Great work on your first week of the challenge! The first week actually ran over a two week period, however, we’re still calling this “week two”.
We now have 1005 students and 109 classes taking part in the challenge.
Know anyone who wants to register? We’ll close the registration forms on April 5th.
This week we are talking about commenting. And not just any old commenting, quality commenting.
Remember, if you’re on a computer, the menu on the right sidebar will help you navigate this post. The first few weeks of the challenge have the most information to go through so hang in there!
Some notable posts
With so many amazing posts and pages written during the last two weeks, it was hard to choose just a handful to showcase.
Let’s take a look at just some of the great work we spotted last week:
- Steph from Australia has used an interesting tool called Tellegami to introduce herself (also check out her fun sidebar widgets!).
- Aleks from 4th Grade Gifted Wednesday presented his avatar information nicely.
- Serge Galligani shared an interesting video of their deserted school in France.
- Mrs Yollis’ class in Los Angeles, is a long time Student Blogging Challenge participant. Check out the excellent work of some of her newest bloggers, Yogi and Banana, Lucky Ducky, and Chasing Cheetah (all these students use pen names).
- Nikija is an English language learner from Latvia. She enjoys ice skating.
- Scotty from Mrs. Caudill’s class in Ohio is a returning Student Blogging Challenge participant and he has made a terrific new avatar.
Reminders
- Can people visit your blog and comment? Is your blog public on the web (not password protected) and can anyone comment without logging in? The instructions to fix these issues are in this post.
- Are you approving your comments? Remember to approve any comments you receive in a timely manner and write a polite reply.
- Are you on our mailing list? Sign up here and make sure you add support@edublogs.org to your email contacts so it doesn’t end up in junk/spam. I send an email every Sunday.
- Teachers, remember you can summarise all this information on a page or post on your class blog. Here is an example from Kebra Panko.
Submitting your posts and viewing others’ work
Here’s an overview of the weekly process:
- When you complete a task, you submit your URL in the Google Form that’s at the bottom of the weekly post (there is a new Form each week). Click here to read more about the 4 step weekly process.
- If you want to see the work other students have been doing (and leave a comment), you’ll find the link on the sidebar of the Student Blogging Challenge homepage. I add the new link on Tuesdays to give participants a couple of days to start completing and submitting posts.
- You don’t need to request access to view/edit the spreadsheets with participants’ posts. The spreadsheets are “view only” and open to everyone. Please let students know.
- Miss W. checks all the posts before assigning them to a volunteer commenter. Incorrect URLs are deleted. Learn how to find your correct URL at the bottom of this post.
Reminders over, let’s get on with our topic… 😀
How To Comment
Before we look at quality commenting, let’s revise the basics of how to comment.
This Google Slides presentation might be useful to use in the classroom with beginner bloggers. It explains how to comment on Edublogs or CampusPress blogs.
Using a different blogging platform? Maybe you could make your own slideshow and share it with us for this week’s second task option!
The Benefits of Commenting
What’s so special about commenting? Why not just publish blog posts?
Here are ten reasons why comments are important:
- Comments turn your blog from a static space to an interactive space. This means it’s not just you talking. There is interaction.
- Back and forth conversations are fun and you can learn a lot.
- Because comments are not instantaneous (like online chat or text messaging), you can have more time to reflect, research, or think about your response.
- When someone leaves a comment, they can leave feedback, constructive criticism, or give you new ideas. This can help you grow and learn.
- A commenter might suggest something that you didn’t include in your post. You can learn new perspectives.
- When you have an authentic (real) audience, it’s more motivating! You know someone will read your post, so you will probably put more effort into it than if you were just writing something on paper.
- Commenting can be an ideal way for busy families to get involved in the classroom.
- You can learn how to interact politely and how to have conversations.
- You can meet new people and form friendships.
- Students who don’t have their own blogs can enjoy the benefits of blogging by being a participant in the comment section.
Could you add anything to this list? Tell us in a comment!
What Is Quality Commenting?
Which of these comments do you think is better?
Comment one
Comment two
Some students are young, learning a language, or just starting out and no one expects students (or teachers!) to be perfect.
However, when we aim to do certain things in our comment, we will learn more and develop skills that we can use in all areas of our life. We’ll also have a better chance of forming strong connections with others.
So what makes a quality comment? Here are some ideas. You might have your own ideas.
Elements of quality comments:
- Written like a letter with a greeting, body, and sometimes a closing.
- Correct spelling, grammar, punctuation, and spacing.
- Questions, compliments, and/or relevant new information.
- Making connections without revealing personal information like surnames, addresses, birthdays etc.
