Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL
LARRY FERLAZZO’S WEBSITES OF THE DAY
Video: “Who Invented Writing?”
TED Ed has a nice lesson and video called “Who Invited Writing?” You can see the entire lesson here.
January’s Infographics & Interactives Galore – Part Four
There are just so many good infographics and interactives out there that I’ve begun a new semi-regular feature called “Infographics & Interactives Galore.” You can see others at A Collection Of “The Best…” Lists On Infographics and by searching “infographics” on this blog. I’ll still be publishing separate posts to individually highlight especially useful infographics and interactives, but you
The Best Sites For Learning About South Africa
As regular readers know, my ELL Geography class has been working with sister classes from throughout the world. We’re studying Africa now, and will be exchanging videos with classes in that country. Though we’ll be doing other forms of study about that country, one of the simple projects will be having students use “inductive learning” to identify information from this “The Best…” list (probably
‘Character Should Be An Integrated Element Of Education’
‘Character Should Be An Integrated Element Of Education’ is Part One in a multi-post series on the topic over at my Education Week Teacher column. Today’s post features responses from Debbie Silver, Jason Flom and David B. Cohen. Here are some excerpts:
“Australia Day” Resources
Tomorrow is Australia Day, which commemorates the first convict ships that brought immigrants to the continent to start the country. You might be interested in The Best Sites To Learn About Australia.
Tons Of Resources On My Blog’s Sidebar
Between five and seven thousand readers visit my blog each day, so they see the very extensive resources listed on my sidebar — organized links to all my “Best” lists; free materials from my books; links to my favorite posts and much, much more. However, thousands more read my posts on RSS Readers (I make my entire posts readable on them and don’t just have “teasers”) and don’t have to go to my b
From The Archives: “Cultivating A Positive Environment For Students”
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’d like to highlight an excerpt form one of my books that appeared in Ed Week Teacher a year ago: Cultivating A Positive Environment For Students. Here’s an excerpt from that excerpt:
More Resources On The Sochi Olympics
Here are more additions to my already massive The Best Sites For Learning About The Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games: The many, many problems of the Sochi Olympics is from The Week. 7 Facts And 3 GIFs: Hellooo Curling is from NPR. Double duty: 11 Olympians who’ve played both winter and summer sports is from The Today Show. Interactive: Venues of the Sochi 2014 Olympics
The Best Resources On California Court Case Attacking Teacher’s Rights
Vergara v. California is a carefully-watched court case that begins next week that attempts to eliminate fundamental teacher rights likes tenure and due process. It’s being financed by a multi-millionaire corporate reformer. Here is what I wrote in the 2014 education predictions I published in The Washington Post: The carefully watched court case in California against teacher tenure rules that i
Here’s My Teacher Model For Instagram Video “Book Trailers” Students Will Be Making
I’ve previously posted about having students create video “Book Trailers” (basically book reviews) about the books they’ve been reading. Here are links to those specific posts, though you can see all of them — and more — at My Best Posts On Books: Why They’re Important & How To Help Students Select, Read, Write & Discuss Them: Making Book Trailers With Fotobabble Book Trailers From My Clas
JAN 23
From The Archives: “Five key strategies to get/keep kids engaged at school”
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 an excerpt from one of my books that The Washington Post published last year. It’s called Five key strategies to get/keep kids engaged at school. Here’s a portion of it:
David Brooks Gets It Wrong Again
David Brooks, whose connection to reality magically leaves him just about every time he writes any column with the word “school” in it, did it again today in his latest one. He begins his column sounding great — about how we’re putting too much weight on school reform to solve the ills facing out young people. However, he then immediately falls into the trap of saying Social Emotional Learning an
It’s That Time Of Year Again: Here’s How My Ninth-Graders Evaluated The Class & Me
My ninth-grade English class last year was a tough one, as you can see from my report on how they evaluated me a year ago — which happened to be reprinted in The Washington Post. This year, happily, though my two mainstream ninth-grade English classes are not without their challenges, things are much better and similar to previous years. And you can see all of my previous year’s evaluations at Th
Teaching A Person To Fish, “Buying The Pond,” & Social Emotional Learning
I heard the above quote — or something similar to it — on Public Radio International yesterday in their story on squatters. A person with a group supporting squatters said it, but PRI only published a portion of the story on their site, so I can’t give proper attribution or the exact quote. But I was really struck by his take on the old saying “Give a person a fish, and feed him/her for a day. Te
My New BAM! Podcast: “Character, Grit, Perseverance: Magic Bullet?”
