Most of Mrs. Yollis' new students are
novices to the world of blogging. (A
novice is a fancy word for someone who is new or inexperienced at something.) A few students know about blogging because they had a
first grade blog with Mrs. Levy.
Two students are familiar with blogging because their siblings,
Hannah and
Miriam, were in Mrs. Yollis' class last year. Both girls earned their own blogs by demonstrating responsible work habits and consistently contributing quality comments to the class blog.
Because most students are new, we will devote this post to the skill of composing a quality comment!
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.
Today we will focus on quality comments!
Content is key!
In our class, we evaluate our blog comments.
A one-point comment is a general comment that doesn't add very much to the post. Example: I like your blog. Please visit mine! A two-point comment adds something to the comment conversation. A commenter might compliment the writer in a specific way or add new information. Another idea is to make a connection. Maybe the post reminds you of an experience that you've had. Share that connection! Try to end your comment with a relevant question. That way, an interesting conversation can develop.
Here is a video made by Mrs. Yollis' students about How to Compose a Quality Comment!
It offers tips to help you take your comments to the next level!
We like to open our comments with a greeting and end with a closing. We choose to do this as it makes it easier for us to follow the conversation within a comment section.
Mrs. Smith, from Ontario, Canada, adds another excellent idea:
Give some information about where you are from and what grade you are in.
Thanks for a great tip, Mrs. Smith!
-For Advanced Bloggers-
Some bloggers like to use HTML code to make their comments better. Learning to write HTML code, or HTML tags, is a somewhat simple way to take your comment to the next level.
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is a language.
* * * * *
To write HTML code,
use the following symbols:
Important: Do not add a space between the HTML tag and the word or sentence.
1. To put text in italics, place this HTML code around the text:
The sentence will look like this when published:
Bloggers should always proofread a comment before publishing.
2. To make text bold, place this HTML code around the text:
The sentence will look like this when published:
Bloggers should always proofread a comment before publishing.
3. To make a hyperlink, it gets a little tricky.
Use the following HTML code around the URL and add your own link word/words:
[The URL is the address of the web page. It starts with http://www…]
The HTML code below:
Will become this hyperlink when published:
Sometimes it is hard to remember the HTML codes. I keep an HTML word document on my desktop with all the common codes, especially the one to create a hyperlink. Here is a video demonstrating how easy it is to a create a hyperlink if you have the code set up in a Word doc.
If you like to add fun shapes...here are those codes!
What did you learn about quality commenting?
Why is it important to proofread a comment before pressing publish?
Have you ever had a conversation in a comment section?
1. Locate Mrs. Yollis' Classroom Blog under drop down menu for "Best Class Blog". 
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