Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL
LARRY FERLAZZO’S WEBSITES OF THE DAY
The Washington Post’s “Five Myths” Feature Is A Very Useful One
The Washington Post regularly publishes a feature called “Five Myths.” They’ll typically pick a topic that’s been in the news and list five myths with a short explanation about each one. It’s pretty useful to teachers and students alike. I’m adding it to The Best Online “Explainer” Tools For Current Events.
Ed Week Reduces Price For The Next Seven Days On My Classroom Management Book
Education Week just announced that the price for my latest e-book has been reduced for this week only. You can read excerpts, reviews and other free resources here. Here’s the Ed Week announcement: SPECIAL LIMITED-TIME OFFER: SUMMER-READING SAVINGS Classroom Management Q & As: Effective Strategies for Teaching by Larry Ferlazzo Get ready for the new school year and save! In this e-book, award
Rap Genius Expands Service, Changes Name, Adds Education Features – I’d Still Be Surprised If Teachers Use It
I have previously posted about Rap Genius, an easy-to-use tool that lets you annotate pretty much any text. It’s initial focus was on rap lyrics, but you could also upload others — this use of it for the Gettysburg Address is a perfect example of how great it could be for education purposes. As I said in my original post, however, I doubted the site would get past many School District content fil
Is Summer Learning The Silver Bullet For Narrowing The Achievement Gap?
This summer, I’ve been in the process of writing my seventh book — the third volume in my series on student motivation (I’m over halfway there — Yay!). As part of that writing, I’ve been going over a number of articles I’ve saved over the past year, and, tonight, I began reviewing resources on The Best Resources On The “Summer Slide” list. As I reviewed them, I was reminded of an extremely importa
Amazon Launches “Kindle Unlimited” For Adults; They Have Version For Young Kids – I Wonder If They’ll Create One For Teens?
© 2008 Claudio Toledo, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio In the unlikely event you haven’t already heard, today Amazon launched “Kindle Unlimited,” which is an all-you-can-read service for $9.99 per month using its Kindle or a Kindle app on other devices. You can read all about it at TIME, TechCrunch, and a zillion other places. As I was checking it out, I discovered that Amazon also has something called
It’s Nelson Mandela International Day — Here Are Related Resources
It’s Nelson Mandela International Day, a day of service celebrated on July 18, Mandela’s birthday (the above image is from Google’s homepage). You might be interested in my very lengthy The Best Sites For Learning About Nelson Mandela.
JUL 17
Nice BBC Video: “Why Reading Matters”
Why Reading Matters is an hour-long BBC program did a couple of years ago on how reading — and writing — impact the brain. I wouldn’t show the entire show to students, but there are several very good segments. The entire show is available on Vimeo, which I’ve embedded below, and it’s also available on YouTube, though it’s in six separate ten minute segments. I’ve also embedded the first segment b
The Washington Post Joins The Party Of Data-Journalism With “Storyline”
I’ve previously posted about three new “data-journalism” sites that have opened-up shop this summer — Vox, Five-Thirty-Eight, and The New York Times “Upshot.” Today, The Washington Post announced that they,too, are joining the party with a site called Storyline. It doesn’t actually have a web address yet (it’s officially launching next week), but it can be found on Twitter and Facebook. The Post d
I Know Of Places Students Can Post Book Reviews, But What About Places To Post Video Book Trailers?
© 2011 Raymond Bryson, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio I know of plenty of places where students can post book reviews for “authentic audiences” and have listed them at The Best Places Where Students Can Post Book Reviews For Authentic Audiences. I also have students create simple video “book trailers” (see Creating Instagram Video “Book Trailers” With English Language Learners and My Best Posts On Boo
Videos: More Fun & Corny Grammar Videos
Chana at GCFLearnFree shared their fun and corny videos that are probably more categorized as easily confused words than grammar-related, but I’m still adding the series to The Best Funny Videos To Help Teach Grammar – Help Me Find More. You can see them all here. Here’s one of them, and I have the video set as a playlist so you can automatically see them all, too…
JUL 16
This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Useful Posts & Articles On Education Policy
© 2012 Richard Hurd, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Here are some recent useful posts and articles on educational policy issues: Did Obama and Duncan really hear what four teachers told them? is the third in a series of posts at Valerie Strauss’ Washington Post blog about a recent meeting at the White House attended by four teachers and President Obama and Secretary Duncan. This post also contains lin
July’s Best Tweets — Part Three
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
Very Useful Post: “Our 3 Favorite Free Online Image Editors For Education”
© 2010 fRandi-Shooters, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio The Edublogger has just published a very useful post: Our 3 Favorite Free Online Image Editors For Education. And, if you need even more options, check out one of my most popular “The Best” lists, The Best Sites For Online Photo-Editing & Photo Effects.
‘A More Beautiful Question’: An Interview With Warren Berger
‘A More Beautiful Question’: An Interview With Warren Berger is my latest post at Education Week Teacher. I’m adding it to The Best Posts & Articles About Asking Good Questions. Here are some excerpts:
Latest Resources On Child Refugees In The Southwest
© 2006 Gail Williams, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Here are the latest additions to The Best Resources For Learning About The Children Refugee Crisis At The U.S. Southern Border: Schools a haven for kids who crossed border alone is from The Associated Press. Beware John Cornyn’s ‘Humane’ Immigration Act is from The New York Times. The U.S. Border Crisis is a series of infographics from Reuters. Surg
JUL 15
Quote Of The Day: The Benefits Of Adults Learning A New Language
The Benefits of Failing at French is a new New York Times column on language-learning. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning The Advantages To Being Bilingual Or Multilingual. Here’s an excerpt:
The Best Funny Videos To Help Teach Grammar – Help Me Find More
© 2014 brett jordan, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Earlier today, I posted Weird Al Weird Al Yankovic’s new funny video teaching grammar (I’ve also posted it below). Then, Heather Wolpert-Gawron showed me another funny one, that’s also posted below. I figured there have got to be more out there, so I invite readers to contribute the ones you know about — I’ll post them here and, of course, give you f
Wednesday Is 45th Anniversary Of Apollo 11 Launch — Here Are Related Resources
© 1969 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Tomorrow is the 45th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11th, which landed on the moon. You might be interested in The Best Sites To Learn About The Apollo 11 Moon Landing.
