Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

…For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Monthly Archives: February 2009

February 3, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Embed A Customized Google News Slideshow In Your Blog

Google has just created the ability for anyone to embed a custom news slideshow on your site.  For example, I typed “ESL,ELL,EFL” into the NewsShow Wizard and got a continually updated slideshow of news related to those topics.

Here’s how it looks (it might not show-up in an RSS Reader — though I hope it shows up in my blog):

For now, at least, it comes in only two sizes — neither which works with my sidebar design as it is today, but I’m assuming Google will eventually make it even more customizable.

Thanks to Mashable for the tip.

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February 3, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
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The Best Resources For Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day is every February 2nd, and I thought I’d post a quick “The Best…” list of some links I put together for my class this week.

Here are my choices for The Best Resources For Groundhog Day (that are, of course, accessible to English Language Learners);

EL Civics has a Groundhog Day Lesson specifically designed for ELL’s.

5 Minute English has a short reading comprehension activity.

This is a simple explanation of the holiday.

Here’s a Groundhog Day Quiz.

See video of the Groundhog Day 2008 celebration.

Seeing His Shadow is a slideshow from The Wall Street Journal.

Groundhog Day is a video from CNN.

MSNBC has another video of the event, plus an article.

The real deal behind Punxsutawney Phil is another MSNBC article that gives a good history behind the tradition.

Groundhog: Don’t Shoot The Messenger is a video from The Wall Street Journal.

Groundhog Day is a talking storybook.

For teachers, here’s a lesson plan on using the “Groundhog Day” movie with ELL’s.

CNN has several Groundhog Day related videos.

Groundhog Day: Can Groundhogs Really Predict Spring? is a video from How Stuff Works.

Can our furry friends really forecast? is a short, accessible article at MSNBC.

Education World has a simple Internet Scavenger Hunt about Groundhog Day.

Groundhog Predicts Early Spring is a 2011 slideshow from The Wall Street Journal.

Punxsutawney Phil springs into action for Groundhog Day 2011 – in pictures comes from The Guardian.

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous “The Best…” lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.

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February 3, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Free Membership For Libraries

A site called K 5 Stars is now offering a free membership to public libraries.

The membership would provide free access to 200 online games that look pretty engaging to Beginning English Language Learners.

With all the similar free resources on the web, I wouldn’t add it to my very short list of things worth paying for, but it certainly would be a nice addition to any library’s website at no cost.

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February 3, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Stimulus & Schools Update

I written several recent posts about school resources included in the proposed economic stimulus package being considered by Congress, including sharing an analysis of what each school district in the U.S. would receive.

Of course, there’s a whole lot of debate now on whether this money will really serve to stimulate the economy.

Public School Insights provides a helpful summary, with links, about the on-going debate, and is worth a look. The post is titled “Stimulus Circus.”

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February 3, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Embedr For Videos

Embedr lets you easily make a playlist of videos from across the web, and then lets you embed them all with one embed code. This could come in handy if you want your students to watch a series of videos you embed into your own site.

I think Searchme, which is number one on The Best Search Engines For ESL/EFL Learners — 2008, may allow you to do something similar with its “Stacks” feature, but, if so, I believe it doesn’t have an embed capability (but I may be wrong on both counts).

Embedr certainly is compatable with a ton of video-hosting sites, including TeacherTube. Unfortunately, I suspect that most of them are blocked by school content filters. They encourage suggestions for more, and I’ve sent them Edublogs TV as one.

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February 3, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Dynastree

There are many situations where I don’t think technology brings much “value-added” to a lesson. One of them is a common learning activity used with Beginning English Language Learners — having them create family trees.

It’s a great way to develop basic vocabulary, and you can expand it to include other descriptions of family members (what kind of work are they doing or did they do?).

Student can create beautiful posters for the classroom.

If, however, I’m wrong, and somebody can think of a benefit to students doing it online, Dynastree is probably the most accessible (and free) application out there.

It does happen to have a free and easy mapping tool where you can see where other people who share your last name live in the United States, and that could be a useful application to learn geography. However, that tool seems to be down at the moment I’m writing this post.

I’ve posted in the past about a similar, and I think better, site that maps your namesakes around the world. That one is called Public Profiler/World Names.  You might want to read my previous post on it.

(Note that Patrick Black just alerted me that Dynastree might be just a copy of another site called Geni.)

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February 3, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
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The Best Sites For ELL’s To Learn About The Dangers Of Smoking

We’re using cigarettes and smoking as another “model” topic in helping our Intermediate English Language Learners learn to write a persuasive essay.

I thought readers of this blog be interested in the sites our students are using for their research. You can find many other health related links on my website under Health. You might also be interested in:

The Best Life Expectancy Calculators

The Best health sites for English language learners

Here are my picks for The Best Sites For ELL’s To Learn About The Dangers Of Smoking:

Smoking Kills and Smoking May Be Banned In Cars are two articles with audio support and follow-up activities from the excellent California Distance Learning Project. They are specifically designed for English Language Learners.

