Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

…For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Monthly Archives: August 2010

August 12, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment

Ghotit

Ghotit is a super-spell-checker that is ideal for very beginning English Language Learners and ELL’s with learning disabilities (as well as native speakers with challenges). It has the ability to help “sleuth-out” words that people are trying to spell — in a much more in depth way than most regular spell-checkers.

Thanks to Ira Socol for the tip on this app. I learned about it through an excellent post he wrote titled Classroom Changers.

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August 11, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
5 Comments

Now We Know How To “Fix” Schools — Fire 80% Of All New Teachers

In May, Newsweek came out with a cover story proclaiming that “the key to saving American Education was…we must fire bad teachers” (see my post, Did You Know That THE Key To Saving American Education Is Firing Bad Teachers?).

Now, a study has come-out claiming to quantify how many “bad teachers” there are — it says 80% of all new teachers need to be fired after two years probation.

The study, done by two professors (one from Dartmouth and the other from Columbia) actually comes right out and says that.

An article in Slate Magazine (which is generally one of my favorite online reads) supports the study with the headline Clean Out Your Desk: Is firing (a lot of) teachers the only way to improve public schools?

Written by a professor of economics (who, as far as I can tell, has had no experience working in or with K-12 schools), the article is the latest attack on teachers that omits any evidence or suggestion of other ways to improve education. There is no mention of improving curriculum and there is one line about the possibility of improving professional development.

There is, however lots of praise for Teach For America and New York City’s charter schools. Of course, his praise for charter schools is based on a year-old study that doesn’t take into account that the recent collapse in test scores in that city was even more pronounced in charter schools.

At the end of the presentation given by one of the authors of the study, he says “there may be practical reasons limiting success of this strategy.”

Ya’ think?

But “practicality” is just one reason it wouldn’t work. It’s a flawed analysis of schools, of the people who work there, and of the students who attend them.

Perhaps, one of these days, the people who spend so much time attacking teachers might consider consider listening to us, instead.

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August 11, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments

Many Cooperative Learning Resources

I’ve just made many additions to The Best Sites For Cooperative Learning Ideas list:

The Many Faces of Inductive Teaching and Learning

Here are some resources specifically on Project-Based Learning:

PBL-Online

PBL Checklist

LearnIT TeachIT

PBL Exemplary Projects

The Buck Institute For Education

If these resources aren’t enough for you, Cybraryman has even more…

Here are some more resources specifically on Problem-Based Learning:

Amphitheater Public Schools Problem-Based Learning Resources

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August 11, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments

“People who are angry pay more attention to rewards than threats” — No Kidding!

People who are angry pay more attention to rewards than threats is the headline of a report describing a new study:

Anger is a negative emotion. But, like being happy or excited, feeling angry makes people want to seek rewards, according to a new study of emotion and visual attention. The researchers found that people who are angry pay more attention to rewards than to threats—the opposite of people feeling other negative emotions like fear.

Whenever I have a disruptive student in class, a “threat” might “work” to get him/her to stop their disruptive behavior. More often than not, however, it either results in no positive change (and often a change for the worse), very short-term change (they calm down for a few minutes and then start right back up again), or they might not be disruptive but they are clearly not focused on learning anything.

On the other hand, the vast majority of time when I approach them positively — reminding them that by focusing they can meet their goals, that I know they are not acting like the kid of person they really are, that I want to be able to give them an “A” in class — the disruptive behavior stops and they get focused on learning.

It is hard to keep that in mind in the moment when every bone in a teacher’s body wants to punish the student immediately, but it’s worth the restraint (which most of the time, though not all of the time, I’m able to exhibit).

After class, and after the student has shown the responsible behavior that he is capable of doing, is when I talk to them about the inappropriate behavior. In the moment, I just want him/her to get back to work.

Have you had similar experiences?

I’m adding this post to My Best Posts On Classroom Management.

UPDATE: Chris Wejr has asked an excellent question in the comments section: Hey Larry, aren’t rewards and threats both extrinsic, short-term solutions? How do we get students to make decisions that intrinsically motivate them to focus on learning?

Here is what I wrote in response:

Chris,

Great question!

