February 11, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
Who Pooped? has got to be one of the most original — and somewhat gross — ideas for an interactive to teach about animals. Of course, students will love it!
The Minnesota Zoo created this site, which is engaging, informative, and accessible to English Language Learners.
Oh, and did I mention it’s a little bit gross?
February 11, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments
Today is the Twentieth Anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s release from prison.
I’m adding two new resources to The Best Sites For Learning About Nelson Mandela:
Nelson Mandela’s Life and Leadership is an audio slideshow from TIME Magazine.
Nelson Mandela Media Center is a great collection of multimedia resources on him.
February 11, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Some pretty amazing — and horrifying — photos of the World Trade Center collapse on 9/11 were released yesterday, and the Wall Street Journal put them in a slideshow.
I’ve added the link to The Best Sites To Help Teach About 9/11.
February 11, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
It looks like my book might not be the only useful one on teaching English Language Learners that’s being published in April 
Mary Ann Zehr at Learning The Language writes about another one in her post titled Book Aims to Make Research on ELLs Accessible.
I’d encourage you to go read her entire post on the book, Promoting Academic Achievement Among English Learners: A Guide to the Research.
In addition, there’s an interesting dialogue in the comments section there between the author and Stephen Krashen that’s worth a read.
February 11, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
February 11, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
With the Vancouver Winter Olympics beginning tomorrow, I thought it might be useful to have a ‘The Best…’ list that students (outside of Canada) can use to learn a little bit about the host country. Of course, I’m hopeful that Canadian readers will also leave comments suggesting additional sites that should be on this list. In order to be in this post, the resource must be accessible to English Language Learners.
This is a “sister list” to The Best Sites To Learn About The Vancouver Winter Olympics.
Here are my choices for The Best Sites To Learn About Canada (I know there are a lot more out there, so please make suggestions!):
Sean Banville has created a Canada Day lesson for English Language Learners.
How Stuff Works has several good videos on Canada.
Learn a bit about Canada’s geography by playing these games.
Here are listening exercises designed for English Language Learners. They’re on Canadian history, Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.
Learn about the creation myth of the Intuit people.
Zoom School Canada has a lot of accessible information.
A Journey Into Time Immemorial is an impressive interactive feature focused on the First People’s of Canada.
National Geographic has some Canada Facts.
National Geographic also has a feature on Vancouver.
You can watch several videos about Canada at Discovery Atlas. (you have to click on Canada).
Canadian Geographic Kids is an excellent interactive for learning about Canada.
Learn English Feel Good has a cloze exercise on Canada’s National Holiday.
Check-out The 10 Most Popular Tourist Attractions in Canada.
Canada Day – in pictures is from The Guardian.
Feedback is always welcome.
If you found this post useful, you might want to consider subscribing to this blog for free.
You might also want to explore the 400 other “The Best…” lists I’ve compiled.
February 11, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Monster Basement is another one of those online video games that, with its Walkthrough, can be used as an excellent language-learning experience for English Language Learners.
This one is fairly scary, though my students will love it.
I’ve placed the link on my website under Word and Video Games.
For more information on how I use these types of games, you can read this article.
February 10, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Trends Buzz shares a constantly updated list of the most-used search terms on Google, Yahoo, the New York Times and on other sites. I’m thinking that it might be an intriguing site to have students (mainstream and ELL’s) to look at if you have a few minutes left to kill in the computer lab and have them try to figure out why these terms are popular at the moment?
As I’ve explained in earlier pieces, I periodically post “most popular” lists of websites (and books) that I think educators might find useful.
February 10, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Neat Chat joins a long line of sites that let you immediately create private chat rooms with no registration necessary. I’m adding it to The Best Online Tools For Real-Time Collaboration, but really can’t tell much of a difference between any of them.
If you’re going to use a site like it at school, though, it’s handy to know them all in case some are blocked by content filters.
February 10, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
After having grown up in New York and Wisconsin, and having gone to college in Vermont, I’ve had my fill of snow. So I happily viewed the East Coast snowstorms from a few thousand miles away.
TIME Magazine, though, has created two slideshows related to the storm that I’m adding to The Best Sites For Learning About The Winter Season:
Snowpocalypse, Part Two
February 10, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments
Students (and anybody else) can create a “Poem Flow” for Valentine’s Day.
Without having to register, users choose a line from a classic love poem, design a card, write a message and all of sudden you have a neat animated movie online card that you can send to someone and paste its url address on a teacher or student website. It’s pretty neat.
I’m adding it to The Best Sites To Learn About Valentine’s Day.
And, while I’m at it, I’m also adding Valentine’s Day Across the Curriculum from The New York Times Learning Network, which has a lot of good lesson ideas.
February 10, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Here are some additions to The Best Sites To Learn About The Vancouver Winter Olympics:
Vancouver’s Olympic Venues is a neat interactive from The New York Times.
Passing the Torch: An Evolution of Form is an update of another great interactive from The New York Times.
The Torch’s Path is a slideshow from the Times.
February 10, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Valentine’s Day: send a miniature card via the World’s Smallest Postal Service is a neat slideshow from The Telegraph.
I’m adding it to The Best Sites To Learn About Valentine’s Day.
February 10, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
The Starbucks Love Project lets you watch some great performances of “All You Need Is Love” from around the world, and offers you the opportunity to contribute your own. In addition, you can make a “love drawing,” too, which is a lot easier and more accessible to our students.
This is somehow connected to a campaign to fight AIDS in Africa, though I’m a little unclear how.
In addition to drawing something and writing/talking about it, it’s a great opportunity to learn the words to the song.
Thanks to the Innovative Interactivity blog for the tip.
February 10, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Gimundo, which has the sub-heading “Good News…Served Daily,” provides only positive and upbeat news stories and videos. I wouldn’t make it the primary source of news for either my students or me, and, I have to admit, the idea of just sharing positive stories doesn’t feel right to me — I guess I prefer the real world.
However, I have to admit many of the stories are engaging, and are accessible to Intermediate English Language Learners.
I’ve placed the link on my website in the News section.
February 9, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Mardi Gras and Carnivals are held around the world just prior to the fasting season of Lent, which is coming right-up!
I’ve just updated The Best Sites To Learn About Mardi Gras & Carnivals.
February 9, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
If you’ve ever wanted to be a dragon, Choice of the Dragon is the game for you. You get to be one — as nice or as mean as you want!
It’s accessible to Intermediate ELL’s.
I’m adding it to The Best Places To Read & Write “Choose Your Own Adventure” Stories.
February 9, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
“Searching With Success” is an engaging tutorial on searching the web. It’s from Acadia University, and is accessible to high Intermediate English Language Learners.
Acadia also has a tutorial called Credible Sources Count. It’s probably only accessible to advanced ELL’s.
I’m adding both to The Best Resources For Learning Research & Citation Skills.
February 9, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Here are the latest additions to The Best Sites To Learn About Valentine’s Day:
When Love Is In The Year is a neat little interactive from the Tampa Bay newspaper.
Love and Romance Through The Ages is from the Virtual Museum of Canada.
How Valentine’s Day Helps the Economy shares some interesting information.
February 9, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
3 Comments
Merriam-Webster Word Games is an impressive collection of about twenty different games accessible to various levels of English Language Learners.
I’ve placed the link on my website under Word and Video Games.
