How to write an #eltchat summary

#eltchat takes place at 12pm and 9pm GMT every Wednesday. It’s a Twitter discussion for teachers all over the world. To find out more, read Marisa Constantinides’ excellent post.

If you’ve never followed the chat, they are fascinating, stimulating and full of ideas. If you’ve tried to follow the transcript after the discussion is over, you may have found it a little confusing. For that reason various contributors to #eltchat now write summaries of the discussions to create a reference after they are over. If you’re one of the lucky summary writers, here is a quick guide:

1. Follow the chat as it’s happening (I think this makes it easier to write the summary)
2. Wait for the transcript to be published / Go on to Twitter and scroll back to the beginning of the chat
3. In a blogpost / a Word document write a short introduction to the chat, generally including when it took place and the fact that it’s an #eltchat
4. Then work your way through the transcript (it’s easier to start from the earliest tweets), putting the main points under headings to divide them up a bit. It’s completely up to you how you do this. I also generally find it’s easier to put all of the links in one section, but it depends on the topic of the chat.
5. Publish the summary on your blog / send it to one of the moderators – you’ll find their names in the transcript.
6. Tweet a link to the summary so that everyone can read it. To see previous examples, click here. Your summary will end up here too, if you give your permission. Please do!

Depending on the chat, it could take a couple of hours to do a summary, but it’s great for your blog traffic! And it’s a good way to fix the ideas in your head – revision and all that.

Good luck!