What Does A Good Blog Comment Look Like?

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Welcome, everyone! The week before Winter Break, we did some lessons on writing blog comments. Here are the things that we discussed in these lessons, and the ideas and suggestions that you guys all came up with (good job!):

WHY should we comment on other peoples' blog posts?

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 Blogging is an activity that is meant to be more than just a place to put your work from your classes. It should be seen by more people that just you and your teacher. Blogging should be an activity that connects students with the outside world, and gives them an audience so that they realize that their work, words and thoughts are actually meaningful. The more people read a blog, the more the blogger will want to post on it. It is as simple as that!  So read other peoples' blogs, and comment on them so that the bloggers KNOW that you are reading them, and hopefully the same will happen to you. Remember that if you want people to comment on your blog, a good way to do this is to end your blog post with a question for them to respond to.

What should blog readers do when commenting on someone's blog post?

If you are reading someone's blog and want to comment on a post, there are three things that you should always do:

1.) Read the whole post before you comment.
2.) NEVER, EVER write a comment when you are upset, angry, sad, etc. because you might write something that you will be sorry for later.
3.) Talk about specific things from the post.


You keep talking about writing meaningful blog comments. What does a meaningful blog comment look like?

Excellent, excellent question! I talked about this with all of my classes, and this is a summary of all of the answers that I got from you guys:

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A good or meaningful blog comment...

- Talks about the content that is in the post and mentions specific things.
- Is respectful and appropriate.
- Does not go off-topic (keep the focus on THE POST!).
- Gives specific details (example: I agree with you when you said _________ because _______).
- Adds new information about the topic of the post (if possible).
-Has constructive criticism (you don't have to like what the blogger is saying, or agree with it, but you should say this in a positive or helpful way).
- NEVER, EVER contains personal information of any sort (names, addresses, phone numbers, email, etc.)
- NEVER, EVER contains gossip or says bad things about other people.

What should I do if someone writes a rude or inappropriate comment on my blog?

Hopefully this will not happen to you, but in case it does, here are the step that you should take if you get a comment like this on your post:

-DON'T approve it!
- DON'T delete it (you will need it to show to an adult).
-DON'T respond to it or confront the person who wrote it.
- DO show it to an adult.

Important! Remember that if you approve a rude or inappropriate comment and it shows up on your blog, you are just as responsible for it as the person who wrote it.

How To Write A Quality Comment

Here is the video clip that I showed in class. It includes tips on writing quality blog comments, so be sure to check it out! It was made by a class in California who were also learning about writing meaningful comments on blog posts.

Elf Yourself Flash Mob!

We are working on two different skills in class today: 1.) embedding video clips from YouTube, and 2.) writing good comments on other peoples' blog posts. To practice this, we are all choosing a YouTube clip that we like, and that is also appropriate for school! We are going to learn to embed this video in a blog post.

Here is the YouTube clip that I chose, featuring an Elf Yourself flash mob in NYC:



When you have chosen and embedded your video clip, you should write a brief paragraph (5-6 sentences) that explains why you chose the clip, what you like about it, and why you think other people who read your blog will like it. Write this paragraph right underneath your video clip.

For example,  I chose this video for several reasons. First, I love flash mobs! I think that it takes an incredible amount of organization for the people who create the flash mob, and it takes an incredible amount of time and energy for the people who take part in it. Learning the dance moves as such a large group cannot be easy, and the commitment that is shown by the dancers is amazing. I really admire everyone who takes part in these flash mobs. Second, I love the holiday spirit that is shown by having the dancers dress up as elves, and watching this mob dance made me smile. I hope that it makes everyone who watches it on my blog smile, as well.

We will then look at each others' blog posts and use the information that we learned about writing good comments in order to write a comment on TWO other students' posts. These comments should talk about the video clip, and the paragraph that they wrote.

Have fun!