Student Comment Challenge

Commenting is an art that needs to be practiced, reflected upon and learned. Good commenting practices make for good blog citizens.

Kim Cofino and Sue Waters have begun the comment challenge for us as educators. The purpose is to get all of us commenting and thinking more, battling the twitch speed fo twitter with reflection and thought.

They have also started the comment challenge for students. I think this 30 day challenge is a great way to have students practice and reflect on their commenting practices. I added a few ideas to the student activities section of the wiki:

- Simply challenge students to leave the most comments for others in their class (give them comment starters so you don't end up with a bunch of "hi lols")
- Challenge them to leave the most comments on the blogs of students from others classes
- Challenge students to leave the longest comments
- Challenge students to leave comments for students in as many different places as possible (give each student a map or keep a classroom map that you can put push pins in
- Get students to find several (3-4?) students in other classes and work intensely with just these people, leaving repeated comments for them, beginning more indepth conversations
- Have students save all of their comments in one place (a google doc?) and at the end of the 30 days, have them evaluate how their comments have changed or improved, having them pick their best ones - a comment portfolio!

I've also added my name to the student groups page and so far (sniff!) I'm alone. So who else is interested in getting classes connected for this last portion of the year?

P.S. - I also think that this would be a great way to connect classes close to the beginning of the school year.

Tags: kimcofino, sue waters, comment challenge, education, blogs

Comments

[Claire Thompson]

Clarence, I like your ideas for the student comment challenge, especially the last one. In fact that would be an interesting exercise for all of the challenge participants, not just the students. I'd join you on the 'student groups' page, but I don't have students blogging yet--soon I hope. Looking forward to the challenge!

[Ann Oro]

I think this is an excellent idea. It's something that would be great for my students in September when I plan to really work harder on connecting them with blogging. For now, I'll just have to watch the idea grow on the student end.
Ann

[Kim Cofino]

@glassbeed Awesome! Such easy to implement ideas that will make commenting more relevant and meaningful for students. Thank you!

I think the thing that will make the biggest difference for classroom teachers is to actually have that list of blogging students on the Activities page - sometimes it's hard to find classes that are committing to the same level of interaction, so I hope we get at least a few more classes signed up before tomorrow!