On Commenting Post 1: The Artful Comment

The mentors in this project will begin by "living in the comments" on the class blogs. I say "begin" because I don't know how your relationships with the students will grow; only time will tell. It may be that you reach a point where you want to address the whole class in a post of your own; either to "get something off your chest" or to share something with everyone at once as opposed to directing your comments to a single student at a time.

There is an art to commenting and each of you will develop your own style. This series of posts on commenting will bring together posts from edubloggers everywhere who have discussed the effective use of comments on their blogs. This first one is about how I like to comment. Food for your thought ....

From: A Difference
Post Title: The Artful Comment
Written By: Darren Kuropatwa

I think the greatest motivation to write well on the blog comes from the comments I leave them and they leave each other. But the comments they receive from "outsiders" are far and away the most powerful motivator of all. The "farther away" the commenter is, the greater the impact they have. Also, when they collect comments from diverse places around the globe the impact is greater still.

There's an art to leaving students a good comment. I'd like to share my thoughts on what makes a good, or artful, comment and I invite you to share your two cents as well (or tuppence as Ewan would say).

The Artful Comment ...

• ... is always expressed using a positive tone.


• ... if critical, is both gentle and sandwiched between positive statements.


• ... is very specific when giving praise. This creates a sense of authenticity and believability in the comment.
  
  

  Example: This is a good scribe post Nikki. I like the amount of detail you included. It will be really helpful for anyone who missed class and for everyone when it comes time to review for the test and final exam. Way to go! source



• ... may be brief or lengthy but leaves the author of the blog post with the sense that the commenter is "on their side" and genuinely interested in their success.


• ... The Artful Comment (2 minutes 18 seconds): an excerpt from a longer podcast I did five weeks ago where I discuss my style of commenting on student's scribe posts. The scribe post discussed in the podcast is Scribe for Today!!


• ...

Your tuppence?