Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL
LARRY FERLAZZO’S WEBSITES OF THE WEEK
Saturday Tweets About #Ferguson #MichaelBrown
[View the story "Saturday Tweets About #Ferguson #MichaelBrown" on Storify]
Nice NY Times Column Today: “Teaching Is Not a Business”
Teaching Is Not a Business is the title of David Kirp’s op-ed in The New York Times today. Here’s an excerpt: I’m adding it to The Best Posts & Articles Explaining Why Schools Should Not Be Run Like Businesses.
Video: ‘Don’t Look Down At Me”
From Laughing Squid: In Don’t Look Down on Me, little person filmmaker Jonathan Novick used a button camera to demonstrate how people in New York City react to his appearance. The resulting footage, which included inappropriate questions, offensive statements and surreptitious picture taking, along with some very insightful first-person narration make up this wonderful short documentary. The most
This Is Interesting & Depressing: Only 13% Of Education Research Experiments Are Replicated
You know all those education ideas that people, including me, write about as being research-based? Well, a new study has been published finding that only 13% of education research experiments are actually replicated by anybody else. And, of that 13%, sixty-eight percent were successfully replicated. However, that percentage dropped to 54% if you only included replication efforts that didn’t includ
Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL
© 2005 kc7fys, 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: Teachers of English-Learners Feel Least Prepared for Common Core, Survey Finds is from Ed Week. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About Common Core Standards &
Video: “1 World Trade Center Time Lapse”
I’m adding this video to The Best Sites To Help Teach About 9/11: 1 World Trade Center Time Lapse – Return of the Lower Manhattan Skyline from Benjamin Rosamond Photography on Vimeo.
Friday Night Tweets About #Ferguson #MichaelBrown
[View the story "Friday Night Tweets About #Ferguson #MichaelBrown" on Storify]
“The Problem With Goal-Setting”
I’m a big fan of Daniel Coyle’s book, “The Talent Code,” (see “Teachers Need To Behave Like Johnny Appleseeds”: An Interview With Daniel Coyle) and a big proponent of student goal-setting (see The Best Posts On Students Setting Goals). Writer Samuel Thomas Davies has an intriguing analysis and interpretation of some of the research and Dan Coyle’s book. He suggests that the chances of people bein
YESTERDAY
BBC Produces Very Impressive World War I “Interactive Episode”
The BBC has produced a very impressive online “interactive episode” — really, a “choose your own adventure” story — about World War One. Here’s how The Telegraph describes it: The interactive episode…. tells the story of the 1st South Staffordshire Battalion in one of the most deadly conflicts during the Battle of the Somme – the fight for control of High Wood on 14th July 1916. Rather than passi
August’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
August’s (2014) 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
Would You Like To Contribute To My Ed Week Column?
As regular readers know, I write a popular teacher advice column for Education Week Teacher. Readers send-in questions, and then I invite guests to contribution 300 or 400 word responses and also print shorter reader comments. I know a lot of educators and, in fact, have over 150 guest responses already — with more on the way — for the forty questions I plan on tackling this school year. However,
AUG 14
Thursday Night Tweets About #Ferguson #MichaelBrown
[View the story "Thursday Night Tweets About #Ferguson #MichaelBrown" on Storify]
Great Post: “Inventing Differentiation”
Carol Ann Tomlinson has written a great post over at Peter DeWitt’s Education Week blog. It’s called Inventing Differentiation. Here’s an excerpt: I’m adding it to The Best Resources On Differentiating Instruction.
Very Nice Infographics From “Weather Underground”
The popular website Weather Underground has a collection of very useful infographics. I’m embedding a couple of examples below, and adding them to The Best Websites For Learning About Natural Disasters: by wunderground. by wunderground.
“Rootbook” May Be The Easiest Tool For Creating Online Choose Your Own Adventure Stories
As regular readers know, I’m a big fan of having students both read and write Choose Their Own Adventure stories (see The Best Places To Read & Write “Choose Your Own Adventure” Stories). One big problem I’ve found, though, is that there hasn’t really been a super-easy way for students to create their own. Thanks to reader “Grubie,” though, I think I might have found one. It’s called Rootbook
All My Ed Week Posts On Education Policy Issues — In One Place!
My latest Education Week piece shares all my posts from the past three years on education policy issues — in one place! Here’s an excerpt:
AUG 13
Wednesday Night Tweets From Ferguson, Missouri & Beyond
I’m adding this Storify to How Many Of Our Students Feel This Way? (Resources On The Shooting Death Of Michael Brown): [View the story "Wednesday Night Tweets From Ferguson, Missouri & Beyond" on Storify]
Videos: Nemo Demonstrates “Transfer Of Learning”
© 2009 Joel Kramer, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Thanks to reader Pam Pryer, here is an excellent example of transfer of learning demonstrated by everybody’s favorite fish, Nemo. In the first video, he learns what “swimming down” can do and, in the second, he uses that knowledge to save hundreds of other fish. I’m adding the two clips to The Best Movie Scenes, Stories, & Quotations About “Trans
“Educational Movements, Not Market Moments”
Educational Movements, Not Market Moments is an important post by Mike Rose. Here’s an excerpt: I’m adding it to I Am Tired Of “School Reformers” Using The Civil Rights Movement Legacy To Support Their Agenda.
