Creating Comment Banks

What is a Comment Bank?

A comment bank is a collection of comments that may be included in a student's report. Each comment bank has at least one narrative or list comment, though may have more.

To start using The Comment Generator to easily create student reports, you will need a comment bank. You can search for one that someone has already created, but to provide the most relevant feedback to your students, we recommend creating your own.

Step 1: Creating the Comment Bank

Click on the "Comment Banks" link on the top navigation bar. Next, click the "New Comment Bank" button to get started. For this example, we are going to be creating a comment bank to give feedback on a persuasive essay.

Adding the Comment Bank Details

When you start a new comment bank, you will be presented with a form asking for some details about the comment bank. The only detail that is required is the comment bank title, but the other details may be helpful.

The different details are:

• Comment Bank Title: (required) This is what you will call your comment bank. For this example, let's call the comment bank "Persuasive Essay"
• Grade/Subject: This makes it easier to find and organize comment banks. As this bank is not specific, let's just put "English Language Arts"
• Description: Optionally describe the assignment or reporting period that this comment bank will be used for.
• Outcomes: For assignments, optionally add the specific outcomes this assignment is targeting.
• Allow sharing of comment bank: Turn this on if you want to be able to share your comment bank with other colleagues.
• Make comment bank publicly viewable: Turn this on to allow people to be able to find your comment banks. Note that not all comment banks marked as publicly viewable will be findable.

Once you're done, click the "Create New Comment Bank" button. Don't worry, you will always be able to modify these details later.

Step 2: Adding Comments to the Comment Bank

Once you create your comment bank, you will see the editing screen. Currently, there will be no comments in this comment bank, and therefore our comment bank will not be able to generate reports. Let's fix that by adding some comments!

The Two Types of Comments

The Comment Generator has two types of comments: narrative and list. Let's learn the difference between them:

Narrative Comments:	List Comments:
Best for describing the student's level of achievement	Best for giving a specific set of feedback
Can be formatted into either paragraphs or point-form	Can only be formatted in point-form

Step 2A: Adding Narrative Comments

Let's start by adding a few narrative comments to our comment bank.

Narrative Comments to Establish Context

First, we are going to add a narrative comment to allow us to record what topic the student decided to write about. I'm going to give this comment the title of "Topic." I want this to be written in paragraph form, so I'm going to select "New Paragraph," but I don't want a heading before that Paragraph so I'm going to leave the heading blank.

Next, I am going to add a quick comment that I can type in the student's topic, like this:

The # that this comment starts with indicates that this comment should be included on reports by default. I use $student wherever I want the student's name to appear. Finally, the $text will give me a box to type the student's essay topic.

This comment will appear on The Comment Generator like this:

Narrative Comments to Indicate Achievement

Next, I want to add a second narrative comment to indicate the student's general level of achievement. I am going to title this comment "Achievement." I don't want a heading, so I'm going to leave it blank again. I also want this comment to continue the paragraph I already started, so I'm going to select "Continue Paragraph" for the format. Finally, I only want to be able to select one achievement level, so I'm going to indicate that users can only select one comment.

To make it easier for me to generate comments, I'm going to indicate levels for these comments. I'm going to start each comment with a <tag> indicating the level, such as <Excellent>. I'm going to write the following for my comments:

<Excellent> $Student did an excellent job on $their essay, writing compellingly and giving a comprehensive amount of information. <Good> $Student did a good job on $their essay, writing thoughtfully and giving a thorough amount of information. <Basic> $Student did a basic job on $their essay, writing reasonably and giving an acceptable amount of information. <Not Yet> $Student did not yet achieve a grade-level achievement on $their essay.

This comment will appear on The Comment Generator like this:

Learning More About Narrative Comments

You can learn more about narrative comments by reading this article.

Step 2B: Adding a List Comments

Next, let's add a list comment to our comment bank.

List Comments to Give Specific Feedback

After indicating the student's topic and level of achievement, I want to give them specific feedback. I can easily do this with a list comment. I've considered what I want to see from each student for their persuasive essay and come up with a feedback list. I'm going to indicate what each student's strengths and next steps are for their essay. I'll give this comment the title of "Feedback".

Next, I need to indicate the levels for my feedback, as well as list each item. I can do so like this:

This will create the following input on The Comment Generator:

Learning More About List Comments

You can learn more about list comments by reading this article.

Step 3: Using Your Comment Bank

We have finished adding the comments to our comment bank! Our comment banks will automatically save in between steps, so we are now able to use it.

Getting a Sample Report

To see if our formatting was done correctly, we can generate a sample report. At the top of the screen, click the "Sample Report" button to see it.

Editing Comment Banks

We can edit this comment bank easily. On the Comment Bank screen, clicking the three dots and selecting "Edit" will bring us back to the comment bank editor. To change the edits of the comment bank, click the "Edit" button at the top of the screen. We can edit and comments by clicking the "Edit" button on them. The "Reorder" button allows us the reorder the comments in our comment bank. Finally, we can easily copy and delete comments out of our comment bank by clicking on the appropriate button.

Sharing Comment Banks

If we made our comment bank sharable, we can easily share it with our colleagues. On the comment bank screen, click the three dots and select the "Share" option. A link will pop up. Anyone with this link can access our comment bank (but not edit it) and can make copies of it.

Generating Reports

Finally, we can get to work saving time on our reports! Clicking the Generate button at the top of the page will now allow us to use this comment bank. Learn more about generating reports.

Try This Comment Bank Out

Want to see what the reports generated from this comment look like? Try it out yourself. You can also make a copy of it for yourself. This copy is fully editable - use it as a starting place to make your comment bank!