Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL
LARRY FERLAZZO’S WEBSITES OF THE WEEK
Marshallese Poet Brings UN To Tears With Climate Change Poem & Provides Extraordinary Opportunity To ESL Teachers
© 2000 Stefan Lins, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Earlier this week, I had heard something about a poet bringing many attendees at the UN Climate Change conference to tears but, in the midst of a typical week of craziness, had forgotten to explore it further. I just learned that the poem was written by a young Marshallese woman, Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner. It’s very powerful, and I’ll be adding it to The B
I Was Just Named “Educator Commentator and Blogger of the Year” At Bammy Awards
I wasn’t able to make it to Washington, D.C. today for the program, but I was just named “Educator Commentator and Blogger of the Year” at The Bammy Awards. I’m honored, and at the same time want to recognize the many others who received Bammy Awards in different categories and those who were nominated. The line between awardees and nominees is really an invisible one, and the line between awarde
The Greatest Interactive Video Ever Made For A Philosophical Discussion On The Existence Of Santa Claus
© 1965 Florida Memory, Flickr | PD | via Wylio This interactive video, a book trailer for “Does Santa Claus exist?” is an amazing one on many different levels. I’ll certainly be having my IB Theory of Knowledge students watch it: I’m adding it to The Best Places To Read & Write “Choose Your Own Adventure” Stories.
Part Three – Book Recommendations For Teachers
My latest Education Week Teacher post is the final one in a three-part series, and features book recommendations from Grant Wiggins, John Norton, Barbara Blackburn, Amy Benjamin and Kevin Washburn, plus a zillion reader comments. Here are a few excerpts:
What Are Your Favorite YouTube Channels?
© 2010 Rego Korosi, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio I’d like to “crowdsource” a “Best” list of people’s favorite YouTube channels that you find useful in the classroom and to which you subscribe. Leave your ideas in the comments and I’ll publish a complete list in a couple of weeks. Thanks!
“How We Got To Now” Looks Like A Terrific PBS Series
Steven Johnson is hosting a new six-part PBS series called How We Got To Now that will start on October 15th (he also wrote a companion book). Here’s how PBS describes it: Johnson explains how the answers to the questions he poses in each episode — such as “how do we make something cold?” or “how do we create light?”— have driven other discoveries through the web of ideas and innovations that mad
New Weekly Feature: Classroom Instruction Resources Of The Week
© 1970 Pip R. Lagenta, Flickr | CC-BY-ND | via Wylio I’ve periodically published a post containing three or four particularly useful resources on classroom instruction, and you can see them all here. I’ve now decided to make it a regular feature. Here are this week’s picks: Twelve Alternatives to “How Was Your Day?” is by John Spencer. It’s designed as a list of questions for parents to ask their
Just Sent-Out Free Email Newsletter
I’ve just mailed out the June issue of my simple free monthly email newsletter. It has over 2,000 subscribers, and you can subscribe here.
September’s “The Best” Lists — There Are Now 1,344 Of Them!
Here’s my monthly round-up of new “The Best…” lists I posted this month (you can see all 1,344 of them categorized here): The Best Resources For Banned Books Week The Best Resources Sharing The Best Practices For Fruitful Classroom Discussions A Beginning “Best” List On Domestic Violence Resources
Another Study Finds The Destructive Effects Of Grade Retention
Study after study has found that grade retention doesn’t work (you can find them at The Best Resources For Learning About Grade Retention, Social Promotion & Alternatives To Both), yet the practice continues in many schools. Scarring effects of primary-grade retention? is a report on the latest research. Here’s an excerpt:
September’s Best Posts From This Blog
I regularly highlight my picks for the most useful posts for each month — not including “The Best…” lists. I also use some of them in a more extensive monthly newsletter I send-out. You can see older Best Posts of the Month at Websites Of The Month (more recent lists can be found here). Here are some of the posts I personally think are the best, and most helpful, ones I’ve written during this pas
Infographic On Storytelling
I’m adding this infographic to The Best Digital (& Non-Digital) Storytelling Resources: Please include attribution to http://www.anecdote.com/ with this graphic.
PBS NewsHour Video: “Backlog of children’s immigration cases challenges judges, lawyers and schools”
The PBS NewsHour had an episode tonight on the effect the children’s refugee crisis is having on American schools — focusing in on Miami. You can read the transcript here, and I’ve embedded the video below. I’m adding this info to The Best Resources For Learning About The Children Refugee Crisis At The U.S. Southern Border.
