Comments in the Classroom

February 7, 2008

Moving right along to our next session which will focus on blogging in the content area which I am hoping to pick up ideas to use with some of our projects. This session is presented by Melissa Prepster, Murchison Middle School and Lisa Mielke, Burnet Middle from Austin ISD.

Resources are online at their blog. This session is a tale of two schools. One school is affluent with the majority of students having Internet access at home and they don’t worry too much about TAKS scores. The other school has a low rate of Internet access at home and they are very worried about their TAKS scores. This session is focused on using the comments section.

In the beginning, teachers posted schedule online. It was really just information. Use Typepad.

Using the Comments

• Begin with a post and then students have to respond. The three examples shown were of an ESL student, Special Ed student, and one student who just got sent to ISS today.
• Wrap up a group activity: Each student drew a stick figure to review the six most significant figures in the American Revolution. After looking at the posters, each student had to post a comment to the original post.
• Keeping Tabs on Ongoing Project: Question in the middle of a unit…quick check in with students.
• Probing for Deeper Understanding: Two Party System…because of the amount of curriculum and the speed with which it must be covered, many times class discussion is sacrificed. Comments enable this to occur.
• Ethics Questions (Safety vs. Freedom)
• Accountable Talk (download the doc. here) (Reminds me of the question starters from ASK) NOTE: We have got to use this as we develop using blogs and comments. For this, we really need threaded comments! (Ed, I know you are reading this…please!)
  • I agree…
  • I disagree….
  • This reminds me of…
  • I’d like to add to that by saying…
• Use it at the beginning of the year as a relationship building tool. What subject do you like and why?
• Where’s Weenie? This one just made me laugh. (Ken, I know you will laugh, too, whenever you actually read this!) She has a stuffed miniature dachshund and it is at a mystery location. They could post “Yes” or “No” questions in the comments. She answered. She did not post correct guesses until the end.
• Ask Murchison-A way for 5th graders to ask questions about the transition to 6th grade. This helps build relationships with the students at the feeder schools.
• Data Collection-Water Wasting Lab where students post their data and then all classes can have access to and use.

Management Tips

• Need to turn on commenting feature
• Make sure comments are moderated.
• Do not share personal information.
• Use screen names last year, but with 150 students. Now first name, last initial, class period.
• Teach etiquette (how to agree or disagree)
• No text speak.
• Uses two computers in the classroom, but give them about a week of time.
• Finding time: Can do it at home. Can post during classwork time. Can use library.
• Give priority to students who don’t have Internet at home.
• Give criteria for responses. What kind of response are you looking for?
• Decide when comments go live. You can hold or release comments so they can’t copy.
• Teach them what moderated comments are so they don’t submit it 42 times.
• Give a blog grade.

It is about listening to what students have to say and giving them a voice. This is one of the best blogging sessions I have seen. I am curious if they use RSS readers. I am interested about using this more with our projects. Good stuff!

Posted in TCEA07