Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

…For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Monthly Archives: December 2007

December 26, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
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The Best Reference Websites For English Language Learners — 2007

Here’s one more list I thought would be helpful to students and teachers alike.  Though my focus is on English Language Learners, I think native-English speakers of a variety of ages could find these sites useful, too.

This list, though, will be a little different from most of the others because I won’t be ranking a group of ten-or-twenty sites.  Instead, I’ll be listing one-to-three sites for each “sub-category” I’m creating under the topic of “Reference.”  I’m just listing the ones I think are best for English Language Learners (and others), but it also depends on what they are needing/looking for.  It’ll be clearer after you see the list.

Here goes:

DICTIONARIES:

For Beginning and Early Intermediate English Language Learners, The Language Guide is clearly the best place to go. It’s easy to navigate, and has excellent images, audio, and text.

For students who are getting a little beyond the Early Intermediate stage,  I’d recommend Harcourt’s E-Glossary. It begins to introduce simple academic vocabulary with images, text, and audio.  I particularly like the fact it shows words in context, and “speaks” the sentences, too.

For Intermediate and Advanced English Learners, I think Answers.com works best.  Once you type in the word you’re looking for, click “Word Tutor” and it will provide audio to a sentence using the word in context.

THESAURUS:

Visuwords is a unique, and fun, way to find synonyms in a visual display.  It’s free, and it also functions as a dictionary.

ENCYCLOPEDIA:

I know some people have issues with Wikipedia, but I’ve found the Simple English Wikipedia to be a great resource.

WORLD FACTS:

Depending on the information students are needing on countries of the world, both Fact Monster: Countries and Infoplease Countries are good for basic data.

National Geographic People and Places provides a broader overview of different countries, including the United States, and includes a lot of good images, too.

FACTS ABOUT THE 50 U.S. STATES:

America’s Library from the Library of Congress gives a very short and accessible overview of each state.

For more detailed information, I’d suggest students visit Fact Monster: The Fifty States or Infoplease: States.

I have links to all these sites, and many more, on my English For Beginners Page under Country & United States Information, Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, and Thesaurus.

You can find my other year-end lists at Websites of the Year.

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December 26, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
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The “Best” Articles About Education — 2007

This list will certainly be one of the last, if not the last, in my “Best of…” series for this year.

I’ve also put quotes around the word “Best” in the title of this list since I’m sure there are many, many articles about education I have not read and posted about this year.  I’m particularly interested in hearing people’s suggestions for additions to this list.

Here are my rankings for the five “best” articles about education this year:

Number five is really two articles.  Both of them appeared in Rethinking Schools and both are about Ruby Payne, whose “deficit” perspective on low-income people continues to grow (unfortunately) in popularity among School Districts and teachers.  The first article, called Savage Unrealities and written by Paul Gorski, provides a good critique (though it’s sometimes a little too polemical for my taste).  The second, titled Revisiting Ruby Payne and written by Anita Perna Bohn, gives a good rejoinder to a nauseatingly fawning article about Payne that appeared this year in the New York Times Sunday Magazine.

Number four is an article that appeared in Scientific American titled The Secret To Raising Smart Kids. It highlights the importance of “effort” over “intelligence” or “ability.”

Number three is Collaboration — Rather Than Competition by Marvin Marshall.   Of all the different class management “systems” I’ve read and seen, I’m most impressed by his positive approach.

Number two is Changing The Way We Think About Learning by Linda Hammond-Darling.  It appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle, and compares our testing systems with how other countries measure student learning.

I’m ranking Richard Rothstein’s great article in the latest issue of The American Prospect as number one.  It’s called Leaving “No Child Left Behind” Behind.  The title says it all.

Again, I’m looking forward to hearing other people’s suggestions to add to this list.

You can see all my lists at Websites Of The Year.

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December 26, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
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The Best News/Current Events Websites For English Language Learners — 2007

One way to encourage our ESL/EFL students and others to become active citizens in the world is to help them become aware of important news events. Current news can also be a source of high-interest reading, speaking, listening, and writing material, and provide opportunities to stimulate higher-order thinking.

A first step in this process is to provide them with accessible information. This list, one of the last I’ll be developing this year, offers my choices for the top ten News/Current Events Websites for English Language Learners in 2007.

As in all of my lists, many of these sites existed prior to 2007. I didn’t blog about them until this year, though, so I’m including them in this year’s list.

Number ten is the English Club. It provides a monthly text and audio summary of four news stories, including online cloze (fill-in-the-gap) exercises.

I’m ranking CNN News Videos With Closed Captioning as number nine. You’ll see a series of “snapshots” streaming across the screen. Clicking on one will lead you to its video. Unfortunately, a short advertisement precedes the actual news clip. Be sure to click on the “CC” box.(It looks like this service has gone off-line)

Number eight is Voice of America’s Special English TV. The vocabulary used is great, the speed is perfect, the information is often (though not always) interesting. But can’t they liven it up a little bit and not just have a “talking head?” How about a few pictures related to the subject?