More Valuable Resources On Race & Racism
© 2012 Dominic Dominic Jacques-Bernard, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio I’m adding these next two tweets to How Many Of Our Students Feel This Way? (Resources On The Shooting Death Of Michael Brown): RT @chrislhayes: I interviewed the key witness to the Michael Brown shooting last night. The police haven't. Think about that. — Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) August 13, 2014 #journalism RT @LynnMag
More Resources On The Ebola Crisis
© 2014 SouthernBreeze, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Here are new additions to The Best Resources For Learning About The Ebola Virus: Ebola outbreaks from 1976 to now – interactive map is from The Guardian. This detailed model of the Ebola virus is about as terrifying as you’d expect is from The Washington Post. Using a Tactic Unseen in a Century, Countries Cordon Off Ebola-Racked Areas is from The N
“My Best Posts On ‘Conditional Cash Transfers’”
© 2012 Philip Taylor, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio I’ve just published My Best Posts On “Conditional Cash Transfers” over at my other blog, Engaging Parents In School. Conditional Cash Transfers are payments made to families to encourage them to do things like go to doctor appointments, and to children for increased school attendance and higher standardized test scores, and have been in the news lat
AUG 12
“The High Price Of The American Dream” Is A Free eBook & Great Writing Model For English Language Learners
My extraordinarily talented teacher colleague at our high school, Dana Dusbiber, along with the extraordinarily talented bilingual aide Alma Avalos, teach a class of adult English Language Learners once-a-week at our school in the evening. With support from the University of California at Davis, their students have published a “must-read” book that I’m sure will be a model for ESL classes around
More Resources On The Shooting Death Of Michael Brown
© 2014 dignidadrebelde, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio I’ve turned my previous post on Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Missouri into a “Best” list on related resources. Here are new additions: The Media Keeps Failing Black Teens is from The Atlantic. Black Kids Don’t Have to Be College-Bound for Their Deaths to Be Tragic is from The Root. Police Use Tear Gas On Crowd is from The Washington Post. I
“Google Classroom” Now Open To Any Teacher With “Google Apps For Ed” Account
I’ve previously posted about the new Google “Classroom” (see Wow! 800 Pound Gorilla Google Unveils “Google Classroom” That May Make Many Present Tools Irrelevant). Today, Google made it available for free to any teacher with a Google Apps For Education account. It’s free, with no ads, and describes itself as providing the ability to: Create and collect assignments: Classroom weaves together Goog
Contribute A Post To The Next “ELT Carnival” – “Back To School Tips”
David Deubelbeiss over at ELL Classroom 2.0 will be hosting the next ELT Blog Carnival (formerly known as the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival). The deadline is September 1st and the topic is “Back To School Tips.” Here’s what he wrote: Post any and all entries HERE We are also looking for future hosts of the Carnival for the coming year. Find out more and sign up to host a monthly carnival HERE. Check
This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Useful Posts & Articles On Education Policy
© 2012 firedoglakedotcom, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio Here are some useful and relatively recent posts/articles on ed policy issues: Lunch lady rises to teachers union leader and takes on all comers, bluntly is from The Washington Post. “D.C. halting key Michelle Rhee reform: One of the first U.S. cities to judge teachers off of student test scores is now putting the practice on hold” is from Sa
AUG 11
All My Ed Week Posts From The Past 3 Years On Using Tech In The Classroom – In One Place!
My latest piece at Education Week Teacher brings all my posts there from the past three years related to ed tech. Here’s an excerpt from one of them: I’m adding it to The Best Advice On Using Education Technology.
Video: Robin Williams As An ESL Teacher — “We Like Your Lessons Better Than The Book”
© 2011 Global Panorama, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio Robin Williams, R.I.P. Here he is as an ESL/EFL teacher in “Good Morning, Vietnam”:
“Correlation ≠ causation”
I’m adding this tweet to The Best Online Resources For Teaching The Difference Between Correlation & Causation: Correlation ≠ causation. pic.twitter.com/3onu7gqUcx — Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) August 11, 2014 Here’s what the plaque says: THE RAINMAKERS OF 1891 Working on the theory that explosives could cause rainfall because many war battles had been followed by rain, the U.S. Department
Video: I Don’t Hear Students Thanking This Retiring Teacher For Helping Them Score Well On Standardized Tests
Check out this Kid President video: Thanks to Amy Erin Borovoy for the tip.