Character, Grit, Perseverance: Magic Bullet? is the latest episode of my BAM! Radio ten minute podcast. Debbie Silver and Jason Flom, who are contributors to my column next week in Education Week Teacher, participate in this interview.
Writing Prompt For “The Long March”
As regular readers know, My Best Posts On Writing Instruction contains, among other things, various writing prompts I use in my classes. One of the books we read in my ELL U.S. History class is The Long March: The Choctaw’s Gift to Irish Famine Relief. It tells the story of how some survivors of the Trail Of Tears raised money to help the Irish suffering from the Great Potato Famine. Here’s the w
New Hans Rosling Video: “Will saving poor children lead to overpopulation?”
I’m adding this new Hans Rosling video to The Best Hans Rosling Videos:
JAN 22
The Power Of A Phone Call Home
We’re finishing up the first semester this week, and, as usual, I’ll be sharing the results of anonymous student evaluations of our classes and of me. I’ll probably get to tabulating them over the weekend. I’ve also already shared many of the finals I’m giving to students this week. However, I haven’t shared all of the projects I have students do. One of their final semester projects is to write a
January’s Best Tweets – Part Four
Every month I make a few short lists highlighting my choices of the best resources I through (and learned from) Twitter, but didn’t necessarily include them in posts here on my blog. I’ve already shared in earlier posts several new resources I found on Twitter — and where I gave credit to those from whom I learned about them. Those are not included again in this post. If you don’t use Twitter, yo
Quote Of The Day: “Does it take more strength to restrain yourself or does it take more strength to fight back?”
Public Radio International just aired an interview with the first Hmong-American judge in U.S. history. They titled it First Days: The first Hmong American judge didn’t always acknowledge his roots. Here’s an excerpt when he’s talking about being ridiculed by classmates: This is a particularly useful article and quote for our school, since our student population is about one-third Hmong. I’m addi
“Should We Teach ‘Character’ In Schools? If So, How?”
Should We Teach ‘Character’ In Schools? If So, How? is the new “question of the week” at my Education Week Teacher blog. Feel free to leave your responses in the comments here or there….
“ClassFlow” Is Live, Available & Free
Last month, I posted about the upcoming unveiling of a new web tool called ClassFlow. Here’s what I wrote then: ClassFlow is a new tool being unveiled by Promethean in January. They say that “Beginning in January 2014, teachers will be able to sign up for a complimentary ClassFlow account.” It looks pretty interesting, though I’ve got to wonder what it’s cost structure is going to end up being. I
Testing On The Brain
Something must be in the air these past twenty-four hours, as the idea of tests (or their alternatives) have been appearing in various media outlets. Jessica Lahey, who I like and respect, seemed to start it off yesterday, with her Students Should Be Tested More, Not Less in the Atlantic. She tried hard to temper the headline with the content of the article, but Paul Thomas eloquently points out
“Trove” Is A New Personalized Newsreader With Promise
Trove has just been launched by the previous owners of The Washington Post. I’m not sure that it’s radically different from the other sites on The Best Sites For Creating Personalized “Newspapers” Online list, but it seems like it’s worth trying out — especially since my previous favorite tool (Trap.it) discontinued their service last week. My primary concern about it is that — for now, at least
JAN 21
Resources On The State Of The Union Address
President Obama will be delivering the annual State Of The Union address next Tuesday night. I have lots of useful resources you might want to check out at The Best (& Most Intriguing) Resources For Learning About The State Of The Union Message. And here’s a video the White House just put out about this year’s address:
A Beginning List Of The Best Resources On California’s Drought
As you may already know, here in California we’re experiencing the driest winter in recorded history. I figured now is as good as time as any to being a “Best” list that I’m sure will be expanding greatly over the coming months. Feel free to offer suggestions of resources I should add to this list. You probably want to start with this pretty good overview, including charts, graphs and images, fro