Number seven is a new site called ESL World News. It provides excellent weekly news summaries designed to be printed-out and distributed to students, along with follow-up activities. (Note: This site doesn’t appear to be in operation any longer).

Breaking News English is number six. It’s been providing text and audio of the top news stories a few times each week for quite awhile. In addition, it has excellent lesson plans and follow-up activities that can be printed-out.

Number five is the CBBC News Around. This is sort of a version of BBC News designed for younger people. The lay-out, writing, and choice of stories is very inviting. They used to provide audio to a lot of their stories, too, but they seem to have, unfortunately, discontinued that practice.

I’ve put the Audio Slideshow Gallery at Reuters at number four. The photos are excellent, they have very short captions, and the narration, though it isn’t an exact recitation of the text, is accessible. They do an audio slideshow each week summarizing key news events.

Number three is the International Herald Tribune. You click on a story, click on “Listen To Article,” and then you hear it. It works great, and you don’t have to listen to any ads. (Unfortunately, it appears they have revamped their web site and have eliminated this feature)

Number two is the Voice of America Special English News. These short articles, with audio, are accessible, timely, and numerous.

And now, for the number one News/Current Events Website For English Language Learners, I’m picking… the BBC Learning English. It was a tough choice between this and the VOA, but the BBC won out because its design is much more attractive and has images.

(Editor’s Note: I’m also adding the Play The News Game and iCue to this list)

A News Challenge game is also a new addition to this list. Two different short news clips (with different perspectives) about the same event are shown, and then questions are asked about them.

The newest addition to this list is the LIFE site sharing millions of photos from the LIFE Magazine archives and Getty Images.

What’s great about this new site is that, unlike Google’s previous hosting of many of the same photos (which are just listed by decades), LIFE’s site shows them in thematic slideshows with accessible captions. Plus, they include daily updates of slideshows about current events.  You can also subscribe to a weekly email newsletter that gives you updates on new content.Both the historical and current slideshows are fabulous.

English Raven has jnew feature called World News For Kids. Several stories with images and accessible audio are shown each week, and students can participate in an audio forum, too. All that is free. If you are an English Raven member (and it’s one of only a very few sites on The Best Educational Web Resources Worth Paying For… list — it only costs $20 per year, but also has a ton of materials that are available without paying), additional great materials are provided.

You can find these news sites, and many others, on my English Themes For Beginners page under News, and on my Teacher’s Page under Multimedia Resources From News Outlets.

You can also find my other lists at Websites of the Year.

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December 26, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
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The Best Blogs For Sharing Resources/Links — 2007

As readers know, this blog was a finalist in the Best Resource-Sharing Blogs category of the Edublogs Awards. The Awards are sponsored by Edublogs (I still don’t understand why any blogger would want to use a different host) and Josie Fraser.

Today, I thought I’d share a list of education blogs that I think are great at sharing helpful resources and links (at least once each week and in the vast majority of cases much more often), many of which I have then posted about (of course, giving them credit!) and placed on my website.

I didn’t want to blatantly “steal” the Edublog Awards title of “Best Resource Sharing Blogs,” though, and that’s why I’ve titled this list “The Best Blogs For Sharing Resources/Links.” (though I do think their title is a better one). I know it’s not a big change but, hey, I tried.

Unlike my other lists, though, I haven’t listed them in any order of priority. I’d encourage everyone to subscribe and put them on their blogroll, as I have.

Of course, I learn a lot from reading many other blogs, too. I just thought, given my blog’s focus, highlighting these would be appropriate.

Here they are:

Paul Hamilton shares very thoughtful posts in “Free Resources From The Net For (Special) Education.” All his posts, though, are also certainly useful to English Language Learners and to others.

I love the del.iciou.us links I get by subscribing to Lucy Gray’s blog, “A Teacher’s Life” (not to mention her always useful posts!)

Ben Rimes’ “Tech Savvy Educator” was one of two blogs that inspired me to start my own in February.

Jane’s E-Learning Pick of the Day is always helpful. I’m looking forward to her updating 2007′s Top 100 Tools For Learning in 2008.

Instructify is a newer, and prolific, group blog out of the University of North Carolina.

Silvia Tolisano at Langwitches has a knack for discovering Internet gems helpful to all learners.

Phyllis Anker has been posting for a long time about great links in her blog Phyllis’ Favorites.

Gareth Pitchford has also been providing great stuff at Primary Resources for years and now has a blog called Primary Resources Links.

Kevin Clark at REMC Ramblings has a neat feature he calls “Weekly Web Wonders.”

Kevin Jarrett’s Welcome To NCS-Tech was the other blog that inspired me to start writing my own. Kevin provides great daily tips.

The Teacher List is another fantastic blog that provides a new link each day.

David Deubel at EFL Classroom 2.0 offers a “Site Of The Day,” not to mention all the other resources available there. You can subscribe to his “Site of the Day.”

