Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL
LARRY FERLAZZO’S WEBSITES OF THE DAY
Grit, Failure & Stuff Like That
Hype around “character-building” has escalated to the point that some see building perseverance and pushing students to make mistakes as sort of a silver bullet to cure all learning ills (I’ve written about that problem in my Washington Post piece, The manipulation of Social Emotional Learning). Of course, every action results in an opposite and equal reaction, in this debate is no exception to
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: ESL Teachers in Common-Core Era Need Different Prep, Paper Argues is from Education Week. Here is a more in depth discussion of the same paper from Colorin Colorado. Marisa Constantinides has collected a number of posts abo
The Best Financial Aid Resources For Students Planning To Go To College — Help Me Find More
I’ve previously posted three “Best” lists related to students attending college: The Best Sites For Encouraging ELL’s To Attend College The Best Posts About Getting Our Students To Attend College The Best Resources For Showing Students Why They Should Continue Their Academic Career They all have a slightly different “take” on the topic. However, I’ve realized that, though some accessible financia
Simple “History Of Anything” Project
Teacher extraordinaire Diana Laufenberg shared a simple and useful series of tweets about a project she’s doing with her class She calls it the “History of Anything” Project. Diana is planning on doing a more extensive write-up of what she does, but I think the info in these four tweets can be useful right now for just about any teacher: Step One: Write about three different topics that you would
This Week’s Round-Up Of Good Posts & Articles On Education Policy
Here are some relatively recent useful posts and articles on education policy issues: As California standardized testing gains steam, help center ‘inundated’ with teacher calls is from Southern California Public Radio. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About The “Next Generation” Of State Testing. Students are test-driving new Common Core exams. You can too is a post from The Hechi
“One-To-One Technology ‘Is Really About Building Effective Relationships’”
One-To-One Technology ‘Is Really About Building Effective Relationships’ is the title of my new post at Education Week Teacher. Alice Barr, Mark Pullen and Troy Hicks will share their suggestions on how to successfully implement a one-to-one technology program. Here are some excerpts:
How Adam Grant Just Made Teaching More Complicated
I’m a big fan of Professor Adam Grant’s work (see my interview with him at Education Week, Teachers As “Givers, Takers & Matchers”: An Interview With Adam Grant). And I was very excited to see his must-read guest column in The New York Times today, Raising a Moral Child. It’s geared towards parents, but just about everything he says is also extraordinarily useful to teachers, too. He discusses
LBJ As A Teacher In Texas
I knew that Lyndon Baines Johnson had been a teacher, but had never explored it further. I’ve been an admirer of much of LBJ’s work (though, obviously, not of his terrible actions in Vietnam). You can read some of my thoughts about him at This Is A Great Passage For Learning How To Make Change. Today, NPR has a segment about his time as a teacher in a high-poverty school in Texas, and his visit t
YESTERDAY
Three Good Resources For Learning About Different Cultures
Here are three new – and good – additions to one of my most popular “Best” lists: The Best Sites For Learning About The World’s Different Cultures: My remote classroom: online students share their photos is from The Guardian. What Can We Learn From Pictures of People and Their Trash? is an article in Smithsonian Magazine about an interesting project of taking photographs of people with the trash
National Library Week Is Coming-Up & Here Are Resources For English Language Learners
National Library Week will be observed April 13-19, 2014. You might find The Best Sites To Teach ELL’s About Libraries useful. Additional suggestions are welcome….
April’s Best Tweets — Part Two
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 post. If you don’t use Twitter, you can
APR 10
April’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
Three Excellent Posts On Giving Effective Feedback To Students (& Anyone Else!)
Here are three excellent additions to The Best Resources For Learning How To Best Give Feedback To Students: The Difference Between Praise and Feedback is from MindShift. Tips for Giving Feedback is from Elena Aguilar. How to Turn Praise into Acknowledgment is by Marvin Marshall.
Just Published! 40th ELT Blog Carnival: Ideas for Teaching with Technology
Sylvia’s English Online has just published the 40th ELT Blog Carnival (formerly known as the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival) and it’s a great one on “Ideas for Teaching with Technology.” Teachers from around the world have contributed posts. I’m adding it to The Best Sources For Ideas On How To Use Technology With English Language Learners. The next blog Carnival: 41st ELT Blog Carnival hosted by Alex
APR 09
“What Is This Animal Thinking or Saying (If It Could Talk)?” Is A Fun Language Development Exercise
Having English Language Learners put words in the mouth (or thoughts in the mind) of puppets, animals, or photographs of people is a common activity in the classroom. It can be fun and less-threatening when it’s something/someone else who’s talking (or, at least, it can feel that way to the student). You can learn specific strategies to use at: The Best Resources For Using Puppets In Class The Be
Video: Stephen Colbert On The Common Core
If you haven’t seen it already, check out Stephen Colbert’s clip from last night on the Common Core: The Colbert ReportGet More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,Video Archive
Three Useful Posts On The “Flipped” Classroom
Here are three new additions to The Best Posts On The “Flipped Classroom” Idea: Modifying the Flipped Classroom: The “In-Class” Version is from Edutopia. Fixing the Flipped Classroom: @EDpuzzle is from Ed Tech Coaching. What ‘They’ Forgot to tell you When Flipping your Classroom is from Common Core and Ed Tech.