September’s (2014) 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
SEP 25
Everything You Wanted To Know About The Marshmallow Test But Were Afraid To Ask
© 2007 crispy_dewdrops, Flickr | CC-BY-ND | via Wylio Dr. Walter Mischel, the creator of the famous Marshmallow Test to measure self-control, has just published a book and, in addition to the interview I did with him last week for Education Week Teacher, many other excellent pieces on his work have just been published. I’ve been writing about his week for years, and you can find all those posts an
Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL
© 2006 Rex Pe, 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: Songs and Activities for English Language Learners is a new and useful website full of resources. I’m adding it to The Best Music Websites For Learning English. Simple Tenses is a
Nice Bill Of Rights Lesson From NY Times Learning Network
You may, or may not, be familiar with the well-known lesson plan from Rethinking Schools that I’ve previously described on this blog and use any year that I teach U.S. History. It’s a great one where students create their own Bill of Rights after reviewing various versions from different countries and the United Nations. Today, The New York Times Learning Network posted a nice lesson plan that ha
Shocking! Study Finds That School Counselors Help Students
I’ve been a huge supporter of school counselors, and see everyday how they help students — and me — at our school. I’ve also published a two-part series at Education Week Teacher about their importance. The Pacific Standard has just published a report on a new study providing a little more ammunition to those of us who would like to get more counselors in our schools. Check out their article, Sch
September’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
SEP 24
This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Useful Posts, Articles & Videos On Ed Policy
© 2011 rochelle hartman, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Here are some recent useful posts, articles and videos related to education policy: Laura H. Chapman: When Economic Language Corrupts Educational Practice is from Diane Ravitch’s blog. I’m adding it to The Best Posts & Articles About The Role Of Economists In Education. State needs a ‘grand bargain’ on teachers’ effectiveness, obstacles appea
More On Banned Books Week
© 2013 San José Library, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio Here are new additions to The Best Resources For Banned Books Week: 19 Banned Books If They Were Made Appropriate is from BuzzFeed. Banned Books That Shaped America Too Graphic? 2014 Banned Books Week Celebrates Challenged Comics is from NPR.
Interactive: “Global Poverty Map”
Here’s how Google Maps Mania describes the Global Poverty Map: The Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative has developed a method for measuring poverty that takes into account a number of factors, including health, education, and living standards. This Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) is made up of ten indicators, divided into these three main dimensions of poverty. The Global Poverty
More Book Recommendations For Teachers
More Book Recommendations For Teachers is Part Two in my Ed Week series offering…book recommendations for teachers. Educators Megan Allen, Erin Klein, Jeffrey Zoul and Mike Fisher share their book recommendations. Here are some of them:
SEP 23
“How Diversity Makes Us Smarter”
When we do group work in my classes, I often select who goes in which group to make sure there’s a good ethnic, gender and ability balance. At other times, though, I will let students choose their own groups. I always preface that self-selection process, though, at the beginning of the year with a discussion of research that shows the benefits of diversity in groups. I then ask that they keep that
The Best Resources For Banned Books Week
© 2008 Mike Licht, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio It’s Banned Books Week. This week: is an annual awareness campaign that celebrates the freedom to read, draws attention to banned and challenged books, and highlights persecuted individuals. The United States campaign “stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them” and th
You Can Now Pre-Order My Upcoming Book On Student Engagement
My upcoming book, Building A Community Of Self-Motivated Learners: Strategies To Help Students Thrive In School and Beyond, is now available for pre-order at Routledge and on Amazon. I will be published in early March, 2015. It’s the third volume in my student motivation “trilogy.” You can read excerpts from the previous two volumes, Helping Students Motivate Themselves: Practical Answers To Clas
It’s A Bit Early, But Here Are A Zillion Halloween Resources
© 2005 lobo235, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio It’s obviously early, but I’ve begun to see Halloween posts on the web and thought I’d remind readers of my massive list, The Best Websites For Learning About Halloween. It’s one of my most popular “Best” lists. Let me know if you have suggestions for resources I should add to it.