Finally, I’m always subscribing to one forum discussion or another at Steve Hargadon’s Classroom 2.0, and I’m always learning about new resources there.

(Here are some recent additions to this list: Nik Peachey’s Learning Technology Teacher Development Blog For ELT; Richard Byrne’s Free Technology For Teachers; and Jeffrey Hill’s The English Blog.)

(Here’s one more addition. Ressources Pour Le College is an extraordinary collection of sites helpful to English Language Learners. If you go to that link, you’ll see a section labeled “New Sites.” You can find new great links there daily.)

I’ve also added Kelley Tenkely’s blog, iLearnTechnology, to this list.

Explore The Possibilities is a blog written by Donna Murray, an Instructional Technology Specialist at the Hickory Public Schools. She finds, and shares, a lot of great resources.

You can view my other “The Best…” lists here.

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December 25, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
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List Craziness

I began writing my “The Best…” lists a few days ago as a way to reflect on all the posts I’ve made since February,  prepare for some technology experiments I’ll be doing in the classroom this coming semester, and to have a little fun.  I thought there might be some interest in them, but I certainly never expected that it would get thousands of hits — and that’s just over three days.

First, Silvia Tolisano at her Langwitches blog posted a link to my list of The Best Web 2.0 Applications For Education, shared her own picks, and had the great idea of inviting her readers to contribute suggestions.

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach at the fine 21st Century Collaborative  blog was also kind enough to write a post about it.  I sent my list to TechCrunch on a lark, and then they immediately put it on their site.  Many other bloggers have linked to it since.

Steve Hargadon at Classroom 2.0 posted about the same list (and my others) and suggested that people contribute their own lists of Web 2.0 applications — another great idea.  I’d encourage people to share there.

Based on the feedback I’ve been getting, it sounds like people are finding the lists helpful.  I hope that is indeed the case.

You can find all my lists (now numbering eight) at Websites Of The Year or by clicking on Best Of The Year under “Categories” on my sidebar.

I’ve got a couple of more lists in mind, but the majority have been completed.  With luck, I’ll finish the remaining ones later this week.

I hope everyone enjoys the rest of the holiday season.

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December 25, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments

The Best Math Sites For English Language Learners — 2007

Here’s another list in “The Best…” series, this time focusing on my least favorite subject — Math.

There are lots of websites that provide online activities for students to practice math skills.  In fact, I’ve got a ton of them on my Math page.  One of the next tasks on my agenda is to make a list in the near future ranking them.

Today’s list, however, ranks websites that help students practice math and provide superior English-language development opportunities.  That generally means that, in addition to showing a lot of numbers and text in an interesting way, that they offer audio for the text and numbers.  And that the audio has to be said in a speed accessible to English Language Learners.

In addition to the links to these sites in this post, you’ll be able to find them (and others) in the Math section of my English Themes For Beginners (which is different from my larger Math page).

As in my other lists, some of these sites may have been around prior to 2007 but, since I didn’t post about them until this year, I’m including them here.

These sites range in skills from beginning addition to advanced algebra.

And, now, for this year’s nine Best Math Sites For English Language Learners:

Number nine is Visual Math Learning Pre-Algebra Lessons.  It offers audio with text support and illustrations on a variety of math topics.  The audio is clear and at an accessible pace.  It has links to many good interactive math activities but, unfortunately, they don’t have audio.

Number eight is HippoCampus, which offers well-designed online textbooks with text and audio support.  It has ones for Elementary and Advanced Algebra.

I’ve ranked Harcourt’s That’s A Fact game number seven.  It reinforces elementary lessons, provides audio support to its text, and students like playing it.

Another Harcourt interactive, called Show Me, is number six. It walks students, step-by-step, through many math concepts.  It’s very well done.

I’ve ranked Brainpop as fifth on the list.  Brainpop has made it on a couple of my other lists, as well.  It’s one of only two sites that cost money to be ranked on any of these lists and, in fact, its one of the only two sites I’ve blogged about at all the entire year that require a paid subscription.  Their animated math movies (closed-captioned) and follow-up activities make it worth spending a few hundred dollars each year for it.

Harcourt makes it again as number four.  Their Fast Forward Math Glossary provides excellent audio and illustrated definitions of many math terms.

Holt, Rinehart and Winston’s Multilingual Glossary is number three.  In addition to showing the English definitions of math terms, at the same time it shows the definitions in the language of your choice (including Hmong!).

Number two consists of two separate sites — Villainy Mission One and Villainy Mission Two.  They teach geometry and algebra through a story “game” about bad people taking over the world.  Players have to stop them.  Besides it being a fun way to learn math, a lot, if not all, of what the characters speak is shown in text as well as heard.  It’s been developed by Thinkport in Maryland.

The number one-ranked math site for English Language Learners is….well, it’s actually three sites, all from the extraordinary Learn Alberta organization.  The three math sites are Math Under The Sea, Math 5 Live, and Spy Guys Math.  Instead of explaining each one, I’m going to suggest that they’re definitely worth the time to just go and check them out.

