September 18, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Haiti: The Eroding Nation is the title of the Sun Sentinel newspaper’s interactive on the effects of deforestation on that island nation.
It’s accessible to Intermediate English Language Learners.
I’ve placed the link on my Geography page.
September 17, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
My Intermediate English class just completed their first assignment to create user-generated content by using a great text-to-speech site and create their own talking animals.
After they all signed-up for email accounts, it was a fun little exercise to get them feeling competent and confident with the computers. On our class blog, you’ll be able to see subsequent scaffolded online activities.
We’re in the computer lab twice-a-week for one hour on each of those two days. Our other Intermediate English class will be doing the same — they will be making their own talking animals tomorrow for posting there.
September 17, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
4 Comments
Every year I have all the students in my classes create “Who I Am” posters and present them to the entire class at the beginning of the year. It includes sharing their strengths, worries, love, and their hopes and dreams — along with other information. I also do a model presentation.
Every year I’m struck by two things:
* that the students in my English Language Learner classes have very high “hopes and dreams” for themselves and their lives after high school.
* that most of my mainstream students say the same “hope and dream” — “I want to pass this class.”
It’s disconcerting to me that so many of them have “hopes and dreams” at such a low level — not about a potential career, and not even wanting to do more than “pass the class” (even though most are doing really exceptional class work).
Even though I ‘ve tried to have conversations with students about why they seem to have such low-expectations of themselves, I’ve never been successful in trying to get to the bottom of it.
Now, I’m thinking that even though I can’t seem to find-out the “why” of the issue, there must be something I can do to systematically during the year try to help students develop and articulate a broader vision for themselves.
I’m still trying to figure out how to do it, and would welcome suggestions about what you think I can do, as well as your thoughts about the likely causes of the low-expectations.
September 17, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
For some strange reason, links to my ‘The Best…” lists that came in yesterday’s email summary from Feedblitz didn’t work. With luck, it was a one time occurrence. If it continues, I’ll contact Feedblitz to try to find out what is going on.
All the other links, including ones to the original posts, worked fine. So you could access the lists through a bit of a “round about” way.
Sorry about that.
September 17, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
The Universal Record Database could be a fun activity for students that could also provide language-development opportunities.
It’s a site where you describe in writing and upload a video of any kind of “world record” you want to set — and it can be as silly as you want. For example, I could see a group of students lying on their stomach and setting a record for “The longest time Luther Burbank High School students have been on their stomach and spoken in English about Hmong food.”
September 17, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
As I’ve written before in this blog, sometimes I hear or read something that is very useful in my teaching, and it’s so obvious I hit myself on my head wondering how I could have missed making the connection before.
It happened to me again today.
Researchers Try to Promote Students’ Ability to Argue is a new article in Education Week. It shares recent studies that show the importance of students learning how to argue effectively. Particularly striking to me is what the article says about how teaching the art of persuasion can be helpful to students in “picking out flawed arguments and unsupported claims.”
We teach a great unit on Persuasive Writing to our English Language Learners. I’ve been very effective at helping my students learn how to write a persuasive essay. These writing skills will help them communicate better during their whole lives (not to mention help them pass the state high school exit exam).
How could I have not really viewed it as a critical thinking opportunity for students to apply these skills to the “universal” of examining the validity of persuasive techniques used on them all the time — especially in public life. I’ve done a little bit on advertising, but that has been pretty perfunctory.
This kind of “not seeing the forest through the trees,” I think, is another indication on how we can get so focused on “covering the curriculum” that it’s easy to miss engaging opportunities to make content more relevant and engaging to our students, and help them develop the skills they need to become active citizens in our society. On top of all that, the studies show that helping students in this way makes them better writers and improves listening and reading comprehension!
How often do we miss these kinds of opportunities everyday in our classrooms?
September 17, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
“Ramadan” is a series of excellent photos from the Sacramento Bee.
I’m adding it to The Best Sites To Teach & Learn About Ramadan.
September 17, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
Tom Barrett has done it again with a new great resource called “10 Interesting Ways To Use A Wiki In The Classroom.”
This one joins his others, links to which can also be found on The Best places to learn Web 2.0 basics. They include:
Interesting Ways to use Voicethread, Wordle and the Nintendo DS
Interesting Ways* to use your Pocket Video Camera in the Classroom
Interesting Ways to use Google Docs in the Classroom
Interesting Ways to use Google Earth in the Classroom
Interesting Ways to use your Interactive Whiteboard in the Classroom
Twenty-Three Interesting Ways* to Use Search Engines in the Classroom
Twenty-Five Interesting Ways* to use Twitter in the Classroom
September 17, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
Oamos is sure one wild search engine! You can use it to create a multimedia show, and then embed it.
