Latest News and Comment from Education

Friday, January 3, 2014

1-3-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL:




From The Archives: “The Importance Of Being Unprincipled”
I’ve recently re-started an effort I’ve tried to do previously by regularly highlighting previous posts and articles I’ve shared in previous years that I think might be worth a second look. Today, I’m highlighting a piece I wrote for The Washington Post titled The Importance Of Being Unprincipled (as I say in the post, the title is borrowed from an essay read by community organizers). Here’s an ex


This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Good Posts & Articles On Education Policy
Here are some recent useful posts and articles on education policy issues: Torlakson calls for giving school districts more money for Common Core is from Ed Source, and talks about what might happen here in California. Exemplary Teacher Evaluation, Part 1 is by Grant Wiggins. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About Effective Student & Teacher Assessments. Working for Superman:


“Gibbon” Is An Easy Tool For Creating Internet Scavenger Hunts
Gibbon lets you easily create what they call “flows,” which are basically lists of web resources with instructions written by the flow’s creator. I think Gibbon has ambitious plans but, for teachers, it’s an easy tool for teachers to create Internet scavenger hunts for students and for students to create them for their classmates. I’m adding it to The Best Places To Create (And Find) Internet Sca


Twitter Discussion: “Data, Tests & ‘Teacher Accountability’”
An interesting discussion on data, tests and “teacher accountability” has taken place on Twitter over the past day or so. Here are some selected tweets from it I thought readers might find useful/interesting… I didn’t put them in chronological order; instead, I tried to list them in a way that the conversation made the most sense — tweets were going back-and-fourth over the course of twenty-four h
Two Final Interactives On New Year’s
I’m adding the first interactive to The Best Sites For Learning About New Year Celebrations and the second to The Best Ways To Help Make Your New Year’s Resolutions Succeed: by kristw. Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually. by michelleink88. Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community –


“Simon’s Cat” Videos Are Perfect For English Language Learners
As regular readers know, I’m a big fan of using short video clips with English Language Learners as a language-development activity (you can read more at The Best Popular Movies/TV Shows For ESL/EFL (& How To Use Them) ). One of my favorite instructional strategies is called “Back To The Screen,” which I adapted from Zero Prep: Ready To Go Activities For The Language Classroom by Laurel Polla
“How Can We Best Engage Families?”
How Can We Best Engage Families? is the new “question of the week” at my Education Week Teacher blog. You can leave your responses in the comments section here or there….
1-2-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL
Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL: ‘Flipped Learning Makes Teachers More Valuable’‘Flipped Learning Makes Teachers More Valuable’ is the second part of my Education Week Teacher series on the flipped classroom. It includes responses from educators Jonathan Bergmann and Troy Cockrum, along with comments from readers. Here’s an excerpt:by Larry Ferlazzo / 16mi