You can see all my “The Best…” lists at Websites Of The Year.

And, of course, you can find these links, along with 8,000 others, on my website.

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December 25, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
20 Comments

What Did You Learn In 2007?

I’ve been reflecting on my year, and trying to think of the most important things I’ve learned during this time.

I’m going to come up with a short list, and share them in a post on January 1st — next Tuesday.

I’d be happy to share other people’s “learnings” in the same post.  Feel free to write one-to-three things you feel you’ve learned this year in the comments section of this post.  I’m not going to give a specific restriction on their length, but please try to keep them short.   Please submit them by midnight, December 31st. I’ll leave them in moderation until I include them in the January 1st post.  

Also, please include a short sentence you’d like me to use to describe you.

By the way, I learned this easy technique of soliciting and sharing readers input from Kevin Hodgson.  He uses it for his great “Day/Week In A Sentence.”  He’s taking next week off from posting people’s contributions from that feature.  I’m sure, though, if you leave a comment in this week’s post he’ll invite you to contribute when it starts up again in January.

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December 25, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Change In Rankings For “The Best Search Engines For ESL/EFL Learners”

The list of The Best Search Engines For ESL/EFL Learners — 2007 has changed since I posted it one day ago.

 When I originally prepared this list one of  my favorite search engines, KartooVisuBeta, was down.  From what I saw on their site, it appeared to me they had taken it “down” and were, instead, selling it as software.  One day later I learned that no, it was up-and-running again. 

I’ve now placed it at number three on the rankings.

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December 24, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
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The Best Science Websites For Students & Teachers — 2007

This list has been the hardest one for me to put together.  I’m not a Science teacher.  However, I often use Science experiments as a vehicle for teaching English to recent immigrants.  It’s a “hands-on” activity, and provides a rich common class experience to talk, write, read, and speak about together.

Science (and, I think, just about everything else, too) is best learned by doing it in the physical world.  However,  many of the sites on this list offer great virtual environments in which knowledge learned in the “real” world can be reinforced.  In addition, I found that many of my more advanced English Language Learners (who were taking other Science classes) found the accessible sites I posted on the Science page of my website very helpful to them.

Most of these sites are supposed to  be designed for students at middle-school (fourteen-years-old) and below.  However, I’ve got to say that not only do I think that they’re accessible and challenging to English Language Learners and native-English speakers, I’ve certainly learned a lot of new stuff from the sites myself…

The number ten site, as well as number nine, are webpages where teachers can get great ideas for science experiments to do in the classroom.  The remaining top ones are all online sites for students.

And, lastly, as in my other lists, some of these sites were around prior to 2007.  However, since I didn’t blog about them before this year, I’m counting them for this list.

So, after that lengthy preamble, here are my top ten picks for this year’s Best Science Websites:

Number ten is Science Snacks from San Francisco’s Exploritorium.  It has examples of great science experiments to do at school.

Try Science is ranked at number nine.  It, too, has numerous examples of simple experiments students can do in class.  The site itself is very well-designed, attractive, and accessible.

I’ve put CARET Science Puzzles at the eighth spot.  These are great activities designed by the Centre For Applied Research in Educational Technologies.  I particularly like the fact that each puzzle has two options — one for younger and the other for older students.

Number seven is Ology from the American Museum of Natural History.  It has numerous excellent activities on topics like biodiversity, archeology, and astronomy.

Number six is Harcourt’s online activities to support its Science Up Close textbooks. These are great interactive activities on numerous topics.

The fifth-ranked site contains the well-know BBC Science Clips. These are numerous, and well-designed, virtual science experiments.

Number four is Houghton Mifflin Science’s Discover! Simulations.  These are extraordinary interactives covering many areas.  It also has a good glossary with audio support.

The third-ranked site is Learning Science.  A partnership, including Temple University and a local school district, has developed the site. It has a great collection online science activities.

Number two is FOSSweb.  It’s the online component of the exceptional curriculum created by the University of California. it has a series of science experiments students can explore online.  The activities are based on grade levels – from kindergarten to middle school.  You need a password to access the middle school exercises, but you can obtain that in less than a minute.

And my pick for the number Science Website of the Year is…. California Science from MacMillan/McGraw Hill.  It has some great online activities.  However, what makes this site stand-out (and my ESL/EFL bias is clear here) is that it contains translations in many languages (including Hmong!) of the science concepts taught in the textbooks.

Again, all these links, and more, can also be found on my Science page.

If you found this post useful, you might want to explore my other lists of Websites Of The Year.  More will be added later this week.

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December 24, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
5 Comments

The Best Search Engines For ESL/EFL Learners — 2007

(Editor’s Note: This list has changed since I posted it one day ago. When I originally prepared this list one of my favorite search engines, KartooVisuBeta, was down. From what I saw on their site, it appeared to me they had taken it “down” and were, instead, selling it as software. One day later I learned that no, it was up-and-running again. I’ve now placed it at number three on the rankings)

There are a lot new search engines being developed all the time. For most students, though, I think any of the usual ones — Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask, etc. — will do just fine.