I am very committed to helping students develop their own intrinsic motivation, and have often written about what I do to help make that happen (http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2010/05/17/my-best-posts-on-motivating-students/).
I have found, however, that for some students at some times it is not effective. Daniel Pink and others have found that rewards can work to get people focused on doing work that requires little cognitive energy. There are times in the classroom when I just need to get a student to calm down and not be disruptive at that moment, and the kind of positive feedback I describe in this post has worked for me. Afterwards, when he/she has calmed down, we discuss if being disruptive really helped him/her get what she wanted and explore future alternatives.

Larry

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August 11, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
6 Comments

The Best Sites For Learning About The World’s Different Cultures

I’ve compiled several “The Best…” lists that share sites where you can learn about the geography, data, languages, and holidays of different countries around the world. Those resources are important, but I think it’s like learning the words, but not the music, of a song.

So I thought I’d develop a separate list just focused on helping students learn about the cultures of different countries, and would love to hear additional suggestions.

You might also be interested in The Best Travel Photographs Of The Year.

Here are my choices for The Best Sites For Learning About The World’s Different Cultures (and are accessible to English Language Learners):

Culture Crossing is a unique resource for information about different countries. It provides some basic demographics, but it also shares details about communication style, dress, gestures, etc. It’s unlike any other source of information about countries that’s on the web. I’ll certainly be having my students use it now when they develop reports about countries.

What The World Eats is a TIME Magazine slideshow with family photos from around the world and the food they eat.

Food Photos is a similar slideshow from NPR.

Here are portraits of 30 statistically average families with all of their worldly possessions displayed outside their homes.

TOPICS is an online magazine for English Language Learners, and has articles and photos on the cultures of many different countries.

Houses around the World, Wonderful Houses Around the World, and Homes Around The World all have images of….homes in different parts of the world.

Speaking of homes, you might be interested in a lesson I did having students compare homes from their native countries with those in the United States. I wrote about it at Air Conditioning Science Lesson.

Learn about Celebrations Around The World.

EL Civics has a nice lesson on Clothes Around The World.

I bet students would like to learn what schools in other countries serve for lunch. They can at School Lunches Around The World, School Meals From Around the World, and What’s For School Lunch?

11 School Lunches from around the World shows what the title describes, along with additional information about how the actual school lunch process works in each country.

World Music at National Geographic is a must-see site.

You can learn about different musical instruments at the Glossary of Folk Musical Instruments & Styles from Around the World and the World Instrument Gallery.

Photo Essay: Classrooms Around the World is a very interesting series of photos. (Thanks to Langwitches for the tip)

The World’s Harvests is a slideshow from Time Magazine. It shows images from around the world of farmers harvesting various crops.

Where children sleep is the title of a book and a slideshow from The Telegraph showing images of children’s bedrooms from around the world — and the obviousness inequities.

What Colors Mean Across 10 Cultures is an interesting infographic (thanks to M.E. Steele-Pierce for the tip).

Here are two similar infographics, though these are interactive. They look pretty neat though, I have to say, they may bee a little too wild for some students to easily understand (well, they were tricky for me, at least). And they both have the same title — Interactive Colors In Culture. And here’s the other one.

Slate has a slideshow showing classrooms from throughout the world (Thanks to Eye On Education for the tip).

ViewChange.Org has some pretty amazing short videos from around the world. This is how it describes itself:

Using the power of video to tell stories about real people and progress in global development.

Believe me, that doesn’t even begin to tell you what’s there. It’s a project of a very impressive organization called Link TV, which has been on The Best Tools To Help Develop Global Media Literacy list for quite awhile.

UNESCO recently reviewed its “intangible heritage list, started in 2003 to preserve the world’s art forms and traditions from the onslaught of globalization.” The Telegraph has a slideshow illustrating some of the traditions it is considering.

World’s Strangest National Dishes is a good, but unfortunately named (it seems somewhat insulting to used the word “strange”), slideshow.

What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets is the title of a slideshow from The Telegraph. Here is how they describe it:

Husband-and-wife team Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio, from California, spent three years and $1 million visiting 80 individuals around the world to document what they eat on a single day. The result is a contrasting picture of what people around the globe consume. With each image Menzel and D’Aluisio add context to the profiles with essays on food politics and cultural obsessions with diet. Here is a selection of images from the book.

“Around The World Via A Day’s Worth Of Foods” is a slideshow from TIME Magazine based on the same book.