ELLO has a listening “game” related to a person who stopped smoking. This activity, too, is for ELL’s.

How To Stop Smoking is a “talking news story” for ELL’s from Many Things.

Stop Smoking is quiz that’s also from Many Things.

Brainpop has a good movie on Smoking, but you need to have a paid subscription in order to view it (though you can also get a free trial).

Smoking: The Facts is an interactive tutorial from Medline Plus.

You Make Me Sick is a game from the BBC on smoking. They also have an interactive quiz.

Bonko’s Body Quiz is a smoking interactive from PBS Kids.

Here’s another listening exercise — this time on smoking statistics.

Quitting Smoking is a closed-captioned video from the National Institute Of Heath.

Breaking News English has a lesson on smoking that includes audio support for the text.

1-Language has a report on smoking that provides audio support for the text.

Here are some online videos from The Truth that are designed to encourage young people not to smoke.

Aspire is another site designed to encourage teenagers not to smoke. Its videos are closed-captioned.

An interactive on How Tobacco Damages Your Body from Northwest Community Hospital (accessible to Intermediate ELL’s).

An animation from The Centers For Disease Control on The Health Consequences of Smoking on the Human Body (accessible to high Intermediate ELL’s).

TIME Magazine has just published an infographic titled Leading Cause of Death. It’s a pretty amazing piece of work chocked full with data about smoking cigarettes.

In fact, it may be a bit too “chock full.” It’s pretty “busy,” which might make it less accessible to ELL’s.

A lesson plan & Internet Scavenger Hunt from PBS on smoking that would be good for ELL’s as long as it was modified a bit.

The Wall Street Journal just published a feature on smoking. I’m adding these elements to this list:

Who Still Smokes? is an interactive graphic.

Rise Of The Part-Time Smoker is an online video.

The Facts About Smoking is an accessible, simple infographic.

FDA’s New Cigarette Warnings is a slideshow from The Wall Street Journal.

27 cigarette warning labels nixed by the FDA is a slideshow from CBS News.

Cigarette labels: U.S. smokers to see new warnings is an interactive from the Associated Press.

Additional suggestions are always welcome.

I’d like to thank Ressources Pour Le College for several of these links.

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous “The Best…” lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.

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February 2, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Google Translate Adds Languages

Google Translate, which is highlighted in The Best Reference Websites For English Language Learners — 2008 for offering the best online translation, has just added seven new languages to its capabilities.

For my purposes, its addition of Thai will come in handy. Many of our Hmong families and students spent years in refugee camps in Thailand, and some read Thai.

Thanks to Webware for the tip.

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February 2, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
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More Film Resources

Thanks to The US History Teachers Blog, I’ve learned about American History Film Resources.

It’s a good listing of film resources for different periods of American history. I’ve added it to The Best Popular Movies/TV Shows For ESL/EFL.

I’ll eventually make a separate “The Best…” list for content-related movies, but for now I’m combining it with EFL/ESL films since I use them with English Language Learners.

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February 2, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
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How California Schools Get Their Money

How California Schools Get Their Money is an excellent new short report from the California Budget Project (CBP). The CBP is an exceptional non-profit that does a great job analyziing the byzantine machinations of California State budget issues to ensure that the lives of low-and-moderate-income people are actually improved by government decisions.

If anybody is interested in learning about the crazy school finance scheme we have here in the Golden State, this free report is the place to go.

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February 2, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Excellent Resources From The Calgary Public Library

I’ve written before about two great resources from the Calgary Public Library. I recently learned that their url addresses have changed, and wanted to alert readers about it.

Their online tutorials on how to use computers are on The Best Eleven Websites For Students To Learn About Computers list.

Talking Tall Tales are “talking stories” of folktales.

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February 2, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Gettysburg Address

The Smithsonian has a neat presentation of the Gettysburg address which includes a “zooming” capability, along with providing audio support for the text.

The language, of course, is difficult for English Language Learners. However, if you’re studying the Civil War, as we are right now in my U.S. History class, it’s something that’s important for them to become familiar with.

I’m adding the link to The Best Resources About President’s Day.

Thanks to Lucy Gray for the tip.

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February 2, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Not “The Best…,” But “A List” Of Search Engines For Social Media

Many search engines don’t include results from popular “social media” applications like Twitter, Plurk or Ning, and are not necessarily even complete in their search for blog content.

There are several new search engines that have been designed specifically for searching these ignored resources, and they can be helpful.  I’ve used them for professional development and research. I typed in the name “Stephen Krashen” (the second language learning writer, practitioner, and theorist) and found many different results than what I found on Google (or maybe Google would have the same listings, but way back in their results).