Nice Growth Mindset Chart I Hadn’t Seen Before
I’m adding this to The Best Resources On Helping Our Students Develop A “Growth Mindset”: Love this #GrowthMindset #Attitude pic.twitter.com/OWu0jGPuYF — Dr. Steve Gray (@sgray_NCSD) April 9, 2014
“What Are Dos and Don’ts of a Successful One-to-One Computing Program?”
What Are Dos and Don’ts of a Successful One-to-One Computing Program? is the latest “question-of-the-week” at my Education Week Teacher column. Response are welcome there or here….
Big News! Sacramento Withdraws From NCLB Waiver Granted CORE Districts
Photo: Sacramento City Teachers Association President Nikki Milevsky and School Board President Patrick Kennedy announce the District’s decision to withdraw from CORE I’ve written a lot about the awful decision made by the U.S. Department of Education to grant eight California school districts (known as CORE) a waiver from No Child Left Behind (see The Best Posts & Articles On The NCLB Waiver
“Booktrack” Lets You Read Books With Soundtracks & Make Your Own
Booktrack Classroom has books in the public domain online to which they’ve added “soundtracks” — music, street sounds, etc. In addition, students can create their own soundtracks to books that they write. Even better, teachers can create virtual classrooms with assigned readings and/or to share their own creations. And, best of all, it’s free. You can read many of the books without having to regi
My New BAM! Podcast Is Tragically Timely: “How Can We Help Students Handle Loss and Grief?”
Tragically, my brand new BAM! podcast is very timely with today’s stabbings in Pennsylvania. Mary Tedrow and Stephen Lazar join me in a ten minute conversation on How Can We Help Students Handle Loss and Grief? You might also find these resources useful: The Best Resources For Helping Students Deal With Grief The Best Resources On Talking With Children About Tragedies
“Poverty-related Challenges Sap Instructional Time in High Schools”
Poverty-related Challenges Sap Instructional Time in High Schools is the headline of an article in Education Week on a new study that finds teachers in high-poverty schools like ours end up with thirty minutes of less instructional time each day than those in higher-income areas: Disruptions such as welcoming new students to the classrooms, and locking down the school during emergencies and drills
Even More Resources On Rwandan Genocide
It’s the twentieth anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, and here are even more additions to The Best Sites To Learn About Genocide In Rwanda: Remembering Rwandans Who Followed Their Conscience is from NPR. The Rwandan Genocide: 20 years later is a photo gallery from The Boston Globe. Here’s a video from NBC News:
APR 08
U.S. Department Of Ed Releases Useful Guide On Teaching Academic Language To ELLs
The What Works Clearinghouse at the U.S. Department of Education has just released an updated Guide for Teaching Academic Content and Literacy to English Learners in Elementary and Middle School. The recommendations are good ones, and it’s always nice to be able to tell one’s administrator that you’re following the recommendations of the U.S. Department of Education . Even though they say it’s f
Another Nail In VAM’s Coffin?
The American Statistical Association issued a report today containing many criticisms of how Value-Added Measurement is used in teacher evaluations today. It’s not that lengthy, but you can read a summary at Education Week. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About The “Value-Added” Approach Towards Teacher Evaluation and to The Best Places To Learn What Impact A Teacher & Outsid
Webby Nominees Announced — Here Are A Couple That Look Good
Nominees for this year’s Webby Awards (highlighting the “best of the web) have just been announced. You can see them all here. Here are a couple of particularly good sites I haven’t posted about previously: How to put a human on Mars is from the BBC. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About Planets & Space. Ready, Set, Grad is an exceptional site from Washington state, but it’s usab
The Best Posts & Videos About Sugata Mitra & His Education Ideas
Professor Sugata Mitra and is famous for his “holes in the wall” experiments where he placed computers in impoverished Indian communities and students “self-organized” their instruction. Professor Mitra was awarded the TED Prize last year, and expanded his work with that support. I’ve previously published some fairly popular posts about Professor Sugata Mitra. The first post was one where I share
APR 07
Video: Watch Los Angeles Grow In 36 Seconds
I’m adding this video of Los Angeles’ growth to The Best Sites To Learn About Los Angeles:
National Awards For Education Reporting Announced
The Education Writers Association just announced the winners of the 2013 National Awards for Education Reporting. It’s an extensive and impressive list, and includes many links. Unfortunately, you have to make a lot of “clicks” to get down to the names of the winners and links to their articles. It’s worth it, but I do hope they figure out a more user-friendly lay-out by next year…
My New British Council Post: “Creating The Conditions For Self-Motivated Students”
Creating The Conditions For Self-Motivated Students is my new post at the British Council Teaching English website. It includes specific suggestions for teaching English Language Learners, but most of what I write there is applicable to all students. I’m adding it to The Best Posts & Articles On “Motivating” Students. You can see all my previous British Council posts here.
