Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL
LARRY FERLAZZO’S WEBSITES OF THE DAY
Pedro Noguera — Reformers Using “Assessment As A Weapon”
Pedro Noguera spoke at the American Federation of Teachers convention yesterday, and it prompted me to re-read an excellent piece he wrote for Take Part a couple of years ago titled The Time for a New Direction in Education Is Now. Here’s an excerpt:
Infographic: “Why Language Learning Is Important”
I’ve got a few issues with this infographic but, in general, it offers decent advice. I’m not quite sure why it shows up so small but, if you click on it, a bigger version appears…..
YESTERDAY
Three Good Resources On Assessment
© 2010 Owen W Brown, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio I have all my “Best” lists on assessment at A Collection Of “The Best” Lists On Assessment, and here some new ones I’m adding to specific ones: Beyond the Bubble Test: Why We Need Performance Assessments is by Linda Darling-Hammond and appeared at Education Week. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About Performance Assessment. Grading E
“Cost Of Living Map” Is A Nice Interactive
The Cost of Living Map lets you pick any two major cities in the United States and it compares their costs of living — overall and in specific categories. It’s very, very easy to use, and could be very helpful to students. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning Economics & Practical Money Skills. Thanks to Google Maps Mania for the tip.
“Thesaurus.Land” Looks Like A Helpful Tool
Thanks to a tweet from Eric T. MacKnight, I’ve learned about a new site called Thesaurus.Land. It’s an online…thesaurus, and a pretty neat one. You type in a word, as I did with the word “sad” in the above image. Once you click on the arrow/triangle to the left of each word, it will show you synonyms for each one of them. I’m adding it to The Best Reference Websites For English Language Learners.
This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Useful Posts & Articles On Education Policy
© 2011 claudia gabriela marques vieira, Flickr | CC-BY-ND | via Wylio Here are some useful posts and articles on educational policy issues: ‘Innovation’ Schools Get a Chance to Shake Up the Rules is from WNYC in New York City. Departure of Official Is Sought by Teachers is from The New York Times. A Draft Bill of Research Rights for Educators is by Daniel Willingham. I’m adding it to The Best Reso
JUL 10
More Resources On The Child Refugee Crisis At U.S. Border
© 2012 U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio Here are some new additions to The Best Resources For Learning About The Children Refugee Crisis At The U.S. Southern Border: The Children Crossing Our Border Just Want a Better Life—Let’s Treat Them as Our Own is by Jose Luis Vilson. Fleeing Gangs, Children Head to U.S. Border is from The New York Times. Book Drive Seeks To
July’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
July’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
Good Post Worth Reading: “The Importance of Asking Questions to Promote Higher-Order Competencies”
© 2008 Valerie Everett, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio The Importance of Asking Questions to Promote Higher-Order Competencies is a very good post by Maurice Elias (who has often contributed to my Ed Week column) over at Edutopia. It’s a definite addition to The Best Posts & Articles About Asking Good Questions. And, speaking of asking questions, next week you’ll be able to read an interview I
If You Were Going To Read Just One Thing About Bloom’s Taxonomy, Then “What’s Old Is New Again” Would Be It
© 2011 David Wees, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio Scott McLeod just sent out a tweet about a forty page PDF document titled “Bloom’s Taxonomy: What’s Old Is New Again.” It’s written by Cecelia Munzenmaier, MS, with Nancy Rubin, PhD. I’ve got a lot of resources on The Best Resources For Helping Teachers Use Bloom’s Taxonomy In The Classroom list, but this document provides the best overview and must
Must Bookmark Site: “The Ultimate Directory Of Free Image Sources”
The Edublogger has recently published an invaluable resource, The Ultimate Directory Of Free Image Sources. It’s a star addition to The Best Online Sources For Images.
“A 360-Degree View of Life at the Bottom of the Ocean”
TIME has just published a neat interactive called “A 360-Degree View of Life at the Bottom of the Ocean.” I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About The World’s Oceans.
Tomorrow Is World Population Day – Here Are Related Resources
Tomorrow, July 11th, is World Population Day. You might be interested in The Best Resources For Learning About Our World’s Population Of 7 Billion. Here’s how the United Nations describes World Population Day: As the world population edged to 7 billion people in 2011 (up from 2.5 billion in 1950), it has had profound implications for development. A world of 7 billion is both a challenge and an o
“‘Collaboration Is Crucial’: An Interview With Carmen Fariña & Laura Kotch”
In my latest Education Week Teacher post, I interview Carmen Fariña, Chancellor of the New York City schools, & Laura Kotch, its former Director of Professional Development and Curriculum, about the new edition of their book, A School Leader’s Guide to Excellence. Here are some excerpts:
JUL 09
I’ll Be Interviewed Online About My Student Motivation Books At 10:50 AM (PST) On Thursday
The Reform Symposium Free Online Conference (RSCON) is going to be doing a series of live interviews with authors in a Google Hangout tomorrow, Thursday, and I’m scheduled for 10:50 AM Pacific Time to discuss my series of books on student motivation. You can see the interview here as well as see the line-up of other authors participating. Viewers will be able to participate in a chatboard to c
Perhaps My Last Listing Of New Resources For This Year’s World Cup
© 2010 Capture Of Dreams, Flickr | CC-BY-ND | via Wylio Here are what are perhaps the final additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The 2014 World Cup In Brazil: ESPN has a phenomenal site for the World Cup called World Cup Essentials. Life in Brazil – during – the World Cup, in Pictures is from Vox. So You Think You Can Flop? is a fun Washington Post interactive.