You won’t always include all of the above in your comments but these are the sorts of things you might aim for.
Quality commenting videos
This is a video about quality commenting that Linda Yollis made with her third-grade students way back in 2010! Many classes still enjoying viewing it.
For older students, this video by Nicolas Weiss is popular.
Sling’s 7/8 class in Canada created this terrific watch video on commenting during last year’s Student Blogging Challenge.
Commenting Help
When someone leaves a comment on your blog, it won’t show up straight away (unless you have turned off moderation in your settings which is not recommended).
Whoever has permission (teacher/student) will need to approve the comment first. Try to approve comments quickly, especially during the Student Blogging Challenge.
If you need help with managing your comments, take a look at these guides:
- If you’re using Edublogs or CampusPress, check out Comments Overview and Managing Comments.
- If you’re using Blogger, check out Manage Your Blog Comments.
- If you’re using Kidblog, check out Approving Comments.
Week Two Tasks
This week there are four tasks to choose from to help you learn more about commenting.
Choose to do one OR more!
Here is a summary. I will explain each task in more detail below with some examples and ideas for how classes can approach each task.
Task 1: Commenting Guidelines
How would you like people to write their comment on your blog? This task involves coming up with your own commenting guidelines.
You can put your commenting guidelines in a post, but they might be better suited to a page (find out how to allow comments on pages using Edublogs).
You can just write your guidelines down as text or make some sort of poster, graphic, or slideshow.
If you’re working as a class on this activity, you could come up with your guidelines together and all the students could make a graphic or poster to share on a page (or a series of posts). Perhaps a small group of students could illustrate one step each. Or the teacher can make the page and the students can comment on it.
Examples
You might make a How To Write A Quality Comment poster like I did below. Teachers, if you want to use this poster for your own class blog, feel free. You can grab a PDF copy here.
If you want to make your own poster, try a tool like Canva, Adobe Spark, Google Drawings, or even PowerPoint.
Of course, if you make your own poster, please personalise it and don’t copy my exact wording.
Check out the creative way Mrs. Vazquez made a commenting poster using a web tool called Thinglink. If you hover over the blue circles you’ll find more information.
More examples:
- Miaomiao included a cute comic where a dolphin and turtle learn about quality commenting.
- Mrs. Yollis made a wonderful infographic using Canva and Bitmoji to share her expectations for quality comments.
- “Dr. Hagle” and “Sarah Gold” used Puppet Pals to explain quality commenting using a Fairy BLOGmother!
- Rajyashori used emojis to explain her commenting guidelines.
- Brenton used some specific examples of what makes a good comment.
- Karl explained a great “3 C and a Q” approach to commenting.
Task 2: How To Comment
Many themes and blogging platforms have different ways to leave a comment.
You might need to click on the title of the post, or click on a number in a circle, or click on the words “Leave a comment”.
This task involves writing a page (or post) for your blog explaining how to leave a comment. (Remember, if you change themes in future, you might need to change your instructions).
You could write it as a set of steps or perhaps create a video showing what to do. Alternatively, make a slideshow like the one I shared in this post.
If you’re working as a class on this activity, you could come up with your instructions together and all the students could make a graphic, poster, or video to share on a page (or a series of posts). Or the teacher can make the page and the students can work on other activities.
Here’s a quick video I once made for my colleague’s class blog.
How to make your own video
- I used a free Chrome extension called Screencastify to make the video above.
- Loom is my favourite tool for making screencast videos (Pro is now free for educators).
- If you use an iPad you can make a screencast without any special app. Tony Vincent shows us how to do that in this graphic…
Tip: Find out how to add a video to an Edublogs or CampusPress blog here.
Need Pro? If you have a free Edublogs blog, you won’t be able to embed the video into your post or page. This is to prevent misuse by spammers. Contact us to get a free upgrade to Pro for the duration of the Student Blogging Challenge.
Example pages:
- Jena made a commenting information page that includes how to comment instructions and guidelines.
- Owen shared some screenshots showing how to comment.
- The McDowell Media students made some great how-to videos to let everyone know how to comment on their blog.
Task 3: Comment With HTML
This is a task for bloggers who are after a challenge!
HTML is a computing language for making blogs and websites.
If you’re using Edublogs/CampusPress and you switch from Visual to Text in your post editor, you’ll see the HTML code that makes up your post.
You can use some code in your comments to make your words bold, italic, or to add a link or symbol. ♥
HTML code tutorials
Check out these tutorials to add HTML code to a comment:
- Mrs. Yollis includes a page on her blog with some HTML code you can use when commenting.
- Here is another post explaining how to use HTML by Tech Superpowers.
