November 6, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
The BBC’s “Learning English” has an extensive collection of humorous videos designed to teach English Language Learners idioms.
I’m adding the link to The Best Sites To Help ELL’s Learn Idioms & Slang.
I learned about it through Twitter but, sorry, I can’t find or remember who originally sent the tweet.
November 6, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
The Border Fence Rises In The Southwest is the title of a slideshow from TIME Magazine.
I’m adding it to The Best Sites To Learn About Walls That Separate Us.
November 5, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
The Other Kind of Testing is a good column by Walt Gardner in Education Week. It’s about “performance-based assessment” for students.
I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About Effective Student & Teacher Assessments, where you can find other resources on that kind of assessment.
November 5, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Describing People is a simple exercise to help English Language Learners learn about adjectives.
I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Gaining A Basic Understanding Of Adjectives.
Thanks to Michelle Henry for the tip.
November 5, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
I’ve updated The Best Sites For Learning About Daylight Savings Time.
Feel free to make additional suggestions.
November 5, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Wylio is a new site for bloggers to find photos for their blogs.
In seconds, it finds a Flickr Creative Commons photo, resizes it to exactly what you need, and provides an embed code, which automatically includes an attribution to the photographer.
I’m adding it to The Best Online Sources For Images.
Thanks to TechCrunch for the tip.
By the way, since this post is about photos, you might want to check out ImgOps, a new multi-use photo application.
November 5, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
I’ve written a lot about Kelly Young, who provides extraordinary training in instructional strategies, plus great curriculum, to schools throughout the United States.
On one of the pages of his Pebble Creeks website, he gives a short overview of the primary instructional strategies we use at our school, and at the other ones with whom he works.
We recently completed a lesson he developed where students describe each strategy after having spent two months using them. We then have students explain if and how it helps them learn, and then they make a poster out of what they’ve written.
This year, I had my ninth-grade students convert their poster into an essay and post it on our class blog. There are twelve or thirteen essays there now. I always find it interesting to see what students have to say — it helps me see if I have done a good job at helping them see how it’s in their self-interest to do what we do in the class. One of my goals this year was to make a priority of helping students see the “why” behind what we do, so these essays are a good indicator on how successful, or unsuccessful, I’ve been. This kind of metacognition on their part should contribute to their becoming better writers and readers.
Of course, students can always write what they think I want to hear instead of what they really think. But I hope I contribute towards a classroom culture where that isn’t the case.
But I don’t think I can ever know for sure…
Either way, I think the essays are worth a look.
November 5, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Here are the newest additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The Volcano & Tsunami In Indonesia:
Mount Merapi Erupts Again is a series of images from The Denver Post.
In pictures: Deadly eruption on Merapi comes from The BBC.
November 5, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
I know that some studies have said that three or four students are the best number for student small groups in the classroom. However, I’ve always found that — at least for ninth-graders — working in pairs works best (though sometimes near the end of the school year I’ll have them do a project in three or four after they’ve matured a bit and gained more experience in pair work).
A new study now seems like it might reinforce my opinion. 2 people can learn to cooperate intuitively, but larger groups need to communicate is the title of an article reporting on research that two people can work more easily intuitively.
You might also be interested in some past posts about student small groups:
What Do You To Make Sure Small Groups Work Well In Class?
And This Is Why We Have To Help Our Students Learn How To Work In Small Groups
I’m adding links to these posts to The Best Sites For Cooperative Learning Ideas.
November 5, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
Alex Case has written a great series of articles for English Language Learners and their teachers over the years, and has collected them in one post: The TEFL Why Oh Why series.
The seventeen articles include these ones:
Why did my foolproof activity just fail with that class?
Why your students don’t do their homework
Why does my teacher make us work in pairs?
Why does my teacher make me read silently?
Definitely worth a visit!
November 5, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Most of us have heard of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, but other groups have compiled various other lists of “seven wonders.” I thought it might be useful to create a “The Best…” list of all these “wonder” lists — both ancient and modern.