A New Tool For Creating Email Newsletters From Wix
© 2011 FontShop, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio The ability to create an email newsletter can come in handy for bloggers, teachers and other writers. and I share a number of free tools that let you make them easily at The Best Applications For Creating Free Email Newsletters. Now Wix, the popular website-creating tool, has announced a new feature they call Shout Out that lets you send one out. It appe
The Best Resources For Learning About Balanced Literacy & The “Reading Wars”
© 2011 Official U.S. Navy Page, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio The so-called “reading wars” on how best to teach literacy are back in the news with the recent announcement that “balanced literacy” is back on the approved list for New York City schools to use. It should come as no surprise to readers that I’m a big supporter of Lucy Calkins and the balanced literacy approach, as my recent tweet demonst
Watch This Video & Complete The Sentence: “This Is An Allegory For_______”
We’ve all seen dogs barking at each other through fences. But I doubt you’ve ever seen them do this…. If you feel like it, leave a comment completing this sentence: “This is an allegory for…….” And if the video doesn’t come through on an RSS Readers — believe me, it’s worth clicking through to see it.
Video: Donald Duck On Self-Control
I’ve previously shared the videos Sesame Street has done this year promoting the virtue of self-control. They’re pretty creative and entertaining. I just learned that Walt Disney apparently had similar ideas in 1938, and put out this cartoon of Donald Duck teaching and learning about self-control — in his own unique way:
JUL 08
Two Fun Links To Learn About The World’s Cultures
Here are two new additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The World’s Different Cultures: The McDonald’s meals abroad that may come as a surprise... is actually pretty interesting and is from The Daily Mail. And here’s an infographic sharing the national flowers of many countries:
“The New Yorker” Makes All Articles Available For Free Until November
The New Yorker, my favorite magazine, has just announced that they will eliminate their online paywall and make everything available for three months beginning on July 21st. At the end of that period they will unveil a revised paywall. Right now, they make about a third of their articles available for free each week. It’s good news for the short-term and bad news for the long-term. I’ve been a s
“Ideas for strengthening English skills over the summer”
Ideas for strengthening English skills over the summer is my latest post over at The British Council. It’s a slightly revised version of a previous post here, and I share what I’m doing with my students over the summer through easy-to-set-up “virtual classrooms.”
Videos Of The Week
In yet another effort to get at my backlog of resources to share, I recently began this feature to share useful videos. I’ll still periodically highlight certain ones on their own, but the rest will be found on this regular post: I’m adding this first video to The Best Video Clips Demonstrating “Grit” — as Digg describes it, “Watch A 2-Year-Old Amputee Learn To Walk Before Your Eyes”: I’m adding
Useful Article: “How to Read Education Data Without Jumping to Conclusions”
How to Read Education Data Without Jumping to Conclusions is a good article in The Atlantic by Jessica Lahey & Tim Lahey. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Understanding How To Interpret Education Research. Here’s an excerpt:
All My Ed Week Posts On Implementing The Common Core — In One Place!
My latest Ed Week Teacher piece brings together all my posts from the past three years on implementing the Common Core. I’m adding it to The Most Useful Resources For Implementing Common Core. Here’s an excerpt:
JUL 07
Video: “Self Control: Dan Ariely at TEDxDuke”
I’m a big fan of Duke professor, author and researcher Dan Ariely, and have written a lot about his work. Here’s a video of a talk he gave on self-control (you can find the transcript here). It’s really quite good. Unfortunately, I think most of the examples and stories he uses — which are great — would just be too hard for high school students to connect with, and apply to, their own situation. N
Video & Useful Tweets From #TeachDoNow Panel On Teachers & Social Media
Vicki Davis, Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, Tina Barseghian Matt Williams and I participated in a #TeachDoNow Google+ panel discussion on teachers and social media. Here is the video and some useful tweets sent during the hour event. You can learn more about KQED’s #TeachDoNow online course here. [View the story "Useful Tweets From #TeachDoNow Panel On Teachers & Social Media" on Storify]
Video: ‘World Cup Chemistry: The Science Behind the Brazuca Ball”
© 2013 Calcio Streaming, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Here are some new additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The 2014 World Cup In Brazil, in including a video: The New York Times has collected all their World Cup interactives in one place. Your World Cup Ethical Questions, Answered is from The New York Times.
