Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL
LARRY FERLAZZO’S WEBSITES OF THE DAY
More Online “Choose Your Own Adventure” Stories
© 2005 CHRIS DRUMM, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Here are new additions to The Best Places To Read & Write “Choose Your Own Adventure” Stories: Man vs. Wild: The Game is from The Discovery Network. Here are several simple ones from Scratch. Here’s an interesting one using Vine. You can read more about it here.
Two Good Resources On Asking Good Questions
© 2011 opensource.com, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio Here are two new additions to The Best Posts & Articles About Asking Good Questions: How Questions Promote Cognitive, Social, and Emotional Learning Across Subject Areas is from Edutopia. The AMBQ (A More Beautiful Question) playlist—50+ “question” songs was developed by Warren Berger.
Even More MacGyver Clips Showing “Transfer Of Learning”
© 2008 TNS Sofres, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio I just discovered a MacGyver wiki that has a List of problems solved by MacGyver. It lists all the episodes, along with the problems he solved in each one and how he solved them. In addition, today I discovered that CBS has put all the MacGyver episodes on YouTube. Based on quick review, here are a few more clips I’m adding to The Best Movie Scenes, S
Do You Know Of Movie/TV Scenes Showing The Value Of Taking Risks & Making Mistakes?
© 2011 opensource.com, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio I’ve got a ton of resources at The Best Posts, Articles & Videos About Learning From Mistakes & Failures, including the videos that everybody knows (Michael Jordan commercial, Famous Failures, etc.). However, I don’t have any clips from movies or TV shows that illustrate the idea — in a funny or serious way. Do you have any suggestions?
Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL
© 2010 Rachel Zack, Flickr | CC-BY | 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: Academic Language and ELLs: What Teachers Need to Know is from Colorin Colorado. I’m adding it to The Best Websites For Developing Academic English Skills & Vocabulary. The
July’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
Are Researchers Who Helped Popularize VAM Having Second Thoughts?
Two-and-a-half years ago, economists Raj Chetty, John Friedman, and Jonah Rockoff published an extremely influential and well-known study that popularized Value-Added Measurements as a teacher evaluation tool and has caused huge damage to teachers, students and their families. You can see a collection of commentaries on their study here. They have also been public advocates of policy solutions usi
It Doesn’t Matter If It’s “Effective” If Students Won’t Do It
© 2009 US Department of Education, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio An article in District Administration Magazine raises issues about the effectiveness of Booktrack, a website and app that provides a “soundtrack” of music, street sounds, etc. to a book (students can also create their own sounds). Some question research (funded by Booktrack) that suggests it improves comprehension. I’ve previously poste
July’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 post. If you don’t use Twitter, you can
Almost Done With My Third Book On Helping Students Develop Intrinsic Motivation!
I’m about two-thirds down with the third book in my series on helping students develop intrinsic motivation, and I think it’s looking pretty good. I might be biased, though Its tentative title is Building a Community of Self-Motivated Learners: Strategies for Teaching Resilience, Respect, and Responsibility , and Routledge should have it published by next Spring. In the meantime, though, feel f
“Race To The Top Was A ‘Wasted Opportunity’”
Race To The Top Was A ‘Wasted Opportunity’ is my latest Education Week Teacher post, and comes on the fifth anniversary of the unveiling of that program. Today, educators John Kuhn and Gary Rubinstein provide response to this question. On Monday, I’ll be publishing guest responses from several more educators, as well as comments from readers. Here are some excerpts:
Videos: “Forward Thinking Transfer Of Learning” With James Bond
© 2011 Johan Oomen, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio I promise – this will be my last Transfer of Learning post for the day! Two kinds of transfers of learning are called “backward-reaching” and “forward-thinking.” In “backward-reaching,” you’re applying what you have previously learned to a new situation — that’s what was demonstrated in the Karate Kid and MacGyver videos I posted earlier today. In
JUL 24
Videos: MacGyver & Transfer Of Learning
© 2007 Charles Williams, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Here are some great MacGyver videos where he demonstrates transfer of learning — he has to remember what he learned in the past and apply that knowledge to entirely new situations in order to save his life. I’m adding these videos to The Best Movie Scenes, Stories, & Quotations About “Transfer Of Learning”:
Videos: The Karate Kid & Transfer Of Learning
As regular readers know, I’ve been trying to find movie scenes demonstrating transfer of learning (see The Best Movie Scenes, Stories, & Quotations About “Transfer Of Learning” – Help Me Find More!). I happened upon a comment in a paper about transfer saying the Karate Kid was a good example, and they sure were right. Pat Morita having the kid do a variety of tasks like waxing a car and paint
Three Good Resources On Metacognition
© 2010 Jon Skilling, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Here are three new additions to The Best Posts On Metacognition: Metacognition is from The Center For Teaching. Promoting Student Metacognition is a very nice chart of questions students can ask themselves. 50 Questions To Help Students Think About What They Think is from Teach Thought.