However, I think it’s a different story for English Language Learners, younger native-speakers, and others with special needs.

I’ve created this list for them. Here are my picks for the top six new search engines for English Language Learners (I should also point out that I’ve learned about most of search engines over the year from the AltSearchEngines blog):

Number six is the Sortfix Search Engine. I think it’s too complicated to explain here, but you can read my original post. It might also end up being too complicated for English Language Learners, but it’s intriguing enough to be worth a look.

I’ve ranked Sputtr number five. You can access many different search engines from Sputtr’s main page, and they’re adding more all the time. It’s a useful, and easy way, for students to experiment with different search results.

Number four is Quintura. It provides search results in a visual “cloud.” I’d characterize it as similar to the present version of Kartoo, the well-known search engine, but much less confusing.

Number three is Kartoo’s newly-revised and experiment search engine called KartOOVisu Beta. It provides your search results in a unique visual picture of a “tag cloud” that will be very helpful to English Language Learners. (This site seems to be off-line now)

I’ve ranked Ask Vox at second place. It’s a search engine with a talking host. In addition to functioning as a typical search engine, you can type in a question and the avatar will “speak” the answer and also show it in text form. For example, I typed in the question, “What is the capital of California?” It correctly answered “Sacramento.” It also allows you to send talking email messages.

Finally, my pick as the number one search engine for English Language Learners is Pagebull. When you enter a search term, the results that come back are not text. Visual images of the pages are actually shown on the screen. This can help students more quickly identify which sites might be accessible to them. (Unfortunately, it appears that Pagebull went out of business a few months after I wrote this list. However, a new search engine called Exalead seems to be very comparable.)

(I’ve also added the Searchme search engine to this list)

You can access this list, and my other year-end picks, at Websites of the Year.

Links to these search engines, and more, can be found on the English Themes For Beginners page on my website.

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December 23, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment

The Best Social Studies Websites — 2007

Here’s another “Websites of the Year” list. This one will be highlighting Social Studies (Geography, United States History, World History, Economics, and Government) sites I’ve posted about during 2007.

In order to make the list, these sites have to be accessible and challenging to English Language Learners and native-speakers alike. They must also be able to be used by a teacher who only knows how to email and copy and paste a web address.

As in my other lists, a few of these sites were around prior to 2007. However, since I didn’t post about them until this year, I’m including them in this year’s rankings.

I have not included any Web 2.0 applications here. Many of those sites are also useful in Social Studies, and you’ll have to go to those previous lists to find them.

Since I’m covering such a broad area of topics under the title of “Social Studies,” this selection is a little longer than my other ones. I was a able to get it down to nineteen sites, with a tie for first place.

Number eighteen would be a lot higher, but, since it has a history of not being accessible a lot of the time, I’m putting it last on my list. It’s the Holt, Rinehart Winston Social Studies Home Page. It has great free online activities to support their textbooks. Here are two examples. Click on any of the textbooks, then click on any of the chapters, and then go to “Interactive Features” to see the best online exercises. The site has been functioning for the past few weeks, so check it out before it stops working again.

Brainpop is the seventeenth site. It’s made one of my other lists, and it’s only one of two sites I’ve written about that costs money. They have great animated movies and follow-up activities on lots of subjects, including Social Studies. It’s worth the cost. They have various services at various prices. It costs us a few hundred dollars a year.

Number sixteen is DirectGovKids. It’s a very colorful site that, through audio, animation, and text, explains the role of government in the United Kingdom. It’s great for students here in the United States who want to learn how another country’s government works.

The fifteenth-ranked site is the Social Studies page of IKnowThat. Their free map games and quizzes are a hit with both my ESL and mainstream students.

Number fourteen is Wikijunior’s resources on Ancient Civilizations. It’s part of Wikibooks, which is collaboratively developing open source textbooks online.

Hot Shot Business is number thirteen. This is a site from Disney where students participate in stimulations of starting businesses. It provides some good basic economics information, and is very well-designed.

Number twelve is an activity called Consumer Consequences. It’s a pretty sophisticated interactive designed for users to determine their ecological “footprint” and to help them reflect what they could do to reduce it.

The Field Museum’s site called Maps: Finding Our Place In The World is number eleven. The wonderful online activities it offers are too numerous to mention. Just be sure to explore all the links on its “sidebar.”

Number ten is the Geography Challenge from a magazine called Mental Floss. It has a series of good map games that are a little more challenging than the ones on IKnowThat.

Number nine is called Nations Illustrated. It has over 7,000 photos from all over the world. They’re categorized by country, and they’re free to use for non-commercial purposes. One of the neat features it has is allowing any photo to easily be made into an E-Card.

The Zero Footprint Kids Calculator is eighth on the list. It would be difficult to develop a more accessible web tool for people to figure out their own ecological footprint.