SEP 22
“CK-12″ Has Free Resources In All Subjects & Individual Student Progress Can Be Easily Tracked
CK-12 is a non-profit with an impressive list of educational partners. It has resources in a ton of subjects, and just unveiled a bunch of neat physics interactives. But what’s particularly impressive to me is the ability for teachers to set-up virtual classes, create assignments, and track individual student progress on the work. It has lot of other bells-and-whistles that I’ve just begun to exp
New $15 Million XPRIZE For Learning Software To “Disrupt” Education — Call Me A Cynic
The XPRIZE organization has offered many big prizes for technological solutions to problem. Now, they’ve set their sights on education and want to “disrupt” it. The prize is: challenging teams around the world to develop tablet-based software solutions that can bring children who have little or no access to quality education to a higher level of performance in reading, writing and arithmetic in
“Book Recommendations For Teachers — Part One”
Book Recommendations For Teachers — Part One is my latest post at Education Week Teacher. In Part One of this three-part series, education writer and parent Melinda D. Anderson shares her book recommendations for teachers, as do educator/authors Kelly Gallagher, Cathy Vatterott and Vicki Davis. Here are some excerpts:
Research Studies Of The Week
I often write about research studies from various fields and how they can be applied to the classroom. I write individual posts about ones that I think are especially significant, and will continue to do so. However, so many studies are published that it’s hard to keep up. So I’ve started writing a “round-up” of some of them each week or every other week as a regular feature. By the way, you mi
SEP 21
New Feature: Five Most Popular Posts Of The Week
© 2010 Paul Townsend, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio Today, I’m unveiling what I think will be a new weekly feature sharing the top five most popular posts of the week. These are the posts appearing this blog that received the most “hits” in the preceding seven days (though they have originally been published on an earlier date). Let me know if you find it useful…. Here they are: 1. An ESL Teacher’
More Resources On The World’s Different Cultures
© 2009 William Murphy, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio Here are new additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The World’s Different Cultures: Around The World In 8 Hospital Meals is from NPR. Hungry Planet: What The World Eats is a TIME slideshow. Global Parenting Habits That Haven’t Caught On In The U.S. is from NPR.
The Best Resources Sharing The Best Practices For Fruitful Classroom Discussions
© 2013 AFS-USA Intercultural Programs, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Facilitating fruitful classroom discussions can be a challenge for the best of teachers, and I thought I’d begin a related “Best” list and invite readers to contribute additional resources. Here’s a start: MT Check out this resource to help students join in conversations! #TeachingInNC pic.twitter.com/pfngvIQhLp @e_wiggy #CCSS #stuv
World-Wide Climate Change Demonstrations Today – Here Are Related Resources
© 2009 Takver, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio Demonstrations are happening around the world today prior to the upcoming UN Climate Summit. Here are some articles about what’s going on: Thousands March for Climate Change is from NBC News. Climate change summit: Thousands join global protests is from The BBC. Thousands march in NYC, around globe over climate is from The Associated Press. I’m addin
Video: Earth Observations From The International Space Station
I’m adding this video to The Best Images Taken In Space:
Columbus Day Is In Three Weeks – Here Are Related Resources
© 2005 Brent Moore, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Columbus Day is October 11th in the United States. You might be interested in The Best Online Resources About Christopher Columbus, which includes a wide variety of materials, including ones critical of him.
“Can a Computer Replace Your Doctor?” Or Your Teacher?
Can a Computer Replace Your Doctor? is an article in today’s New York Times. It’s another health-care related article that can easily be applied to education. I’m adding it to The Best Articles Highlighting Parallel Critiques Of Increasing School & Health Care “Efficiency.” Here’s an excerpt:
“‘The Marshmallow Test’: An Interview With Walter Mischel”
‘The Marshmallow Test’: An Interview With Walter Mischel is my latest post at Education Week Teacher. I interview Walter Mischel, the creator of the famous Marshmallow Test to measure self-control and its long-term effects. Here are some excerpts: I’m adding it to The Best Posts About Helping Students Develop Their Capacity For Self-Control.
SEP 20
September’s (2014) 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
Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL
© 2006 Rex Pe, 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: A Framework for Raising Expectations and Instructional Rigor for English Language Learners is from The Council of Great City Schools. Here’s an Ed Week article about it. Stanford’s U
Infographic: “Inside the Brain of a Struggling Reader”
Here’s an intriguing infographic: See the original infographic at http://www.scilearn.com/blog.