Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

…For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Monthly Archives: February 2010

February 2, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments

Fifteenth Edition of the ESL/EFL/ELL Carnival, And It’s The Largest One Yet!

Shelly Terrell has just posted the Fifteeenth Edition of the ESL/EFL/ELL Carnival, and it’s clearly the largest one yet! And Shelly has done an exceptional job presenting them all.

This Blog Carnival is a must-see, with posts from people around the world sharing resources, experiences, and ideas about teaching and learning English as a second language.

The Carnival welcomes any blog posts, including examples of student work, that are related to teaching or learning English. You can contribute a post by using this easy submission form. If the form does not work then feel free to dm Karenne, @kalinagoenglish, on Twitter or email it to me through my contact form. If your post was not included, then I may not have received it through the form.

Karenne Sylvester at Kalinago English: Teaching Speaking Using Technology will host the following carnival on April 1st. Mary Ann Zehr at Learning the Language will host the Carnival on June 1st. Please leave a comment if you’re interested in hosting a future edition.

You can see all the previous fourteen editions of the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival here.

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February 2, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment

Interview Of The Month: Marvin Marshall On Positive Classroom Management

Regular readers know that in the fall I began a new feature called “Interview of The Month” where I interviewed various people in the education world about whom I wanted to learn more. You can see read those interviews here.

This month, my guest is Marvin Marshall, author of the influential education book “Discipline Without Stress, Punishment or Rewards” and the newer book “Parenting Without Stress.”

I’ve often quoted Marvin in this blog. His ideas on positive classroom management have been a huge influence on my classroom practice. I’d strongly encourage people to subscribe to his blog, How To Promote Responsiblity & Learning.

Here’s our interview:

You’ve been advocating for a more positive approach towards classroom management for quite awhile. What got you thinking about it originally, and how would you summarize it in a few sentences?

We now know how the brain operates as it relates to emotions. First come the cognition (input from our senses) and is immediately connected to the senses. For example, receive a compliment and you feel good. Be criticized and you feel bad. People do NOT do good when they feel bad. They do what you would like them to do when you communicate in positive terms. It is really quite simple: Let people know what you WOULD LIKE them to do, not want you do not want them to do.

What might be three key guidelines that a teacher could keep in mind, or on a small index card, to help remind him/her to stay more positive in the classroom?

1. Ask yourself, if the person hearing your communication will interpret what you say in positive terms.

2. Ask yourself, “Will the person feel as if I am using coercion in any way?”

3. Ask yourself, “What can I ask so that the person will feel that I am I am giving a choice and that I am prompting the person to reflect?

What are a few ways you think your perspective on positive classroom management distinguishes itself from many of the other “systems” that are out there?

I have a number of them that are listed here.

However, if I were to limit them to two, here they are:

1. I don’t relay on rules. Rules are used to control, not inspire. I use the term “Responsibilities” because I want to promote responsibility and this term raises expectations–something that relying on “rules” lacks.

2. Imposing punishments–especially imposing the same consequence on all parties–is unfair and counterproductive. ELICITING a procedure or a consequence from each participant is more fair, less stressful, and more productive for all.

You’ve done a fair amount of speaking to teachers in other countries. How would you describe the differences — if any — between how teachers in the U.S. tend to look at classroom management compared to those around the world?

Teachers in many other countries have more time to spend with each other in lesson planning. As a result, they focus on motivation and ways to have students WANT to put in effort in learning. Teachers in the U.S. are allowed little if any of their employment time (as are college professors) to plan lessons. They focus on what they (or the government) want to be taught and focus on teaching that curriculum–with hardly any time devoted to motivation. Teachers just expect that it is the students’ responsibility to learn what has been presented to them.

What are a few key mistakes do you think teachers tend to make around classroom management?

1. They ASSUME students know what the teacher wants the students to do WITHOUT first modeling, practicing, and reinforcing the procedure to do what is being taught.

2. They confuse classroom management (teaching procedures to make instruction efficient) and discipline (how students behave.)

3. They assume that discipline is naturally negative. It’s not. The best discipline is the type that the person doesn’t even realize that the person is being disciplined.

What are some of the most useful things you’ve learned recently, and how did you learn them?

1. That coercion in any form is counterproductive.

2. That any one can learn the skill of asking reflective question that inspire self-reflection.

Is there anything else you’d like to share that I haven’t asked you about?

Understand that no one can change another person. People change themselves. And that the least effective way to have a person want to change is by using commonly-used approaches such as relying on rules and using coercion.

You can purchase Marvin’s books here and also learn of how schools can obtain free copies, a resource guide, and a DVD.

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February 2, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
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In 2 English

In2English is, I think, the BBC site to assist Chinese speakers learn English. Most of the activities there, though, are also accessible to any other English Language Learners.

There were two sections I especially liked: English For Fun and Listen To A Story.

English For Fun has numerous engaging English-learning games, and Listen To A Story features short fables with audio support for the text.

There’s a lot more on the site, and it’s worth exploring if and when you have time.

I’ve placed links to the various activities on my English For Beginners page.

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February 1, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments

“A History Of The World”

Thanks to Richard Byrne and his exceptional resource-finding abilities, today I learned about the BBC’s “A History Of The World.”