Of course, it’s also always interesting to see what a search using one’s own name finds, too!

Since these are so new, and since they’re so similar, I don’t feel comfortable calling this an official “The Best…” list. But I still thought a small collection of them might be helpful to readers.

Here are The Search Engines For Social Media that I’m familiar with:

Whos Talkin?

Social Mention

Perspctv

Twingly

Same Point

Back Type

Surchur

Daymix looks like a nifty web application. You type in a query of something you’re interested in and it returns results from delicious, twitter, Google, Google Blog Search, Flickr, and Twitter.   I’m adding it to this list, but that’s not really why I think it’s “nifty.”  The particularly nifty aspect of it is that you can get an embed code for a widget that you can place on your blog and website that is supposed to continually update results from that search query.

Yauba (thanks to Alt Search Engines for the tip)

Itpints

Scoopler

I can certainly understand people’s reluctance to join Twitter, and I still have a lot of ambivalence after having recently joined.  There are two sites that easily generated some Twitter benefits without joining — OneRiot and MicroPlaza.  Both of these sites are search engines and have some elements in common with other tools on this list.  The key difference, however, between these two and others are that once you type in your query, the results just show links to websites that have been recommended on Twitter — not all the back-and-forth conversations that are happening around the topic.  MicroPlaza also actually shows screenshots.

Search Motive

Jahoot

Stinky Teddy

Lazyfeed is a neat way to search social media, and have just updated their interface. You type in a query, and… instead of describing it, go to TechCrunch, who has written about it in a much clearer way than I could.

WAHchinga appears to be some kind of personalized web feed, but I can’t quite figure out how that part works. What I can figure out, though, is that it appears to be a pretty easy search engine for social media.

I’d certainly be interested in hearing about your experience with these tools, and if you have suggestions of others I’ve missed.

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous “The Best…” lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.

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February 1, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Kid Rex Search Engine

I recently learned about the Kid Rex search engine from the Alt Search Engines blog.  It’s supposed to be a “kid-friendly” search engine.

I was actually pretty impressed when I tested it out on a few queries (Abraham Lincoln, Roman Gladiator).  The results that it delivered were accessible to Intermediate English Language Learners.

The results are text-only, so it’s not as good as some of the search engines on The Best Search Engines For ESL/EFL Learners — 2008 list that provide thumbnail images, but its selective listing does make it a decent option for students.

I’ve placed the link on my website under Search Engines.

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February 1, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Part Thirty Of The Best Ways To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly

Here’s the latest installment in my series on The Best Ways To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly.  As you may remember, in order to make it on this list, the web tool has to:

* be easily accessible to English Language Learners and/or non-tech savvy computer users.

* allow people to create engaging content within minutes.

* host the user’s creation on the site itself indefinitely, and allow a direct link to be able to be posted on a student or teacher’s website/blog to it (or let it be embedded).  If it just provides the url address of the student creation, you can either just post the address or use Embedit.in , a free web tool that makes pretty much any url address embeddable.

* provide some language-learning opportunity.

* not require any registration.

You can find previous installments of this series with the rest of my “The Best…” lists at Websites Of The Year.  Several hundred sites have been highlighted in these past lists.  A number of them are examples of “viral marketing” by companies.  You can read how I use these tools as language-learning activities in the article Samuel Jackson, My ESL Students, And Me.

Here are the newest:

CREATE A TALKING STORYBOOK ADVENTURE: You can personalize your own talking storybook at The Tale Of Despereaux: Storybook Adventure. After you answer a few questions, the site creates a personalized virtual “pop-up” book and provides a link to it.

SEND SOMEONE A “TIP”: Career Builder has created a web tool called Anonymous Tip Giver. I’m not too thrilled with its intent — to send anonymous suggestions to better via an audio message — but it can be adapted for use as an English language learning activity.  You first choose one of several strange-looking characters to deliver your message, and then can type in your message and choose the voice in which you want it spoken. You can also decide to record your own message with an 800 telephone number if you choose. Next, you can send it to the intended recipient anonymously, add your own name and email, or just get the url of your completed message to post on a student or teacher website/blog.

SEND AN ANIMAL E-CARD: The National Zoo at the Smithsonian has a great collection of E-Cards. Not only are there a lot to choose from, but finished cards are hosted by zoo’s server and appear to stay there indefinitely.

CREATE A NEAT-LOOKING ESSAY OUTLINE: aMaps let you create a visualization of a basic essay form — state your position and provide reasons, along with examples. After completing a scaffolded outline, you’re provided with a pretty neat looking visual picture of what you’ve developed, along with the embed code. You can also email the link to a friend or teacher for posting on a blog or website, and then people can respond to what you wrote.

As always, feedback is welcome.

If you found this post useful, you might want to consider subscribing to this blog for free.

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