Resources On Japanese-American Internment
Every January 30th is officially Fred Korematsu Day in California. Here’s some background on it from YES Magazine: In 1942, 23 year-old shipyard welder Fred Korematsu refused to join over 120,000 West Coast Japanese Americans who were rounded up and taken to incarceration camps under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order No. 9066. While Korematsu’s family was at the Topaz incarcerati
From The Archives: “Five ways to get kids to want to read and write”
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 an excerpt from one of my books that The Washington Post published. The excerpt is titled Five ways to get kids to want to read and write. Here’s an excerpt:
JAN 20
This Week’s “Links I Should Have Posted About, But Didn’t” — January (Part Three)
I have a huge backlog of resources that I’ve been planning to post about in blog but, just because of time constraints, have not gotten around to doing. Instead of letting that backlog grow bigger, I regularly grab a few and list them here with a minimal description. It forces me to look through these older links, and help me organize them for my own use. I hope others will find them helpful, too
BBC Launches Exhaustive Interactive World War I Resource
We’re approaching the one-hundredth anniversary of the beginning of World War I, and lots of related online resources are being unveiled. The BBC has just launched an exhaustive interactive site on the War, which they call the first in a new way they say they plan to rebrand all their content. The new brand is called iWonder, and their World War One iWonder Guide has just about anything you want
The Best Martin Luther King Day Tweets
I’ve seen a lot of great tweets on my timeline today for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and thought I’d collect them in a Storify. I’ll continue to add to it. And I’ll add this link to The Best Websites For Learning About Martin Luther King. [View the story "The Best Martin Luther King Day Tweets" on Storify]
“The Education Department’s strange new report on teaching”
The Washington Post has reprinted most of my recent post on a U.S. Department of Education report (see New US Dept. of Ed Finds That “Less Effective Teaching” Responsible For 2-4 Percent Of Achievement Gap) and titled it The Education Department’s strange new report on teaching. Strange, indeed….
Home Culture Presentations With English Language Learners
Having English Language Learners give reports about about their home countries is a fairly typical class assignment. And, for students who are not newcomers, it gets pretty old for them to have to do it every year. I have students in my ELL Geography class do similar presentations each year, though I try to make it a little different from what they’ve done in the past. I introduce it as a lesson
Quote Of The Day: “How We Get Dr. King Wrong”
How we get Dr. King wrong: “We’ve deliberately dismembered him,” Michael Eric Dyson tells Salon is an important piece. Here’s an excerpt: I’m adding it to The Best Websites For Learning About Martin Luther King.
Infographic: “Ten things not to put on your CV”
I’m adding this infographic from Career Savvy Magazine to The Best Places For Students To Write Their Resumes: Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.
From The Archives: “Why we can’t all get along over school reform”
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 revisiting a piece I wrote last year for The Washington Post on the importance of tension in organizing for change. It’s titled Why we can’t all get along over school reform. Here’s an excerpt:
JAN 19
This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Good Posts & Articles on Education Policy
Here are some recent useful posts and articles on educational policy issues: Everything you need to know about Common Core is by Diane Ravitch. I’m adding it to The Best Articles Sharing Concerns About Common Core Standards. Beware Chinese data: Its schools might not be so great is by Jay Mathews at The Washington Post. I’m adding it to The Best Posts & Articles On 2012 PISA Test Results. Why
“Talks With Teachers” Interviews….Me
Educator Brian Sztabnik hosts a very interesting weekly podcast with other teachers called Talks With Teachers, and he just posted an interview he did with me. You might find it interesting. He’s got quite a few interviews with other teachers on his site that you might find equally or, probably, more worthwhile, too.