- If you want to leave a link to your blog that looks neat and tidy, check out this post.
Cheat sheet: bold, italics, link
The instructions below show you how to use bold, italics, and add a link.
Remember, coding is about troubleshooting. So if something doesn’t work, take a closer look at your code. Maybe you’ve added a space or missed a symbol.
Now try commenting using HTML
Visit one of the participants’ blog posts and leave a comment. Then write a post telling everyone about the HTML you used in your comment. You might make your own tutorial for others.
Tip: If you want to include a demonstration of HTML code in a blog post, it can be best to write it in another program like Word, Google Docs etc. and take a screenshot of the code. Then insert the screenshot into your post like any other image.
- This article shows how to take a screenshot on any device.
- Click here to find out how to add an image to an Edublogs or CampusPress blog.
See this example below from Mrs. Yollis: she didn’t write the code straight in the post. She made it into an image…
If you’re working as a class on this activity, you could try leaving some comments with HTML as a whole class activity. Or perhaps the teacher can publish a post with instructions for using HTML and the students can leave a comment trying out some codes.
Task 4: Comment On Other Blogs
We know the benefits of commenting, so let’s leave some comments!
- Find three or four blogs you’d like to leave a comment on. Check out the green week one list on the sidebar. These are the lists of students and classes who have submitted a task so far. The week two list will appear on the sidebar on Tuesday.
- Leave a quality comment on one post on each blog.
- Write a post on your blog mentioning who you visited, which post you left a comment on and why, then include the comment you left. Include a link to the blogs you commented on too. Hint: make sure you copy the comment or take a screenshot before you hit the submit button.
Example posts:
- Figgy wrote a post telling us about the comments she left on other blogs and included the links.
- 12th grader Rheinhard reflected on commenting in this well-written post.
- Rajyashori from India shared some of the great comments she left on various blogs in this reflective post.
- Ms. Blessings’ grade two/three students shared some examples of the comments they left during the last challenge.
- Julien visited three student blogs and shared screenshots and links in his post.
If you’re working as a class on this activity, you could try leaving some comments as a whole class activity. Or perhaps each student could leave a comment on a different blog and write about the experience. The students’ writing could be compiled into one post or multiple blog posts.
Final Tips
Encourage comments: end with questions
A great way to encourage your visitors to comment on your post is to ask a couple of questions at the end of the post. You might make these bold or coloured so they really stand out.
Try using open-ended questions. So, instead of saying, “Do you have a dog?”, you might say, “Please comment and tell me about your favourite animals”.
Examples: Here is an example from Sarah who was in Mrs. Yollis’ class last year.
Tip for more advanced bloggers: organise your posts
If you’re new to blogging, try this later on!
Will visitors to your blog find it easy to search for a post they might be interested in commenting on?
- If you use Edublogs or CampusPress, maybe you need to start using categories? You can also use tags once you get the hang of it. Start with categories.
- If you use Blogger, try using labels.
- Weebly blogs use categories.
- Kidblog blogs also use categories and tags.
Categories, tags, or labels are all ways to organise your posts.
It’s a good idea to set up a category (or label in Blogger) called Student Blogging Challenge or STUBC. You can assign this category to all the posts you write for the challenge.
Safety first!
Remember when you’re commenting or writing posts, don’t yap about your YAPPY!
Submit Your Post URL ⬇
If you want a commenter and other participants to visit your blog, remember to fill in the Google Form below for the post you publish about your week two task.
You need to submit the URL of your post. You can submit the URL of a page if this is what you’re working on but make sure comments are enabled.
This video shows you how to find your URL…
Note, this isn’t a real class blog. Just one I used for testing 😉
Remember:
- Do not submit the URL of your blog or your dashboard.
- Click on the title of your post/page and then copy the URL from your address bar.
- This graphic below should help you understand what a post URL looks like if you’re using Edublogs/CampusPress/WordPress
The Google Form
Edit: This form is now closed. You can submit your work in the form of a later post if you are catching up. Check out the schedule here.
Teachers, you’re welcome to put the URL to this Form on your own blog or LMS if it makes it easier to share with students.
https://forms.gle/9gJPVR7W7rKMSHvX8
Next week’s topic: Images and media 📸
Many of the children in my class have really enjoyed this task and have been creating quality blogging posters whilst at home.
Hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did!
https://smsjcatholic.net/year52019/2020/04/02/student-blogging-challenge-quality-comments/
These are fantastic, Mr Gilbet! I will include them in the new post on Sunday so everyone can have a look.
Kathleen
Hi Kathleen,
Thankyou so much for mentioning my post, it means a lot!
Steph