Now Yelp Creates THEIR Own Version Of Google’s Ngram Viewer
Wow, the same day The New York Times announces their own version of Google’s Ngram Viewer (see NY Times Creates Their Own Version Of Google’s Ngram Viewer), the online review site Yelp unveils their own. It’s called Yelp Trends and you can compare how often different words are used in reviews at cities around the world. It’s very easy to use and no registration is required. You can see two example
More Online Learning Simulations
© 2011 Army Medicine, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Thanks to a tweet from Amanda Ballard, I realized that I had forgotten to include a number of economics-related links on The Best Online Learning Simulation Games & Interactives list yesterday. So here are some that I’ve previously posted on other “Best” lists that I’m now adding to that one: It All Adds Up has some useful economics interactives
NY Times Creates Their Own Version Of Google’s Ngram Viewer
Thanks to the extraordinary Katherine Schulten, today I learned that the New York Times has created the Chronicle. It’s their version of the Google Books Ngram Viewer, which charts word use over the years in the books they’ve indexed (see The Best Posts To Help Understand Google’s New “Books Ngram Viewer”). The Times, though, indexes word usage in its own history. The image at the top of this po
This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Useful Posts & Articles On Education Policy
© 2012 Shutter Stutter, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Here are some recent useful posts on educational policy issues: The Teacher Dropout Crisis is from NPR. I’m adding it to The Best Posts & Articles About The Importance Of Teacher (& Student) Working Conditions. I’m adding this infographic to the same list: The Dropouts No One’s Talking About: Teachers is from Ed Week, and I’m adding it t
NBC’s “30 Seconds To Know” Seems Like A Good “Explainer” Series
NBC News produces an ongoing series of 30 Seconds To Know videos about current events and issues. They’re videos that last…thirty seconds, with an expert who explains a topic. However, it’s not just a talking head — it includes action shots and graphics, and the narrator doesn’t speak too fast. I’m going to add it to The Best Online “Explainer” Tools For Current Events. Here’s an example of one:
JUL 23
The Best Online Learning Simulation Games & Interactives — Help Me Find More
© 2010 ER24 EMS (Pty) Ltd., Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio As I mentioned earlier this week, I’m doing some research and writing on the idea of “transfer of learning.” As part of that research, I’ve been exploring online simulations that could “transfer” learning to different situations students might realistically encounter in classes or outside of school. I’ve posted about quite a few of them ove
Excellent English-Learning App Duolingo Now Takes On TOEFL & IELTS
Duolingo, which is on a bunch of my “Best” lists as a language-learning app (my students love it!) have not made it official — they’ve just unveiled an English test they want to rival the TOEFL and IELTS, tests that international students need to pass prior to attending a university in most English-speaking countries. You can read more about it at this TechCrunch post, and here’s a video: I woul
“Teaching Without Connecting is ‘Futile’: An Interview With Annette Breaux & Todd Whitaker”
Teaching Without Connecting is ‘Futile’: An Interview With Annette Breaux & Todd Whitaker is my new Education Week Teacher post. In it, Annette Breaux and Todd Whitaker agreed to answer a few questions about the new second edition of their popular book, Seven Simple Secrets: What the BEST Teachers Know and Do! Here are some excerpts:
Updated Playlist: “The 20 most popular talks of all time”
TED Talks now has an updated playlist of The 20 most popular talks of all time. I’m adding it to The Best Teacher Resources For “TED Talks” (& Similar Presentations).
Two Excellent World War One Resources From The Guardian
The British newspaper The Guardian has recently produced two excellent resources about World Ward One that I’m adding to The Best Resources For Learning About World War I: A global guide to the first world war – interactive documentary is an impressive multilingual…interactive documentary. How to teach… the first world war is also from The Guardian.
JUL 22
“FluencyTutor” Could Be A Useful Tool For Students To See Their Reading Progress
Richard Byrne posted yesterday about an intriguing new site that would be useful for emerging readers and English Language Learners called FluencyTutor For Google. It’s a web app only usable with a Chrome browser that provides a large selection of leveled reading passages that students can read, record, and store on Google Drive. Teachers can then listen at their convenience and correct and note
12 MORE New Yorker Articles On Ed To Read While The Archives Are Free
© 2012 Karen Green, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio Yesterday, I posted “12 New Yorker education articles to read while the archives are free,” a link to a a great collection of links that Vox identified. Now, today, Alexander Russo published links to his own choices at 12 New Yorker Ed Articles Vox Missed/Got Wrong. All twenty-four are worth reading this summer….
“Open Curriculum” Has Math Lessons & An Easy Lesson Plan Builder
Open Curriculum is a new free site that right now shares lots of math lessons, and plans to expand to English and Science lessons soon. I looked at a couple of the math lessons, and they seemed relatively decent, but I’m definitely no judge of math lesson plans. Because of that, I’m not ready to consider adding it to The Best Places To Find Free (And Good) Lesson Plans On The Internet. However, t
“Has Race To The Top Been A Success, A Fiasco, Or Something In Between?”