Plus, you have until November to vote in an international contest to choose The Seven Wonders of Nature.
I’ve also thought of having students use these lists to help develop a criteria for a “wonder” and then to have them apply it to create lists for their own native countries.
Here are my choices for the The Best Sites For Learning About Various “Seven Wonders” and are accessible to English Language Learners:
Here’s an online game about the Seven Ancient Wonders.
CNN offers A virtual tour of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
You can see videos about a few of the ancient wonders at the History Channel.
In 2007, after 100 million votes were counted, seven landmarks from around the world were voted the New 7 Wonders of the World. Here are some sites to learn about them:
The New Seven Wonders of the World is a slideshow from TIME Magazine.
You can view interactive panoramas of all seven.
Students in New York City created a special website on the new seven wonders.
LIFE has a slideshow titled Wonders of the World.
To finish this list, here are a couple of sites that have additional “Wonders:”
AOL had a recent contest to name The 7 Wonders of The U.S.
Great Wonders of the World is the title of this student-created site.
7 Wonders has a variety of lists.
7 Wonders of the Natural World is a slideshow from The Atlantic.
New seven wonders of nature is from CNN and New 7 Wonders of Nature finalists is from The News in Australia. These slideshows highlight the results of a vote by The New 7 Wonders of Nature Foundation to identify…the new 7 wonders of nature. You can see the 28 preliminary finalists here.
Feedback, as always, is welcome.
If you found this post useful, you might want to look at the 460 other “The Best…” lists and consider subscribing to this blog for free.
November 4, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Census of Marine Life: What’s in our oceans is a very nice infographic from The Edge, a feature of a Florida newspaper.
I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About The World’s Oceans.
November 4, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Here are the newest additions to The Best Articles/Blog Posts On What The Election Results Mean For Schools:
Divided Congress may be fertile ground for No Child reform is another article from The Washington Post.
Obama could push education reform in effort to work with a divided Congress is another piece from The Post.
Teachers union-backed candidates sweep mayor’s picks in Sac City Unified is a follow-up article to our local elections.
November 4, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Welcome to the Machines: Designing Useful Robots is a lesson plan, including multimedia resources, from The New York Times Learning Network.
The lesson plan could be modified for ELL’s.
I’m adding it to The Best Sites To Learn About Robots.
November 4, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Where Kline stands on education policy is the headline of a new post by Valerie Strauss at The Washington Post.
It’s a very interesting piece about new chairman of the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee, Rep. John Kline (R-MN).
I’m adding it to The Best Articles/Blog Posts On What The Election Results Mean For Schools.
November 4, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments
I’ve posted about the Minnesota Basic Education Site before, but it’s been quite a quite awhile.
I was recently pleased to see that they had completely redesigned it, and it looks great!
It will certainly make one or more of my year-end “The Best..” lists.
Thanks to Ed Tech Essentials for prompting me to take a look.
November 3, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
“How Humans Run The Earth: Tracking Our Population Explosion And The Effects It Has On Our World” looks like an interesting infographic.
It certainly could be used as a starter for a classroom discussion.
November 3, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Do Positive People Live Longer? is the title of a piece in the Huffington Post that shares a number of studies (including links to them) highlighting the benefits of thinking positively.
I need to look at the studies more carefully, but there appears to be some good stuff I might try to incorporate in classroom lessons. If I do use them soon, there may be time to include what I try in the chapter titled “What can I do to help students feel more positive about school and learning?” of my upcoming book, Student Self-Motivation, Responsibility, and Engagement:Practical Answers to Classroom Challenges.
November 3, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Haiti, ten months later is the title of a series of photos from The Boston Globe’s Big Picture.
I’m adding it to The Best Sites To Learn About The Earthquake In Haiti.
November 3, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Arts Connected Ed is a joint project of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Walker Art Center. After registering, you can easily create your very own “art collection” from the museum’s holdings, make it into a very attractive slideshow, and then post the url address of your creation.
I’m adding it to The Best Ways For Students To Create Their Own Online Art Collections.
