Language Conventions:
Writing Good Comments for Online Discussions

• Objective: Provide students with models of good comments; give students a set of criteria for writing effective comments of their own.

• This lesson plan can be used in several ways. You may decide to teach it at the beginning of an online discussion, so that students have a clear idea of what kinds of comments will make the activity work well. You may decide to use it as a "refresher course" if you notice that a discussion is not going as well as it might. You may teach the lesson as part of a whole-class discussion, or you may have students discuss the sample comments in their book club groups and draw their own conclusions about how to improve their participation.

• To begin the lesson, explain to students that when they participate in an online discussion, they are responsible for making a good conversation happen. It's always fun to read good comments submitted by other students—especially when those comments are addressed to them personally. In order to make the activity fun for everyone, each student must take responsibility for writing interesting comments that make other students eager to write back and share ideas.

• See the Sample Comments based on a discussion of the book Shiloh. You may want to print these comments and either hand out copies to your students or write a few samples on the board or overhead projector for class discussion. Ask students to imagine that they are discussing Shiloh online with other students. (If they have not read the book, briefly explain that it is about a boy named Marty who finds a dog that he believes is being abused by its owner, Judd. Marty names the dog Shiloh and tries to take care of the dog.) Have students read each comment and answer the following questions about it.

• Is the comment interesting? Why?
  
• Would I want to write back to the student who wrote the comment?
  
• How could the comment be improved?

• During discussion, emphasize that comments do not need to be long or grammatically perfect to be good for the online activity. When writing their own comments, students should try to express their ideas clearly, but it's OK if there are a few typos here and there. The quality of their ideas and questions is most important.

• If students are meeting in their book club groups to discuss the sample comments, you could ask them to rate each comment on a scale of 1 to 10. Then they can compare their rating of each comment with other groups' ratings and discuss their rationale.

• When students have finished discussing the sample comments, help them develop some criteria for writing good online discussion comments. Possible criteria include the following.

A good online discussion comment . . .

• says what the writer thinks about the book or chapter.
  
• raises a good question.
  
• responds to another student's question.
  
• stays focused on the book.
  
• relates the book to personal experiences.

• It's a good idea to post your list of criteria near the computer where students will be typing their comments.