“The Leftovers” Shared A Key To Motivation & Perseverance In The First 30 Seconds Of Last Night’s Episode
“The Leftovers” is an intriguing, though depressing, new show on HBO, and last night was its second episode. The first thirty seconds of the show demonstrated a key to motivation and grit (perseverance) — I wish the clip could be found online, but no such luck. Two FBI agents were sitting in an office, and one told the other that his kid wanted to quit soccer and wanted to know if he should let h
Our National Union Has A New President!
Lily Eskelsen García was just elected President of the National Education Association. You can read more about her at: Eskelsen García: We Are Fearless and We Will Not Be Silent at NEA Today. Doug Robinson: Former lunch lady Lily Garcia goes to Washington to run for the NEA from Deseret News. Check out her blog, Lily’s Blackboard. Next NEA leader’s first task: Win back public is from Politico an
Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL
© 2014 Charles Seo, Flickr | CC-BY-ND | via Wylio 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: The Disabled Access Friendly Site is for teachers of English Language Learners and “provides teachers with free teaching material that can be used in class, for projects or
JUL 06
July’s Infographics & Interactives Galore – Part One
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
Amazing Video: “Fireworks filmed with a drone”
You may have already seen this amazing video that I’m adding to The Best Websites For Learning About The Fourth Of July:
“StepUp.io” Lets You Edit & Splice Together An Existing Video
StepUp.io is a new site that lets you easily pick any YouTube video, pick the specific segments you want to show from it, and then put them all together. That ability could be useful, though I think the option of making the segments “looping” is just an annoying feature. What would really make StepUp.io very helpful would be if they added the ability to get segments from multiple videos and put t
Three Good Resources On Understanding Education Research
© 2007 Joel Bedford, Flickr | CC-BY-ND | via Wylio Here are new additions to The Best Resources For Understanding How To Interpret Education Research: The Problem with Research Evidence in Education is from Hunting English. The U.S. Department of Education has published a glossary of education research terms. If the Research is Not Used, Does it Exist? is from The Teachers College Record.
This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Useful Posts & Articles On Education Policy
© 2006 Alex S, Flickr | CC-BY-ND | via Wylio Here are some recent useful resources on educational policy issues: Ten Reform Claims That Teachers Should Know How to Challenge is by Jack Schneider at Ed Week. I’m adding it to The Best Articles Providing An “Overall” Perspective On Education Policy. Teachers And Education Reform, On A Need To Know Basis is from The Shanker Blog. I’m adding it to the
JUL 05
More Sites For Learning About Different Cultures
© 2009 Nina Matthews, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Here are some new additions to one of my most popular lists, The Best Sites For Learning About The World’s Different Cultures: What Beauty Looks Like, From Argentina to Vietnam is from The Atlantic. MAP: The most popular sport in every country is from Vox. The amazing diversity of languages around the world, in one map is also from Vox. Here’s a “Sc
“Maker Camp 2014″ Starts On Monday
I posted about Maker Camp 2013 last year, and wrote how I had wished I had known about it before the school year ended so I could have let students (and some summer school teaching colleagues know) ahead of time. But I missed the boat again this year and just learned from Richard Byrne’s blog that Maker Camp 2014 starts on Monday. It’s a very flexible six-week program: Join young inventors and ar
“Made From History” Is An Excellent BBC Site
The BBC has tons of great resources for use in the classroom, including in the Social Studies areas. You can find many of their sites on multiple “The Best” lists. I was particularly excited earlier this year when they unveiled the first in what they declared to be a series of “iWonder Guides” — one on World War 1. I immediately added it to The Best Resources For Learning About World War I. They’
July’s Best Tweets — Part One
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
Two Good “What If?” History Resources
© 2007 Ed Schipul, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio I’m a big fan of using alternate history “what if?” scenarios in my IB Theory of Knowledge classes and with my ELL Social Studies students, and have written a lot about it at The Best Resources For Teaching “What If?” History Lessons. Here are some new resources I’m adding to that list: What If World War I Never Happened? is from Discovery News. Wha
Quote Of The Day: “The Secret of Effective Motivation”
The Secret of Effective Motivation is a column in today’s New York Times that’s written by Amy Wrzesniewski and Barry Schwartz. They focus on recent research they’ve done on the difference between “internal” and “instrumental” motives. In a lot of ways, I think it’s similar to the idea of learning and performance goals, about which I’ve written a lot. Here’s the part of the column that caught by a