Number seven is The Traveler IQ Challenge. This series of geography games is the hardest on my list, and the best.

The next site on my list is designed for use by realtors and people looking to purchase or rent an apartment/house. It’s also a great research tool for students. HotPads is number six. It allows you to identify cities and neighborhoods on a map, and then lets you choose key demographic data. It then shows the data visually on a shaded map, along with a map key.

Number five is The Greatest Race On Earth. It’s another very well-designed and thought-out sight that details the specific environmental consequences of many work, transportation, home, and leisure activities.

Learn About Congress is a site sponsored by Indiana University and is ranked fourth on my list. It has several videos and animations designed to show how the United States Congress works (or,at least, how it’s supposed to work).

Number three is an extraordinary research site called ZIPskinny. All you have to do is type in a zip code for anywhere in the United States, and you immediately get information from the 2000 Census, along with a map of the area. Not only that, you can also compare the data with neighboring zip codes.

The second-ranked site is Awesome Stories. Awesome Stories has been a great source of information, particularly about history, for students since it began in 1999. It has thousands of very accessible stories about countless subjects. It’s also made it on this year’s list because it’s just started to provide audio narration to its content.

And, now, for the two sites that tied for the number one ranking this year:

One is HippoCampus. It has great (and complete) online and accessible textbooks for many subjects, including History and Government. Their resources include extraordinary multimedia presentations.

HippoCampus tied for first place with The Virtual Smithsonian. It’s a fantastic multimedia window into the artifacts, and their stories, held by the Smithsonian Institution. (There now appears to be a problem with this site and link — it’s not working now).

I might still have one or two more lists “up my sleeve,” so keep checking-back.

Links to these sites, and more, can also be found at the Geography & United States History page, and the World History page, on my website.

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December 23, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment

Best Of The Year Lists

As readers of this blog know, I have begun creating “The Best…” lists, highlighting what I think are the best educational websites of the year.

You can easily access them all by clicking on the “best of the year” link under “Categories” on the sidebar.  You can also click on the Websites Of The Year page on the sidebar.  There are also direct links to each of the lists near the bottom of the sidebar.

So far, I’ve compiled:

The Best Web 2.0 Applications For Education — 2007

The Best Web 2.0 Applications for ESL/EFL Learners — 2007

The Best Online Learning Games — 2007

The Best Internet Sites For English Language Learners — 2007

The Best Social Studies Websites — 2007

The Best Search Engines For ESL/EFL Learners

The Best Science Websites For Students & Teachers — 2007

The Best Math Sites For English Language Learners — 2007

The Best Blogs For Sharing Resources/Links — 2007

The Best News/Current Events Websites For English Language Learners — 2007

The Best Reference Websites For English Language Learners — 2007

The “Best” Articles About Education — 2007

The Best Places To Learn Web 2.0 Basics — 2007

The Best Of The Best — 2007

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December 22, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
6 Comments

The Best Internet Sites For English Language Learners — 2007

I’m obviously in a list-making mood today. In this one I’ll be listing my picks for the best ten sites to help ESL/EFL students learn English.

This list will exclude Web 2.0 applications. I’ve already covered them in The Best Web 2.0 Applications for EFL/ESL Learners — 2007. And though many of the sites on this list have game-like qualities, none of them are quite as “game-like” as the ones I’ve listed in The Best Online Learning Games — 2007.

Another comment I want to make before I share my picks is that many, if not all, of these sites were around prior to this year. However, as I’ve mentioned in my previous “The Best…” posts, I’ve only blogged about them this year. So since I’m making the list, I get to list them in this year’s rankings.

My final caveat is that two of the picks on this list cost money — the only two appearing on any of my lists that are not completely free. I think they’re worth the cost.

Number ten on my list is Brainpop. This is one of the two that cost a subscription fee. Brainpop has hundreds of excellent animated movies on most academic subjects, along with online follow-up activities. This year they incorporated closed-captioning in all their films, and that’s what made me include them in this list. They have three services — Brainpop, Brainpop, Jr. (which has movies in very simple English), and Brainpop in Espanol. You can purchase a package subscription to all of them for 35 connections at a time for $795, or purchase one or two of the services at a lesser cost.

Raz Kids is the number nine site on my list, and is the other site that requires a paid subscription. For less than $60 you can have a virtual “classroom” of up to 36 students if you want to keep track of their progress. The site has a great selection of “Talking Books” at various English levels.

I’ve put Hello World English at number eight. It has a bunch of activities for Beginning English Language Learners and you can also create a virtual classroom here — all for free.

English Interactive is at the number seven spot. It has great exercises for both Beginning and Intermediate English Language Learners.

I’ve put Wordbuilder at number six. It’s an excellent spelling, vocabulary, and phonics site from Houghton Mifflin. Students are told a word, in the context of a sentence, and then have to spell it. It’s designed as a game, and there are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of opportunities to play. It’s appropriate for beginners through Intermediate English Language Learners. Audio and text support is provided.