It’s a neat interactive timeline display of historical objects with images and commentary. Not only is it an accessible and engaging way to learn more about world history, but after a quick site registration you can contribute your own historical object choice to the collection and write about it.

In some ways, it reminds me of “The Digital Vaults”,  an entry into the vast resources of the National Archives.  That site allows you to use those resources to create your own movies, posters, and what it calls “Pathway Challenges” to… challenge others to find connections between a series of images, documents, and other resources you put together.

I’m adding the link to “A History Of The World” to both The Best Websites For Teaching & Learning About World History and to The Best Places Where Students Can Write For An “Authentic Audience.”

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February 1, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
6 Comments

The Best Movie Scenes To Use For English-Language Development

NOTE: Movie video clips come and go on the Web, so some of the scenes at these links are no longer available. However, I’m always updating this post, and all my lists. The links near the bottom are the most recent ones.

I’ve seen a lot of movies over the years, and know a lot of good scenes that will work with English Language Learners. However, I don’t have an infallible memory, and I haven’t seen all the movies ever made.  So I figured that there must quite a few other lists out there of movie scenes that would work well with ELL’s, and, after some “googling,” I discovered that I was right.

This “The Best…” list is a “sister list” to The Best Popular Movies/TV Shows For ESL/EFL.  There, I share some good clips, as well as other resources, and tell how I use these kinds of movie scenes in the classroom.

My favorite way of using them is a technique called “Back To The Screen” that I adapted from Zero Prep: Ready To Go Activities For The Language Classroom by Laurel Pollard and Natalie Hess. I pick a clip from a movie (the highway chase scene from one of the Matrix movies, for example). I then divide the class into pairs with one group facing the TV and the other with their back to it. Then, after turning off the sound, I begin playing the movie. The person who can see the screen tells the other person what is happening. Then, after awhile, I switch the groups around. Afterwards, the pairs need to write a chronological sequence of what happened, which we share in class. Finally, everyone watches the clip, with sound, together. Students really enjoy this activity.

The movie scenes I share here are ideal for this kind of activity.  Some of them include video clips of the actual scenes from YouTube.  If you want to use those videos, but YouTube is blocked at your school, you might want to read The Best Ways To Access Educational YouTube Videos At School.

Of course, there are many other ways to use a video clip as a language-development activity. James Keddie has created a great site called TEFL Clips that shares video clips and different English exercises that can be used with them. Many of his ideas can be adapted for these video scenes, too.

If the scenes on this list can’t be found on YouTube, I just rent a DVD and show the scene.

Some of the video clips on these sites are not appropriate for classroom use, though they are a very small percentage.  So this post is for teacher, not student, consumption.

Here are my picks for The Best Movie Scenes To Use For English-Language Development:

The 50 Funniest Movies Scenes Ever (With Videos) is a good list that includes videos of the scenes, too.

Slapstick’s Greatest Hits shares several clips, including from “I Love Lucy” and the silent era’s Harold Lloyd.

 

What Is The Best Movie Scene You Can Find On YouTube? answers that question with a number of different clips — some inappropriate for classroom use.

Popular Mechanics has a great list of what they consider to be The Best Car Chases In Movie History, and include online video clips.

The Oregonian newspaper has a little different view of The Best Movie Chase Scenes, again including clips.

AMC’s Filmsite has an incredible list of different types of “The Best” scenes — best scary scenes, best disaster scenes, etc. It doesn’t include clips, but that’s what Netflix is for.

CNN has a list of The Best — And Worst — Movie Battle Scenes — without clips.

And here’s a list of The Best Martial Arts Movie Fight Scenes.

Movieclips has immediately become an indispensable website in my “teachers’ repertoire” of links. It has thousands of short video clips from movies and they’re not blocked by our content filter! And they’re available without registering — except for clips that have “mature” content. That in itself makes it a wonderful resource. But that’s only part of why I like this new site so much. What makes it a real winner is that that clips are categorized by theme, character, setting, mood, and more. They’re incredibly detailed.

This kind of organization makes it a gold mine for English Language Learners and their teachers. A ready-made video to teach vocabulary or an academic concept is at your finger-tips. Plus, they’re easily used for an activity like “Back To The Screen,” which I explain in The Best Popular Movies/TV Shows For ESL/EFL.

In addition, users can create questions about the clip that the site will host. That’s a nice feature, and an opportunity for students to write for an authentic audience. The only tricky part is that in order to do so you have to register for the site, which is easy enough. However, that also gives you access to the mature content clips, so you’d only want to have students use it under supervision.

The 10 greatest car chases of all time is a great video slideshow from Salon.

Movie Segments For Warm-Ups and Follow-Ups is a blog that shares video clips and written activities for English Language Learners.

“The 15 Greatest Movie Car Chases of All Time” is a great slideshow of video clips from TIME Magazine.

10 Best Car Chases in Movie History comes from Popular Mechanics.

Greatest Movie Car Chases comes from Rotten Tomatoes.

10 Best Car Chase Scenes is from Best Oti.

10 Best Hollywood Movie Car Chases! is from What Culture!

20 Greatest Movie Car Chases is from Chris On Cars.

I love using Pink Panther scenes. Here are links to two of my favorites.

The blog Film English has lot of great clips and ideas on how to use them in class.

As always, feedback is 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.

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