Video: Funny Language-Learning Commercial
I think this TV commercial has been around awhile, but I just saw it during the football game:
Important Info For All Email Subscribers To This Blog (& To Everyone Who Uses Edublogs)
As the nearly 3,000 people who subscribe by email to this blog know, I’ve been using Feedblitz for the past seven years to send out my posts daily by email. Feedblitz is a great tool, and I highly recommend them on The Best Applications For Creating Free Email Newsletters list. However, in order to use the free Feedblitz service, you need to allow them to put ads in the emails, which is reasonable
Even More Important Martin Luther King, Jr. Resources
Here are even more additions to The Best Websites For Learning About Martin Luther King: The greatest MLK speeches you never heard is from CNN.
Infographic: “Word Science”
As regular readers know, I spend very little time and thought into writing the typically bland headlines in my blog posts. I just figure my reputation for useful content, and the content itself, will do the job of encouraging people to read it. However, I found this infographic from Short Stack pretty interesting, not so much because I’ll be using it to craft future headlines, but because I think
Super Bowl Resources
It’s that time of year again — Super Bowl time! I’m writing this before the league championship games are played, but I certainly hope the 49ers will be in it. I’ve just updated, as I do every year, The Best Sites Where ELL’s Can Learn About The Super Bowl. I’ll continue to make new additions over the next two weeks.
JAN 18
More On The Sochi Olympics
Here are new additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games: Behind the Olympics: Teaching About Russia in the Putin Era is from The New York Times Learning Network. Jamaican Bobsledders Seek Money for Sochi Trip is also from The New York Times. CBS Sports has a continually updated special website on Sochi. TIME for Kids also has a special Sochi page. The Indep
“Resume Genius” Can Be Useful To Students
Though I’m not sure the world needs another resume-building site, Resume Genius is a new one that’s very accessible. It’s similar to the sites on The Best Places For Students To Write Their Resumes, and I’ll be adding it there.
New US Dept. of Ed Finds That “Less Effective Teaching” Responsible For 2-4 Percent Of Achievement Gap
Thanks to a tweet from Scott McLeod, I just learned about a new study from The Department of Education titled Do Disadvantaged Students Get Less Effective Teaching? Yes, it’s a study based on the discredited science of Value-Added Measurement. It highlights VAM studies that I have specifically criticized with “Best” lists of their own (A Beginning List Of The Best Posts On Gates’ Final MET “Effect
From The Archives: “What to do — and not do — for growing number of English Language Learners”
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. What to do — and not do — for growing number of English Language Learners is a piece that my colleague Katie Hull Sypnieski and I wrote for The Washington Post. Here’s an excerpt:
“Keys To Parent Engagement – Relationships, Climate, Communication”
Keys To Parent Engagement – Relationships, Climate, Communication is the last in a four-part series I’ve published over at Education Week Teacher. Today’s post highlights responses from Darcy Hutchins and Mai Xi Lee, along with many readers’ comments. Here are some excerpts:
January’s Infographics & Interactives Galore – Part Three
There are just so many good infographics and interactives out there that I’ve begun a new semi-regular feature called “Infographics & Interactives Galore.” You can see others at A Collection Of “The Best…” Lists On Infographics and by searching “infographics” on this blog. I’ll still be publishing separate posts to individually highlight especially useful infographics and interactives, but you
Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL
I’ve started a somewhat regular feature where I share a few posts and resources from around the Web related to ESL/EFL or to language in general that have caught my attention: A Brief History of Writing is an interesting short video, along with a lesson, for English Language Learners. It’s from The British Council. Ed. Dept. Falling Short in Support of English-Learners, Report Says is from Educ
“The New York Times’s Most Visited Content of 2013″
The Times has just published The New York Times’s Most Visited Content of 2013. The categories are pretty interesting, and they include which features were visited from which devices. Most of the lists don’t actually include direct links, which I find quite strange, but they have headlines and descriptions. It would be easy to find them by typing the headlines in The Times’ search box. Here’s a s