My Latest NY Times Post Is On Lying As A Language-Learning Activity
How can lying be a good language-learning activity? See how in my latest New York Times post for English Language Learners. A student interactive and fun teaching ideas are included. You can see all my many previous NY Times posts here.
APR 06
“FiveThirtyEight” & “Vox.com” Are Two New Free Online News Sites — Here’s What I Think Of Them
FiveThirtyEight, the Nate Silver site that moved to ESPN, opened-up a couple of weeks ago, and Ezra Klein (and colleagues) moved from The Washington Post to create Vox.com, which was unveiled tonight. Here’s a quick review of them both… FiveThirtyEight clearly has more financial resources behind it, though a substantial portion of that will be devoted to sports (I’m a sports fan, but I’m not conv
Earth Day Resources
Earth Day takes place on April 22nd. You might be interested in The Best Earth Day Sites. Additional suggestions are welcome…
Check Out 1,700 Categorized Theory Of Knowledge Links
The online bookmarking tool Delicious no longer provides the number of links that are bookmarked in a particular category, but I guesstimate that I must be up to 1,700 or so categorized ones related to the International Baccalaureate Theory of Knowledge class. You can see them all here. Those are just the ones I’ve bookmarked. If you want to contribute to an even bigger, more “universal” collecti
“Scarlet Letter” Comes To The UK: Get Good Test Results & You Can Wear Your Own Clothes, While Bad Results Means You Wear School Uniform
Readers might remember the controversy around the southern California high school that issued color-coded student ID’s based on student standardized test scores. They also made students wait in different lunch lines, among other things. See The Best Resources To Learn About High School ID’s & The Scarlet Letter for more information. Well, a school in the United Kingdom is applying their own
A Bunch Of Student Motivation Resources
As regular readers know, I have a particular interest in the topic of student motivation, and my third book on the topic will be out next year. I’ve been accumulating some related resources, and am putting them all together in this post: Studies Offer Practical Ways to Bring ‘Growth Mindset’ Research to Schools is an Ed Week post about some recent studies. One of them featured having students rea
This Week In Web 2.0
In yet another attempt to get at the enormous backlog I have of sites worth , I’ve recently begin a regular feature called “The Week In Web 2.0.” (you might also be interested in The Best Web 2.0 Applications For Education In 2013). I also sometimes include tech tools that might not exactly fit the definition of Web 2.0: LearnClick, and online cloze-maker (fill-in-the-gap), has re-introduced limi
APR 05
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: 100 most common words in English is an online game that Digital Play describes, and it could be useful in class. And, speaking of online activities for building vocabulary, the Food Porn Index could be a helpful site for…f
April’s Infographics & Interactives Galore – Part Two
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
This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Good Posts & Articles On Education Policy
Here are a few recent useful posts and articles on educational policy issues: Charter School Refugees is an excellent New York Times column by Andrea Gabor. I’m adding it to The Best Posts & Articles Analyzing Charter Schools. ‘If only American teachers were smarter…’ is from The Washington Post. I’m adding it to The Best Resources On Professional Development For Teachers. The No. 1 trait of
Even More Resources On The Rwandan Genocide
This weekend is the twentieth anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda. Here are even more additions to The Best Sites To Learn About Genocide In Rwanda: Portraits of Reconciliation is from The New York Times (you might also be interested in Another Good Writing Prompt: Reconciliation. Following Orders in Rwanda is is also from The NY Times. Rwandan Stories is an impressive site. A Good Man In Rwand
“The Image Story” Is A Nice Site & Provides An Even Better Classroom Idea
The Image Story is a new site where photographers submit their pictures along with the “back story” about them — their inspiration, gear, etc. It has some nice photos but, more importantly for me, it gave me an idea for a classroom activity that I hadn’t thought of before (though I suspect someone else has). What not have students show their own photos and provide their own back story? I don’t th