Building Audience

Over the past few years I have noticed a growing phenomenon. Kids are getting into commenting.

My students start to comment from the first posts of the year.  I have just had them do a math profile.  How do you see yourself as a math student etc. I asked that they comment and they have.  But how did they get there? I am lucky that the Grade 7 teacher uses blogs too.  Together we create quite a team.  He and I give the Grade seven students the basics and by the time they hit Grade 8 they are ready to really do some spectacular things.

But still how do you get them to comment. At first you entice them with the possibilities of getting marks for commenting.  You need to build a routine for the students to follow.  I follow the "Whose line is it Anyways" approach.  You will get one gazillion marks if you...




The points were just there. They did not mean much. Kids in my classes get marked for blog work. Posts and assignments are one category and comments are another. The students think they are worth "lots" of marks but in reality they are not. It does not matter however.  Soon after the first term is over and they have a routine of reading the blog regularly and have been trained at giving great comments the work other students produce improves.  Kids that get blog post comments create better posts than kids that do not.  All blog posts are being commented on so ALL posts are done better.  Some of the advice in the comments are amazing.  On average posts are receiving 4 comments each.  Some are getting over 10.  After the first term the students do not ask about "comment marks" anymore.  They just leave comments.  When they get to Grade 9 and are in their third year of commenting they are truly an audience of peers who help each other.

Kids are amazing.  Train them and teach them to be a community of learners and they will take themselves places together they could not get to alone. 

I am one lucky teacher... really I am.  You can be too.  Get the kids to comment.  Get them to blog.  You will be glad that you did.

Comments at a Class Blog

It all started with a call out to my twitter network the other day.  Can anyone leave comments behind at my class blogs. 

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A few of you answered my call and from the bottom of my heart I thank you. 
Russell Montgomery from Western Australia went overboard though.  He commented on everypost that the students had completed.  I am forever in his debt for commenting on over 25 blog posts.  I pointed this out to the students who were amazed that someone would care about what they were writing.  I just told them that people care about what you do.  People enjoy reading about your math journey. 

Since that night the students have become commenting monsters.  My email box is filling up with comments at a rate that I have never seen before.  Some times I am receiving 4 comments a minute.  I shared this with them today.  I did not know what to expect..... tonight the comment barrage continues.  They have left over 65 new comments at the time of this post.  Hey perhaps they get this whole idea of community, of helping each other out.

What else are they doing you might ask.  They are using their cbox on each blog to the max.  Each room seems to have designated a person to be the go to person in the chat box every night.  They are teaching each other what to do and how to complete assignments.  Wow it is only September!!

I am going to push their comments to be more than just a congratulations on completing a  post and giving formatting advise.  I want them to start having conversations on line.  Ask questions of the person who is posting and to push the conversation of learning further.  If they can comment they can conversee

A final note tonight before I create the assessment for tomorrow is that the students from last year are starting to blog in grade 9.  The first 2 scribe posts are up for one of the grade 9 rooms and are really good.  Their teacher is seeing the power of the blog, chatbox and  commenting.  Each of the posts have numerous comments, but not as many as what my 8's are doing.  Wow Wow and Wow.  It is going to be a tremendous year.

These kids really get the need for "Audience"

One of the most important aspects of blogging is leaving comments. When I first started blogging with the classrooms 4 years ago commenting was almost nonexistent. Today my gmail gets filled everynight with kids commenting on each others blog work. I am always amazed at what they say.

Most comments started of being Good Job :-) but now this has changed. Students are leaving behind meaningful comments that are read by the post's author. I have never seen so many comments as I have this year. By mentioning the importance of commenting and showing quality comments the students have gone from the smilie face to comments like these:

linda 8-17 has left a new comment on your post "The Great Big Book of Algebra":

HI ALYANNA! NICE POEMS! I agree with Peachy, the Diamante was probably in the best, in my oppinion that is. But, in that picture poem you have some spelling errors. I've noticed a lot of people don't think when to use apostrophes. You could lose marks on exams if you spell things improperly! Remember, you use apostrophes when the word is possessive, or connective.
EG.
YOUR >> ITS YOURS. YOU HAVE IT
YOU'RE >> YOU ARE
-- I just thought you should think about it when spelling "your" or "you're"

AND! I think the colours you chose were very prettifull :)

-DUCK .

Or this,

Wow, I can't believe that no one commented yet. I guess I'll be the first.

Your poems were so well done Karen! It seemed like it took you a while just to complete those because it was done so well. I really liked how all of your poems rhymed and I liked how almost all your poems were different types.

One thing that I would try to fix though is the 'Chapter 1: Poetry' title, sometimes blogger has 'issues' and makes things closer together. I think that you fix this problem by adding an extra space or two.
[I don't know exactly if Blogger has problems or if it's just my computer acting strange.. :P]


Other than that I would like to congadulate you on a job well done! ☺

I could keep on adding comments that the students have left but you can read their blogs for yourself. Just look for the student blog section in my sidebar. That your portal to the student blogs.

Thanks for reading.

I have great students

It has been a fun and fast filled first term at Sargent Park. The students are really taking to the blog and now it is time to turn up the heat. I was amazed at first seeing the amount of page views the class blogs were getting. It is already the third month and some classes are experiencing over 5000 page views. The students also seem to be tuning into the sargentparkmathzone to see the days lesson from ustream.

The best part of the year is the commenting that students are doing. My email is flooded every night with comments left behind from students. I appreciate all the work that they are doing. The comments started off light and fluffy. Good Job :-) but now they are more appropriate and give the students a sense of audience.


With this frenzy of activity around the blog my team members are getting interested in starting projects of their own. First steps being shown by many people in the building gives me hope for a future.

Love my job!! Now I am going to turn up the heat on these students and set them loose on a new adventure. Stay tuned.....

Wow what great comments

I am astonished at the quality of work being created by my students. They are incredible. Not only is their work excellent they are helping each other out,

This is from Beau

Hey Alyssa I think you did an awesome job, but I think you could still do better! Question five could use a little work. It doesn't say how large the classes are. Miss Stanzi's class may be larger than Miss Lowery's. That could change the answer. Also, question six is asking what the total is. All you have to do is find one square's value then multiply by 100. If you need help with Gliffy or Bubbleshare doesn't hesitate to ask!

This is From Tony on the same post

good job april but, on question 2 you didn't show how 3:2 is an equivalent to 3/5, 60% and 0.6 one more thing is that you shaded in 40 instead of 16 on question 6 a) and you should use gliffy or bubbleshare because you get more marks for doing it on that question.

There are countless more. I knew I had an excellent classes of students. But I now know that these students have class.

I love going to work.

I love looking in at my bloglines and seeing all the new work they are creating for themselves and their class blogs.

WOW They are awesome.