted to limit the “I like your blog!!!” or “2KM is cool” type comments and I am finding this explicit teaching of what a quality comment looks like is really working.
I am teaching students commenting skills through
- modelling and composing comments together on the IWB,
- teaching students about the “letter” format during writing lessons,
- giving examples of a poor/high quality comments and having students vote whether the comment should be accepted or rejected,
- having students read and comment on a post on our blog as part of a literacy rotation on the computer each week.
I collaborated with my teaching partner, Kelly Jordan on this poster “How Can I Write a Great Blog Comment?” to teach students about blogging skills. We will also send a copy of this poster home with each child.
Linda Yollis has written a fantastic article about how to teach commenting skills. It is well worth a read!
I have “borrowed” many ideas from Linda such as recording a screencast video that shows how to leave a comment on the blog. I recorded my screencast through Jing. I also used Linda’s idea of sending an email out to all parents to encourage them to leave comments.
As Linda says, “commenting is what keeps the blog alive” and “teaching and encouraging good commenting skills makes your blog more interesting for everyone.” I agree!
I’m almost afraid to comment. I might not meet your standards! Anyway, I applaud you. I’ve been trying to encourage teaching proper etiquette for all forms of digital messaging. Why do we not teach it, then are critical of kids for doing it poorly.
Kathleen,
Thanks for another great post. This is a fantastic explanation of why commenting is so important, and how to help students grow from it. You and Linda have helped me immensely with my blog this year!
I’m finishing up my own screencast with Jing now. I was wondering if I could “borrow” the format of your “how to comment” page when I post my own? Also, could you send me a .doc version of your “how can I write a great comment” poster so I can tweak it for my class?
Thanks again for all your fantastic tips. (And thank you to Linda also!)
-Jonah
@Thomas, LOL – thanks for the comment!
Hope the post helps. I agree that we sometimes assume kids know more than we think. Especially when it comes to specific technology skills. It was quite enlightening when I realised I have to explicitly teach my students what is a good comment!
@Jonah, when it comes to teaching commenting, Linda is a pro!
I’m glad it helped and good on you for making your Jing screencast! Please borrow anything you like and I will email you the doc version of the poster now!
I’m really enjoying taking a peek inside your classroom and learning about how you teach your students to blog. I love your step by step approach. I am loving the idea of posting as a class using the whiteboard before individually posting. I suspect that your students are really proud and eager by the time they get to post individually. Thank you for sharing your approach to blogging and the “how to write a blog comment”. Valuable skills for todays kids!
Thanks Kelly, I look forward to getting to the next step but I think the students still have a fair bit of work to go on learning how to post quality comments. I will keep persisting! I know the students will love to write their own posts. I suspect some students will get to that stage quicker than others!
Kathleen,
A huge fan of process, I am pressed by the way you not only focus on skills, but also build excitment along the way. Yes, I am certain your students will love writing their own posts and those who get there quicker will encourage and be encouraged by those coming along after.
Keep up the great work!
Chris
@ Chris, a do like a good “process” myself! Things have become so much clearer now that I’m following this process rather than dabbling in teaching how to write posts and comment at the same time. Thanks for stopping by.
Thank you Kathleen for this post.
I have been sharing blogs with teachers over the past two years now and the one thing that can be more challenging is the commenting and encouraging people to devote sufficient time for it. If we don’t comment we might as well have written in our books rather than on a blog.
I wil be sharing your post on my courses in future and trying to encourage the teachers to leave you a comment.
Hello Kathleen,
I found your post to be informative and focused. As a kindergarten teacher, I have also been teaching how to communicate using blog comments. We do this as a whole class and model how to support the author through knowledge of their topic. We ask questions to further show comprehension of the message. We often ask a question and we usually close with the same phrase that the children like to own – “Keep up the good work!” I will be adding you to my Reader and I thank Sue Waters for leading me to you.
We have also started blogging our own posts. This is being done in class, individually, and is shared with parents who are encouraged to post comments or even new posts with their children. That group of student blogs is closed to the public.
@ Joy, you’re right that if people don’t comment on blogs then there is no real benefit of blogging over writing in books! Thanks for sharing my post!
@ Gail, your site looks great and I look forward to checking it out further! Sounds like your have a great process happening in your class and I look forward to following your progress on your site.
“Keep up the good work!”
Hello Kathleen,
Thank you for your great post. You have encouraged me to try blogging with my 4th graders. I have never done this before and think your guidelines will be very helpful to me. It is important to have high expectations for this type of writing, especially when I see how my students write and spell when they are text messaging!
Thanks again!
@ Marissa, I agree that we need to have high expectations and students shouldn’t really be taking shortcuts until they know the correct way to write and spell. Good luck starting up your blog and please let me know how you go with it. I’m sure you’ll find there are so many benefits to blogging and you and your students will just love it!
Dear Miss McGeady,
Wow! I have really enjoyed exploring your blog (and your class blog)! I am about to start my internship in a 4/5/6 class and busy trying to get a blog together for the first time! I am hoping that I can build stronger school-family-community partnerships through the blog, and create parent interest in the students’ learning! BUT- there is so much to learn, I am now thinking this class will be my ‘trial run’, and it may not be as effective as I hope!! But, I want to thank you for the commenting guidelines, I am planning on explicitly teaching this now! Thank you for sharing your thoughts on how to teach blogging better (I am sure I would have jumped right on it with letting the students post too!!)
Kindest Regards,
and all of the best!
Miss Aulbury
@ Miss Aulbury,
I am finding blogging a fantastic way to build home-school-community partnerships and the families really love it! Start small and build from there. Good luck with your blogging journey and let me know how you go!
Kathleen