The site I’ve picked for number five might seem a little unusual. It’s not an online interactive site, and it’s for teachers. And it’s only accessible online. It’s the Peace Corps manuals for teaching English Language Learners, and I don’t believe there are any better books out there for communicative teaching. In theory, they’re available from the Peace Corps online, but the official link is always broken, even though everytime I contact them they say it’s fixed. Luckily, the TEFL Daddy site has it posted.

The Everyday Life Project is number four. It’s sponsored by the Goodwill Community Foundation in North Carolina, and it has extraordinary interactive activities for Intermediate and Advanced English Language Learners.

I’ve ranked the Student Sites of the Oxford University Press at number three. They have hundreds of great online EFL/ESL activities for all levels of learners.

Number two is Starfall, the established site that is rivaled by no other in providing accessible literacy activities to Beginning English Language Learners.

And, finally, the site that I consider the best on the web for English Language Learners — Henny Jellema’s Online TPR Exercises. You’ve got to see this site to believe it. I can’t imagine the amount of work that went into creating the exercises. However, as he cautions, it’s critical to combine using his online activities with physical TPR lessons.

I’m sure not everyone agrees with this list, and I’m looking forward to hearing other people’s ideas…

Links to these sites, and to 8,000 others, can also be found on my website.

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December 22, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
11 Comments

The Best Online Learning Games — 2007

Now that I’ve finished two of “The Best…” lists, I’m ready for a third one.  This post will share my picks for the best twelve online learning games of the year.

All the games on this  list should be accessible, challenging, and fun for English Language Learners and native-English speakers alike (of all ages), except for two or three that are obviously for Beginning English Language Learners.  I’ve particularly tried to include sites where students can create great games, too.

Number twelve on my list is Line Rider 2.  This is “hot off the presses” and is the sequel to the popular Line Rider game.  I’m certainly not a science teacher, but I’m told by those who are that it can be used very effectively to teach physics and other topics.  Students can also have a lot of fun creating and saving their creations.  It’s worth reading my post about it for more details.

Number eleven is Class Tools.  Teachers and students can create lots of learning activities using formats from popular 1980′s arcade games.

Philologus is the tenth site on my list.  It’s very similar to Class Tools.  However, it uses more recent television games shows as templates for teacher and student created exercises.

The Senses Challenge is ranked number nine.  It’s a series of timed puzzles from the BBC, and they’re a lot harder than you think.

Bite Size Literacy and Math is the eighth site on the list.  It’s a new BBC portal filled with fun activities for Beginning English Language Learners and native-English speakers to develop literacy and math skills.

Number seven is the famous Free Rice game.  It’s great that they donate rice to the United Nations food program for every correct answer, but that’s not why it made my list.  It’s here because it’s a neat vocabulary-building exercise for anyone.  It stands-out becauses it only increases its difficulty level based on how well you’re doing in the game.

The Twenty Questions Game is number six. You think of something, and the computer asks you questions in an attempt to guess what you’re thinking of.  You  might want to read my post to learn about how I’ve used it in class.

Qtoro is number five.  It’s a fun game covering countless subjects.  Students can also create their own games and compete against each other.  Here again it’s probably worth reading two separate posts I wrote about it.

The fourth site on my list is Launchball from the British Science Musuem.  Students can create a sort of video game (and learn scientific concepts in the process), title it, and post the url.

Number three is another site primarily for Beginning English Language Learners.  It’s the new English Learning site from Yahoo Korea, and has a gazillion fun activities.  Even though all the titles of the activities are in Korean, once you click on them all the words and audio will be in English.

Number two on my list really consists of two music games by the same creator — Luke Whittaker.  One is called Sound Factory  and the other is A Break In The Road. I’m not going to even going to try to describe these wonderful games here.  You can read my post and try them yourself.

And, finally, the number one online learning game for 2007 is… Wordmaster, another site from the BBC. In it, you’re shown a sentence with a word missing (indicated by a blank).  Then you have to click on an on-screen keyboard to type the correct word “hangman” style.  You can ask for clues, and you’re competing against the clock.  You can also choose various levels of difficulty, and the game has thousands of words.  And after you’ve either guessed the correct word or the timer is up, you can have the sentence read to you.

Again, as in my other lists, I’m looking forward to feedback.

Links to all these games, along to thousands of others, can also be found on my website.  You can also find all the other Websites of the Year here.

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December 22, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment

Create A Fruit Face

Taste For Health allows you to make a face out of different fruits, write a title and message about it, email the url, and then post it on a website or blog.

It’s a good opportunity for students to reinforce fruit and face vocabulary, and practice writing skills.

I’ve placed in on my Examples of Student Work page under Student Faces.  One of these days I’ll put activities on that page in alphabetical order, but don’t hold your breath….

Be sure to click on “Let’s Play” on the bottom right of the main website to reach the activity.  It doesn’t have it’s own separate url.

