Leaving a Comment

Leaving a comment on a blog or ePortfolio is really giving back to the creator and readers of the blog.     Comments can continue to flow,  creating a conversation about a particular topic.  It is a great opportunity for children to write for a purpose.  They are working on many skills to create a good positive and informative comment.

On a class blog.
Class blogs are open for all to see and invite a wide audience.  One way to keep some control over what is posted for our learners to read is to moderate the comments.  Teachers get comments sent to their email and can send them to publish when they are checked.  If you post on a class blog you may not see if appear straight away as it is going through the moderation process.

On an ePortfolio.
ePortfolios are slightly different.  Our school ePortfolios are set to allow comments from blog authors or readers only.  This keeps the ePortfolio ring fences from the public and safe from any spam or unwanted comments.  For parents to comment on their child's ePortfolio they need to be with them and logged in as the child.  This encourages a conversation at home about the learners and a shared understanding of the comment.

If you have a blogger account and are logged in, your comment will be posted from you, showing your logged in name and possibly your image if you have loaded one to your profile.  When people are commenting on our class blogs they are often just viewing area not logged in. In this situation we encourage comments to be posted as 'anonymous' and have the name written within the body of the comment.

Positive comments encourage and guide.  Children love an authentic audience and really enjoy reading the feedback that they get.  Teachers comment on children's work to encourage them and to give them their next steps to focus on.