Two New & Intriguing Efforts To Provide Home Internet Access To Students
© 2012 Lars Plougmann, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio I’ve written a lot about our school’s efforts and the efforts of others to provide home internet access to low-income students and their families (see The Best Resources For Learning About Schools Providing Home Computers & Internet Access To Students). Two new and intriguing efforts have just begun — one by Facebook and the other by the New
Video: Shelly Terrell & I Talk About My Books
Shelly Terrell and I spent about fifteen minutes talking about some of my books (you can see free resources related to all of them here) last week, and you can see the interview below: Our conversation was part of a day-long series of interviews Shelly did with education authors (I don’t know how she was able to sustain her energy!). The above video is set to start at the beginning of our conver
New Study Reinforces Previous Ones Showing SEL Lessons Need To Be Short & Simple
© 2013 elPadawan, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio As regular readers of this blog and my books know, I’m an advocate of teaching Social Emotional Learning skills — and that I think they need to be simple so that individual teachers can integrate them easily with their regular classroom instruction. Previous research has also found that using that strategy is the best way to go (see Social Skills Tra
Video: Funny, Thoughtful, Strong Speech By New NEA President
Lily Eskelen Garcia, the new National Education Association President (you can read more about it at my previous post, Our National Union Has A New President!) just spoke at the American Federation Of Teachers Convention. It’s definitely worth watching:
JUL 14
All My Ed Week Posts On Teaching Reading & Writing In One Place
I’ve published my latest Q & A Collection over at Ed Week. It brings together all my posts from the last three years on teaching reading and writing. Here’s an excerpt:
The New Yorker’s “Wrong Answer” Feature Is The Must-Read Education Article Of The Summer
© 2011 Sean MacEntee, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio The New Yorker, two months after publishing an excellent article on the school reform fiasco in Newark which made The Best Articles & Posts On Education Policy In 2014 – So Far list) has now published an extraordinary feature on the Atlanta testing scandal — Wrong Answer: In an era of high-stakes testing, a struggling school made a shocking choi
“What you can do to help the US’ 52,000 child migrants”
© 2011 Takver, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio Vox has just published a very useful list of organizations that are helping the child refugees in the Southwest, and ways people can help them. Check out What you can do to help the US’ 52,000 child migrants. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About The Children Refugee Crisis At The U.S. Southern Border.
Great Video & Tweets: Donna Brazile At The AFT Convention
Donna Brazile announced the formation of Democrats For Public Education at the American Federation of Teachers Convention in Los Angeles. It’s designed to support effective and teacher-supported education efforts. You’ve got to watch this of her speech at the Convention. I’ve also embedded a few tweets that contain excerpts… "We know that the root cause of the problems we see in schools toda
JUL 13
Infographic: “Around The World In 80 Hats”
I’m adding this infographic to The Best Sites For Learning About The World’s Different Cultures:
The Best Video Clips On The Benefits Of Writing Well — Help Me Find More
© 2008 Caitlin Regan, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio I’m working on a lesson about the value of writing well, and am developing a collection of video clips that might be useful. Here are the ones I’ve come up with — I hope readers will contribute more:
Can You Help Me Find Research On How Writing Strengthens The Brain?
© 2010 Enokson, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio I’ve written a lot about how learning in general strengthens the brain and reading’s effects on the brain (see The Best Resources For Showing Students That They Make Their Brain Stronger By Learning). In addition, I’ve written a lot about recent research finding how handwriting in particular helps brain development (see The Best Resources For Learning Abo
The Best Resources For Understanding “Personalized Learning”
© 2009 Alan Levine, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio When the last Race To The Top applications came out, its focus on the idea of “personalized learning” prompted me to create a The Best Resources On “Race To The Top” (& On “Personalized Learning”) list. Now, though, I think it’s time to make the topic a “Best” list of its own… I’ve got a number of concerns, and a fair amount of skepticism, abou
July’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
Latest Resources On Child Refugees At U.S.-Mexico Border
© 2007 Richard Masoner / Cyclelicious, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio Here are the latest additions to The Best Resources For Learning About The Children Refugee Crisis At The U.S. Southern Border: Shame on you, Murrieta, for blocking immigrant detainee buses is from The L.A. Times. Migrant children describe fear of facing protesters is a news report from an ABC affiliate in Southern California. A
Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL
© 2011 SEE TEFL, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | 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: Ala. Puts Stop to Enrollment Policies That Discriminate Against Immigrants is from Education Week. I’m adding it to The Best Resources To Learn About Alabama’s Awful Immigrati
JUL 12
Resources On The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
© 2009 Al Jazeera English, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio With the tragedy unfolding in Israel and Gaza, I thought people might find The “Best” Resources For Learning About The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict useful. Additional suggestions are welcome….
It’s A Supermoon Today, Aug. 10 and Sept. 9 — Here Are Related Resources
© 2012 James Niland, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio I’m publishing this post a little late, but other full moons this summer, on Aug. 10 and Sept. 9, are also supermoons. You might be interested in The Best Resources About The “Supermoon.”
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…..