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December 22, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
8 Comments

The Best Web 2.0 Applications for ESL/EFL Learners — 2007

As I promised in  my previous post on the Best Web 2.0 Applications for Education — 2007, here’s my next “Best of..” list — the Web 2.0 applications that I think are most helpful to English Language Learners.  I only considered sites that could be easily used by a Beginning English Language Learner or by a teacher who only knew how to email and copy and paste.  These sites could also be helpful to younger native-English speakers.

Over half of the list contains the same sites as the ones in the overall education list, but not in the same order.

And, as in my previous list, some of these applications were around prior to 2007.  However, since I didn’t start blogging until ten months ago, I’m still considering them eligible for my 2007 list.

The next item on my agenda is compiling one for the best online learning games of this year.

And now, for the top fifteen (again, another strange number):

Number fifteen is one that was on my previous list.  They are really two sites that are connected — SMILE and CLEAR.  They’re both from Michigan State University, and allow teachers (and students) to easily create clozes, drag-and-drop exercises,  and sequencing activities.  They also allow you to use audio and video with the activities, and will host them as well.

The fourteenth site on my list is Community Walk.  Students can put many sites on a map with descriptions and images (which can be easily grabbed off the web).  Students can use this to describe field trips, report on historical events, and do other mapping applications.  There are a lot of these kinds of sites, but I’ve found Community Walk to be the easiest to use. This also appeared on the other “Best of…” list.

The site occupying the thirteen slot is a new one called Blabberize.  It allows you to upload a picture of a person or animal and easily record a message that the picture speaks.  The lips on the image move in an exaggerated way as your message is being played.  It’s a fun way for English Language Learners to practice speaking and hear what they say.  Once the site creators add the feature (which they say they will) of being able to grab an image off the Internet and not just upload one from your computer, I’ll move this site up the ranking.

Number twelve is also a new one — Jottit.  I’d be surprised if someone could come up with an easier way for people to create a website.  Students can easily post links to many of their own online creations here so a teacher doesn’t have to spend time posting them.

The eleventh best is another repeat from my other list –CircaVie.  I think it’s the easiest online application for creating timelines and incorporating images.  It can be used in any number of lessons. (unfortunately, it appears like this web tool is shutting down).

ESL Video is the tenth best and, again, appeared on my other list.  It’s super-easy to take pretty much any video off-the-net and create a quiz to it.

Number nine is a new one called Sims On Stage.  I had originally posted about it when it was called “Singshot” and only featured karaoke.  It now includes other activites users can do, but I’m still most impressed by its karaoke capability.  Instead of going into detail here about how it works, you might want to read my original post about it.

Number eight is yet another repeat –  One True Media.  It’s a very easy way to create slideshows on the Web, and add text, music and images.

Number seven is a new one.  It’s called Dvolver MovieMaker.  Students can easily and quickly make short animated films and write dialogue for their characters.

Imagination Cubed from General Electric is the sixth-ranked site on my list.  Students can use it for so many things — draw and label solar systems, write and send E-Cards, etc. — it’s a “must” for ESL/EFL teachers.  It’s a little hard to describe, so you might want to check it out for yourself.

Number five is called Show Beyond.  This is similar to VoiceThread in allowing audio narration of slideshows,  but doesn’t allow audio comments like VoiceThread.  You can also add music and text. It’s particularly good in District’s, like ours, that block streaming media (like VoiceThread).

Scribd is number four.  This site allows students to type a document with illustrations on their computer, easily upload it to Scribd in seconds, and then the site immediately posts the document on the Internet with audio speaking the text. ( (Unfortunately, Scribd has eliminated this feature from its site, so I’m also removing it from this list)

Number three is Bookr.  It would be difficult to create an easier application to make slideshows with captions on the web.  The only drawback to it is you can only use images off Flickr, and not others on the Web, but that’s a small price to pay for such an accessible application.

The number two site on my list is Daft Doggy.  It allows you to create website tours — a series of websites where you also leave your own descriptive text or instructions on each page.  You can use it to create Internet scavenger hunts.   Visitors can also leave comments.  The site’s creator has a different part of his site where you can easily make voice recordings and email them, and plans to connect that ability up to the webtours soon so visitors can leave audio comments. Even without that ability to connect to the web tours,  that feature is the easiest place on the web for students to record themselves.

And now for my choice as the best Web 2.0 application for ESL/EFL students — VoiceThread.   You can upload pictures and create an audio narrative to go along with them.  In addition, audio comments can be left by visitors.  VoiceThread also provides a great deal to teachers by allowing them to get their premium services for free, including allowing them to create a zillion VoiceThreads for free.  Happily, they’ve finally incorporated the feature of allowing you to include images off the web just by inserting its url.  It’s that new feature that made me choose VoiceThread as number one.

Of course, there’s plenty of room for discussion with these kinds of lists.  Any feedback is welcome.

Links to these sites, and many others, can also be found on my Examples of Student Work webpage.

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