Fasten Your Seat Belts provides “light-hearted” videos to explain cultural norms in Asia and in Europe. You can read more about it at Free Technology for Teachers.

U.S. Late To The Party On School Lunch Makeovers is the title of an NPR article and slideshow showing and describing school lunches from around the world.

First Person American is a neat website that has some resources now, but won’t be completely operational until July 4th. It has multimedia recounting the travels of modern immigrants to the United States. In addition, if you are somehow connected to an immigrant, but aren’t one yourself, you can share cultural-related memories.

Don’t Get Me Wrong! Global Gestures is a pretty neat slideshow from LIFE.

What School Lunches Look Like In 20 Countries Around The World is a nice post from BuzzFeed.

I’ve previously posted about extraordinary interactive infographics made by the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times that show how people in the United States spend their time. Now, The Economist has published a chart that compares and contrasts this kind of data among different countries.

Eric Lafforga has some amazing photographic portraits taken from around the world. Click on “Portfolio” and then a country. You’ll then be led to countless excellent photos.

The Guardian has published two slideshows showing “health messages” from around the world.

Art Through Time: A Global View looks like a pretty amazing site from WNET. This is how the multimedia site describes itself:

Art Through Time: A Global View examines themes connecting works of art created around the world in different eras. The thirteen-part series explores diverse cultural perspectives on shared human experiences.

It would definitely be challenging to English Language Learners, but the site looks so good I’m still going to add it to this list.

Daily life in May around the world is a series of photos from The Sacramento Bee.

Even though I’m not thrilled at the BBC’s title for this slideshow, World’s weirdest festivals, I’m still adding it to this list.

The world’s favourite foods is a very interesting interactive map from The Guardian.

Kids Around the World offers stories of children from different countries.

I think the title of Slate’s slideshow is culturally insensitive, The world’s wackiest modes of public transportation, but the photos themselves are interesting.

Color My Ride is an interesting infographic from the Wall Street Journal examining the color of people’s cars in different countries (yes, you read that right).

“Conversations With The Earth” is a new site from the Smithsonian. Here’s how it describes itself:

This exhibition—the first of its kind devoted to indigenous science—provides a Native perspective on global climate change. Through photographs, video, and audio of tribal communities from the Arctic to Brazil, the environmental impact of pollution is found in the stories of imposed mitigation and its consequences on local livelihoods.

Conversations with the Earth offers the voices of the Earth’s traditional stewards in the search for a viable response to the challenges of climate change. In the words of Inupiat leader Patricia Cochran, chair of the Indigenous Peoples Global summit on Climate Change, “We are a harbinger of what is to come, what the rest of the world can expect.”

Without question, the best part of the site shows tons of video interviews with people from all over the world.

Rare Early Photographs of Musicians Around the World is from Brain Pickings. The post has links to even more great photos.

Breaking Bread Everywhere, Plentifully or Pitifully is a slideshow from The New York Times.

One Day On Earth is the amazing project where people all over the world made videos of what they did on the same day. Here’s a trailer to the movie but, more importantly, here is a link to the map where you can pick a video from just about anyplace in the world and watch it.

One Day on Earth – Motion Picture Trailer from One Day On Earth on Vimeo.

Though I wish they had come up with a different title, The world’s strangest festivals – in pictures is from The Guardian.

Where Children Sleep is the book’s website, and it has great photos of bedrooms throughout the world.

Sleepers is a photo gallery from The Boston Globe and it shows people…sleeping all around the world.

Moments of daily life around the world is a a photo gallery from The Sacramento Bee.

Photo Gallery: Pedestrian Signals Around the World comes from Spiegel Online.

A simple day in the life… is a slideshow from the Boston Globe.

50 of the World’s Best Breakfasts offers great pictures and descriptions of breakfasts from around the world. Thanks again to Michelle Henry for the tip.

From The Los Angeles Times:

“Life in a Day” is a groundbreaking film produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Kevin Macdonald that solicited user-generated content from around the world that was shot on July 24, 2010. With more than 80,000 videos from 197 countries, 4,500 hours of video was edited into a 94-minute portrait of the world. Google and YouTube have released the full-length feature for viewing before the release of the DVD

The Places We Live is an impressive multimedia presentation. This is how it’s described:

In 2008 more people live in cities than in rural areas. One third of city dwellers, more than a billion people, live in slums. In The Places We Live, Magnum photographer Jonas Bendiksen presents sixteen homes in four different slum areas: Caracas, Venezuela; Mumbai, India; Nairobi, Kenya; and Jakarta, Indonesia.

