An Epiphany: Student Commenting

Last week, I wondered how I could engage students in commenting on the class blog.

Today, I decided to conduct an experiment. We had spent the day in the computer lab doing a variety of activities related to air masses, fronts, weather predictions, and storms. The students seemed to enjoy the activities, but I was curious which ones they liked the best. So after school, I posted an article about reflecting on the day’s lesson. In the post, I asked three questions and asked students to respond in the comment section.

After I posted the topic, I then provided my own answers in the comment section. I then left school and drove home. By the time I got home, there were already five comments! At this point, there are 11 student comments on the class blog.

The most exciting thing is I did all of this after school. I did not mention it during class today. So all the students who are commenting took the initiative to check out the class web site when the got home – and decided to take the challenge to comment.

So my epiphany? If you want comments on your class blog, ask questions for students to answer in order to get discussions started. Hmm – why didn’t I think of this before?

By Janelle

Space geek, science nerd extraordinaire. That's me! Want to know more, visit the About page.

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