Has Race To The Top Been A Success, A Fiasco, Or Something In Between? is a special question of the week at my Education Week Teacher blog. This week is the fifth anniversary of the Obama Administration announcing the program. Feel free to leave comments here or there…
Liberio Says It Lets You Create eBooks From Google Drive
/> Liberio is a new tool that says it will let you turn any Google Drive document into an eBook. It also says it lets you upload and use a document from your computer. That could be a very useful. However, I was not able to successfully upload any document. That may have been because of their being overwhelmed by new users after being written-up in TechCrunch, or it might be a technical problem w
Wash. Post Unveils New “Storyline” Site — Great Content, Confusing Lay-Out
I’ve previously posted about The Washington Post’s announcement that they were joining the data-journalism party with a new site called Storyline (See The Washington Post Joins The Party Of Data-Journalism With “Storyline”). Today, Storyline opened up for business. The content looks great, and will be very accessible to students — unlike Vox (which I like a lot), Storyline’s pieces look like they
JUL 21
Seven Good “Reads” On Ed Tech
© 2010 Brad Flickinger, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Here are several recent good pieces related to educational technology: 10 Things Every Teacher Should Know How To Do With Google Docs is from Edudemic. Will Computers Ever Replace Teachers? appeared in The New Yorker. 3 Reasons Why Chromebook Beats iPad in 1:1 Programs is from edSurge. My Flipped Classroom Experience is by Kenneth Headley. I’m add
Good Overviews Of Israel-Gaza Crisis
© 2009 Amir Farshad Ebrahimi, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio Vox has created two useful resources for understanding the present Israel-Gaza crisis. I’m adding them both to The “Best” Resources For Learning About The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: 11 crucial facts to understand the Israel-Gaza crisis is from Vox. And Vox has created this two minute video explainer:
Contribute A Post To The Next ELT Carnival — It’s On Humor In Language Teaching
The next ELT Blog Carnival, formerly known as the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival, will be hosted by Carissa Peck at her blog. She writes: I am a teacher who strongly believes that humor makes classrooms better! This Blog Carnival is designed to let other teachers share how they use humor in the class, so that other teachers may be inspired from them! To submit your blog you have three options: 1. Twee
The Best Movie Scenes, Stories, & Quotations About “Transfer Of Learning” – Help Me Find More!
#160443393 / gettyimages.com I’ve been doing some thinking and writing about the idea of “transfer of learning” — helping students be able to apply what they learn in one situation to other contexts. I’ve previously posted The Best Resources For Learning About The Concept Of “Transfer” — Help Me Find More. I think I have a pretty good understanding of it now as I prepare a lesson plan. However
“12 New Yorker education articles to read while the archives are free”
© 2010 Fred Benenson, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Last week, I wrote a post about The New Yorker preparing to make all its archives available free for a few months (see “The New Yorker” Makes All Articles Available For Free Until November). That time has arrived this week! And Vox has just published a nice guide titled 12 New Yorker education articles to read while the archives are free. Their guid
Video: “A Refugee Speaks”
I’m adding this video to The Best Resources For Learning About The Children Refugee Crisis At The U.S. Southern Border:
Quote Of The Day: “Do Students Learn More When Their Teachers Work Together?”
Do Students Learn More When Their Teachers Work Together? is an excellent post by Esther Quintero at The Shanker Blog. I’m adding it to The Best Posts & Articles About The Importance Of Teacher (& Student) Working Conditions. Here’s an excerpt:
More Resources On Race & Racism
© 2008 jamieskinner00, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Here are the newest additions to A Collection Of Useful Posts, Articles & Videos On Race & Racism: A basic flaw in the argument against affirmative action is from The Washington Post. The Rise of Respectability Politics is from Dissent. Why I don’t hyphenate Chinese American is from TIME. The Black and Smart blog is a must-read. Student: My
Latest Resources On The Child Refugee Crisis
© 2011 Takver, 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: A Central America expert explains the root causes of the migrant crisis is from Vox. The Myth of the Diseased Immigrant is from TIME. Towns Fight to Avoid Taking In Migrant Minors is from The New York Times. US communities dive
JUL 20
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
Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL
© 2010 Michael Stout, 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: You Can Learn a New Language While You Sleep, Study Finds is an article from PsyBlog. Learn Dutch In Your Sleep is another report on the same study. Inventive, Cheaper Tool
Just Updated “Best” List Of Simple Classroom Science Experiments
© 2007 Smoooochie, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio I’ve just updated The Best Sources Of Ideas For Simple Classroom Science Experiments. Additional suggestions are welcome….
All My Ed Week Posts On Parent Engagement In One Place!
Q & A Collections: Parent Engagement In Schools is my latest post at Education Week Teacher. It brings together all my Ed Week posts related to parent engagement from the past three years. Here’s an excerpt: I’m adding it to My Best Posts, Articles & Interviews On Parent Engagement.
JUL 19
Big New Study On Deliberate Practice
© 2012 Mary St George, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio As you may have heard by now, a new study was recently released raising questions about the importance of deliberate practice to success. Here are some articles about the study. I’m adding this post to The Best Resources For Learning About The 10,000 Hour Rule & Deliberate Practice. There’s little question that Talent vs. Practice: Why Are We S
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