The exhibition, a unique multimedia installation, challenges viewers to reflect on what it means to live in a city in the 21st century. Bendiksen has visited four slums selected according to geographical spread and variation. He depicts various aspects of slum life, from worst-offs to slum chiefs.

Sesame Street International: 9 Notable Muppets From Around the World is from Mental Floss.

The BBC Close Up series features videos that:

…focus on aspects of life in countries and cities around the world. What may seem ordinary and familiar to the people who live there can be surprising to those who do not.

Unicef photos of the year 2011 is from The Guardian.

World’s Worst Cultural Mistakes is a pretty interesting slideshow from Travel and Leisure magazine.

Urban Survivors is a very well-done interactive examining four slums around the world.

Again, please let me know if I’m missing some sites.

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at the 480 other “The Best…” lists and consider subscribing to this blog for free

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August 11, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment

Edublogs Creates Blog Directory

Edublogs just gets better and better.

Now, they’ve created a directory of education blogs that’s very well-designed and organized. Any education-related blog can be added to the directory — it doesn’t have to be hosted by Edublogs (though I still say it’s the best blogging platform around).

You can read the announcement and explanation of the Directory here, and visit the Directory here.

I’m adding it to The Best Places To Find Good Education Blogs.

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August 11, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
4 Comments

The Best Web Applications That Lets Multiple People Upload Their Photos To One Place

This is an extremely short list, but one that I’m making primarily for myself. On field trips this year I want to try having students upload photos they take and very easily upload them to one site that they can use to create slideshows.

I could only find two applications that fit that bill. Please let me know if there are others that I have missed.

Here are my choices for The Best Web Applications that Lets Multiple People Upload Their Photos To One Site:

Troovi

Yogle

After you register (it’s free and easy to do so) at DropEvent and create an “event,” anyone can upload photos to the identified url address, and they can even email them there.

PhotoCollect lets multiple people upload images to the same account.

Packmule is super-easy and doesn’t even require official registration.

Zang Zing

Again, please let me know if I’m missing some sites.

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at the 480 other “The Best…” lists and consider subscribing to this blog for free

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August 10, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
3 Comments

The Best Sites For Learning About The Constitution Of The United States

Federal legislation requires schools in the United States to offer lessons related to the U.S. Constitution on U.S. Constitution Day — September 17th of each year.

Here are my choices for The Best Sites For Learning About The Constitution Of The United States:

The Constitution Center has to be everybody’s first stop. It has a ton of resources. They are particularly known for their Interactive Constitution and lots of other online interactives and games.

Here are collections of the online lessons I used in my United States History classes last year on the Bill of Rights and on the Constitution.

The Constitution For Kids has three “levels” of explanations about the U.S. Constitution. An English Language Learner — from high Beginning to Advanced — can choose which one he/she finds most accessible.

The History Channel has many multimedia features related to the Constitution.

How Stuff Works has many videos related to the Constitution.

Here’s an interactive “learning object” from the Wisconsin Online Resource Center on Amendments To The Constitution.

The Henry Ford Museum has a short Constitution I.Q. test that would be accessible to English Language Learners after they have studied about the United States government.

Here’s a bilingual (English/Spanish) glossary for the Constitution.

Quiz Tree has some interactive quizzes on the Constitution.

Celebrate The Constitution comes from Scholastic.

Here’s an interactive on the Bill of Rights.

Resources for Teaching the Constitution is a great feature at The New York Times Learning Network.

The Weekly Reader has a nice interactive that provides audio support for the text.

Here’s an infographic on the Constitution.

Resources for Teaching the Constitution is a nice compilation of resources from The New York Times Learning Network.

Feedback is welcome.

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at the 480 other “The Best…” lists and consider subscribing to this blog for free.

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August 10, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments

“The Veiled Commodity”

The Veiled Commodity describes itself as:

a short film that deals with slavery’s past and present day issues. The film employs various design and animation techniques to tell a concise history of slavery and the problems of its present day counterpart; the trafficking and victimization of people around the world.

You can see the first third of the film here.

I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About Human Trafficking Today.

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