Friday, September 18, 2009

How to Comment on Our Blog

Blogging has many parts: the post, the comments, and the sidebar.

If you do a good job with all of the parts, your blog will be more interesting. A quality, well-written blog will attract more readers.
:-)
Today in third grade, we focused on the skill of commenting.




In small groups, we talked about what makes a comment good.

After much discussion,
we decided that the following comment rules should apply to our educational blog:

1. Content is key! We learned that you should try and leave quality comments on blogs. Leave a compliment, add more information to the topic, or ask a question. Try to be specific. For example, if you liked someone's post, tell the writer which parts were interesting to you and why.

2. Proofread! Be sure to start every sentence with a capital letter and end each sentence with a period. We are practicing and perfecting our Language Arts skills. Practicing correct grammar and spelling will make you a better communicator.

3. Try to make each comment a "2-pointer" comment! Each day, we evaluate the comments that our blog has received. In order to earn the 2-points, a comment must be error-free and add something to the post. Many of Mrs. Yollis' third graders have already met the challenge!


What do you think of our comment conditions?


How often do you comment on other blogs? Which are your favorite ones?


13 comments:

  1. I really like the idea of the students being able to asses or have their comments meet criteria. I think that its hugely important and would resolve a few issues that we have been having about commenting. I also like the fact that your students grade/reflect on the comments that you get each week. I haven't thought about doing it myself but I think that its something that I should definatly start doing with my classroom students... there's some fantastic ideas of teachers and students in this post!
    Mr Webb and Room 8, Hoping for a 2 Point Comment Evaluation, Melville Intermediate School, Hamilton, Waikato, New Zealand.

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  2. Dear Mrs.Yollis,

    I think you did an amazing job of teaching us how to blog the correct way. Good thing you taught us about blogging because I didn't know that much about how to blog.



    Your student,
    Kayla

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  3. Dear Mrs. Yollis,
    I liked you teaching us how to blog. Also I love blogging. Do you like blogging?


    Your student,

    Nick

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  4. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    I liked how you showed us how to blog. I also love to comment. When you were little did your teacher have a blog?

    From,
    Sydney

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    I think it is very exciting that your class gets to experience this. I would like to comment on Sydney's question. We did not even have computers at school when I was in third grade! Boys and girls are very lucky to go to school now when everything is so new and exciting!

    Mrs. Regan

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  6. @NZWaikato,

    Congratulations! Your comment was a 2-Pointer! You added a lot of details and wrote in long, descriptive sentences.

    We are going to explore your blog and leave a comment. We hope we earn a 2-Pointer from you!

    From,
    Mrs. Yollis' Class

    ReplyDelete
  7. Dear Mrs. Yollis' Class,

    Jaxon came home and taught me how to write a two-point blog and I am now trying to apply these criteria to the comments I offer on my corporate blog. Blogging as part of my job is very new to me and I think it is very important to not just agree or disagree, but to be specific about the parts that I have an opinion on. It provides quality feedback to the author, but also allows other readers to learn more and have more to respond to.

    Thank you for teaching me. I think I would have liked to have been in third grade in Mrs. Yollis' class in 2009!

    Sincerely,
    Barbara Palmer
    (Jaxon Novack's mom)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Dear Mrs. Palmer,

    Thanks for an OUTSTANDING comment! It is important to always be learning, even when we are out of the classroom, and you are a great role model for that!

    You bring up an excellent point about comments. If they are meaningful and constructive (constructive is a fancy word for useful), they are quite helpful to the writer and to the readers of the blog.

    Although it feels good when people leave comments, it is better if they add to the conversation. For example, a comment like “This is a cool blog!” doesn’t really add anything. It would be better to specifically state what is so great. That would really help the blogger.

    Thanks for being a big part of our blog! ☺
    Mrs. Yollis

    ReplyDelete
  9. @Sydney,
    You asked me if my teacher had a blog when I was little. Your comment made me smile. The reason I smiled is because...not only did we not have a blog, we did not even have computers! That's right, no Internet either!

    When I was in elementary school we read from books and wrote our thoughts on paper. When I got into high school, I typed my papers on a typewriter. If I made a mistake, I could not just "delete" the sentence. I would have to retype the paper or use a liquid called "White-out" to try and get rid of the mistake.

    When I was in college, there was *one* student in my dormitory who had a first computer.

    As a teacher, we started getting computers and the Internet in the classroom in the 1990s. They were very slow. We are all so fortunate to have the technology in our lives to learn about anything, anywhere, at any time.

    When did you first start using a computer?

    From,
    Mrs. Yollis

    ReplyDelete
  10. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    Thank you for your kind response to my comment on blogging comments (doesn't that sound like a funny sentence). Jaxon mentioned that you would like me to provide a link to my blog, so here it is:
    www.thesearchagents.com .


    In addition, I thought I would put a link to the article that I wrote after Back to School night when I was so impressed by your class and your plans for the year. I hope that other parents were as excited about this year as I was.
    It’s Not the Same Old Third Grade


    See you on the blogsphere.

    Best,
    Barbara Palmer
    (Jaxon's mom)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thanks for posting a photo of your thinking/brain-storming. That gives a great feel for your lesson.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Mrs. Yollis,

    Thanks you so much for your comment on my blog.

    Our flag has nineteen stars because we are the nineteenth state. The thirteen stars on the outer circle represent the original thirteen colonies. The one large star above the torch represents Indiana. The torch represents liberty and enlightenment.

    I really like the idea of 2-pointers! That's a great idea! To all of your students, great comments! I'm afraid some of my classmates can't leave such great comments. I'm impressed! I'm not sure that I could write that well as a third grader. Keep it up!

    Hope you learned a bit about our flag! Have fun blogging!

    ~Abbey
    http://abbeyr.edublogs.org

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  13. I'm looking forward to the day when our teachers are appreciated more and don't only have to look within to feel rewarded for their work. Thank you Mrs. Yolis for helping my nephew Amitai appreciate the value of a good education.

    ReplyDelete

* * *
Getting feedback is important to our writers. Let us know what you liked or what you learned.

Steps to Comment:

1. Write your comment in the box below. Be sure that you have proofread it for spelling, grammar, punctuation, and capitalization. Students should have a parent check it!

2. Choose an identity. (If you have a gmail account, use it. If not, choose name/url. You can leave the url blank if you do not have a blog.)

3. Click "Publish your Comment". You may preview your comment before publishing if you'd like.


Important: All comments MUST be approved by me.
:-) Mrs. Yollis