Infographic: “The Benefits Of A Bilingual Education”
I’m adding this infographic to The Best Resources For Learning The Advantages To Being Bilingual Or Multilingual: Compiled by: Yew Chung International School Beijing
“Google Open Gallery” Looks Like A Neat Place To Display A Class Project
Google Open Gallery was unveiled quite a few months ago, but I just received an invitation today and think it looks pretty neat. It’s designed to let artists and others display cultural artifacts in an easy and visually appealing way. I think it could be useful for my students to use as part of their annual project teaching about their home cultures (you can read, and see, a lot more about that
How Many Of Our Students Feel This Way?
The full story has yet to come out about what happened on Friday night in Ferguson, but the larger narrative of the challenges facing so many of our African-American youth could not be more clear. MLK: "…a riot is the language of the unheard…Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention." #Ferguson — Ben Spielberg (@BenSpielberg) August 11, 2014 MLK: "
AUG 10
August’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
Nice Listing Of Educational Videos Available For Streaming Through Netflix & Amazon
© 2011 SFT HQ, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio The Fordham Institute has completed a useful listing of history, science and literature educational videos available for streaming on Netflix and Amazon. It’s organized by topic and is pretty comprehensive. Some of the films they included are a bit bizarre (“Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving” in the unit on Native American Cultures? Really?), but most of them s
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: Reader Cindy Conser suggested this nice video collection from Shmoop would be a good addition to The Best Funny Videos To Help Teach Grammar. Here’s one example: You ma
This Week’s “Links I Should Have Posted About, But Didn’t”
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
New Video: “Our Curiosity” With Neil DeGrasse Tyson
I’m adding this new video to The Best Sites For Learning About The Mars Rover Curiosity:
This Week In Web 2.0
In yet another attempt to get at the enormous backlog I have of sites worth blogging about, 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: An Easy Guide to Creating a Presentation in Canva is from the
Important Resources On Race
© 2012 Sasha Kimel, Flickr | CC-BY-ND | via Wylio Though the circumstances of Michael Brown’s shooting last night in Missouri are still not clear, it does echo the deaths of so many other young African-American youth. Here are some new additions to A Collection Of Useful Posts, Articles & Videos On Race & Racism: White People Are Fine With Laws That Harm Blacks is from Slate. Telling white
‘Read, Write, Lead’: An Interview With Regie Routman
‘Read, Write, Lead’: An Interview With Regie Routman is the headline of my latest column over at Education Week Teacher. Here are a couple of excerpts:
AUG 09
Manuscript For My Third Book On Student Motivation Is Done!
© 2009 studio tdes, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Though I still have to give it one last “run-through,” the manuscript for the third book in my student motivation “trilogy” is now complete and ready to submit to the publisher, Routledge. It’s titled: Building a Community of Self-Motivated Learners: Strategies to Help Students Thrive in School and Beyond It will be published in early 2015, though the
AUG 08
Resources On The Iraq Crisis
© 2014 Gwydion M. Williams, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Here are new additions to The Best Web Resources On The Iraq War: Maps: Crisis in Iraq is from CNN. The Iraq-ISIS Conflict in Maps, Photos and Video is from The New York Times.
Important Study: “Expecting to teach enhances learning, recall”
I’m a big proponent of students teaching their classmates using presentations, “jigsaws,” creating learning objects like clozes and sequencing activities, and many online tools to create materials for authentic audiences. You can read more about these ideas at The Best Posts On Helping Students Teach Their Classmates. Now, new research finds what we teachers who have been making this kind of an a
Six Good Ed Tech Links
© 2013 DoDEA, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Here are some recent useful articles on ed tech-related issues: Why Some Schools Are Selling All Their iPads is from The Atlantic. I’m adding it to The Best Resources On “One-To-One” Laptop/Tablet Programs. Why a New Jersey school district decided giving laptops to students is a terrible idea is from The Hechinger Report. I’m adding it to the same list. How
Even More Resources On The Unaccompanied Minor Refugee Crisis
© 2008 Frederick Dennstedt, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio Here are new additions to The Best Resources For Learning About The Children Refugee Crisis At The U.S. Southern Border: Schools brace for up to 50,000 migrant kids is from USA Today. With Uncertainty, Schools Prepare for New Arrivals is from The Texas Tribune. The Wilson Quarterly has a really impressive interactive. Hope Dwindles for Hon
Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL
© 2010 Sistak, 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: New York City Libraries Struggle to Meet Demand for English-Language Classes is from The New York Times. Humanising Language Teaching is my favorite ESL/ELT journal, and the lates
August’s (2014) 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