I learned about it from Jen Farr, and she has an excellent post describing Oamos and how she’d use in class. Check it out.
September 16, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
Today was Mexico’s Independence Day. Sorry I’m a bit late getting this “The Best…” list up, but at least you’ll have it available for next year if you can’t still use it now…
Here are The Best Resources For Learning About Mexico’s Independence Day (and are accessible to English Language Learners):
¡Viva Mexico! is a slideshow from The Wall Street Journal.
The Orange County Register has an interactive on the day.
Here’s a slideshow of an Independence Day parade in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
LEARN NC has a nice slideshow.
Reuters has a lot of photos of celebrations in Mexico itself.
Mexico’s Independence Day celebrations is a series of photos from The Sacramento Bee.
Viva la Independencia in Mexico is a slideshow from The New York Times.
Enchanted Learning has some basic resources on the holiday.
Here’s a video of the Independence Day celebration in Los Angeles.
2010 was also Mexico’s Bicentennial. Here are some resources on celebrations of that event:
Mexico bicentennial celebrations is a slideshow from The Guardian.
Mexico celebrates its bicentennial is a slideshow from The Washington Post.
Mexico’s 200th birthday bash is a series of images from The Sacramento Bee.
Mexico’s Bicentennial comes from The Boston Globe’s Big Picture.
Mexico Celebrates 200 years is a slideshow from The Wall Street Journal.
Feedback and other suggestions are welcome.
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.
September 16, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
The great news about Myna, a new audio recording tool, is that it’s great for students to use for speaking practice and to create podcasts. The bad news (for me, at least), is that I’ve already prepared several year-end “The Best..” lists for posting over the next month that I know have to change in order to add Myna to them…
It’s really quite a simple tool for use by English Language Learners or anybody else…after you watch the short demonstration video. It was confusing to me prior to watching it.
It’s easy for users to add music that’s already in the Myna library to their recording, and certainly easy for them to record their own voice.
It’s more complicated than some of the other applications on The Best Sites To Practice Speaking English, but students will love Myna (and I’m obviously adding it to that list).
Thanks to both Read Write Web and Free Technology For Teachers for the tip.
September 16, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
Breaking News English, which is on a bunch of “The Best…” lists, just came out with a neat online lesson for English Language Learners titled Taking A Shower May Be Bad For You.
Sean Banville always comes up with great lessons, but I think this topic might be particularly engaging to students.
September 16, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
INudge lets you quickly compose your own song, which can be played on an embeddable widget. No registration is required.
I don’t think it’s quite good enough to be added to The Best Online Sites For Creating Music, but it will make it onto the next addition of The Best Ways To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly.
September 16, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Parents As Partners hosts a regular webcast on issues related to parents and schools. This coming Monday, at 6:00 PM U.S. Pacific Time, I’ll be a guest discussing my new book (to be published September 30th) “Building Parent Engagement Schools.”
I’m saying I’ll be on it because Alice Mercer promises she’ll teach me to use Skype by then 
September 16, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments
This is my week for interviews!
If you’re interested, here is an interview with me on using music with English Language Learners.
September 16, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
Shelly Terrell has created three great lists of educators to follow on Twitter.
One is of people who help others with questions, another shares ESL/EFL teachers, and the third focuses on people who tweet about edtech resources.
Not only did she make these lists, but she created them using nifty web tools that let you easily & quickly “follow” them!
I’m adding her lists to The Best Resources For Beginning To Learn What Twitter Is All About.
September 16, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
“Food Assistance” is a very simple and visual infographic from GOOD Magazine tracking the rise of food stamps over the past year.
I’m adding it to The Best Sites To Learn About The Recession.
September 16, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
The San Francisco Chronicle ran a pretty good op-ed piece today from Marty Hittelman, the President of the California Federation of Teachers. It’s called “We Expected Better From Obama’s Education Reforms” and is worth a look.
September 15, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Scribble Maps is a neat application that lets you create maps — with markers and images that can be grabbed off the Internet — and you can draw on it, too. Plus, no registration is required.
I’m adding it to The Best Map-Making Sites On The Web.
I had checked it out before, but wasn’t too impressed with it. Seeing mentioned in Google Maps Mania prompted me to visit it again, and I was quite impressed with their improvements.
September 15, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Every year EFL teacher Michael Stout’s students in Japan come-up with new class rules for them and for Mr. Stout. Michael shares them on his blog. Every year, they’re a lot of fun to read.
And every year I post a link to them.
This year is no exception. Here are the most recent rules.
