Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

…For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Monthly Archives: February 2011

February 7, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Researchers Criticize L.A. Times “Value-Added” Study — The Times, Living in Alternate Universe, Says Study Supports Them

The National Education Policy Center today published a report critical of the Los Angeles Times study used to publicly evaluate teachers (see The Best Posts About The LA Times Article On “Value-Added” Teacher Ratings).

The study reports:

The research on which the Los Angeles Times relied for its August 2010 teacher effectiveness reporting was demonstrably inadequate to support the published rankings. Using the same L.A. Unified School District data and the same methods as the Times, this study probes deeper and finds the earlier research to have serious weaknesses.

Valerie Strauss at The Washington Post wrote a summary of the report at New study: How L.A. Times teachers data is flawed.

The same Times reporter who wrote the original report then turned around and wrote an article headlined Separate study confirms many Los Angeles Times findings on teacher effectiveness.

The National Education Policy Center then released a lengthy response later in the day to the Times’ article, including words like “misleading” and “red herring.” It offered a detailed analysis of how The Times was misinterpreting their report.

I’m adding all of these links to “The Best…” list about the LA Times fiasco I mentioned earlier in this post

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February 7, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
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“The Lure Of Lists”

In a previous post, Why I Write “The Best…” Lists — And Their Future, I shared a New York Times essay essay on the topic of…lists — titled “The Joy Of Lists”.” In it, Arthur Krystal wrote:

“….there is something reassuring about a list, a precision and formality that makes us think we’ve got a handle on things. Isn’t every list in reality a ceremonial flourish against amnesia and chaos?”

Now, here’s another similar article titled “The Lure Of Lists.” The author of this pieces lists several reasons why lists are attractive, including:

They fight a rigorous holding action in the battle against cultural entropy and chaos.

Wow, I thought I was just trying to make things a little easier to find. But both these writers suggest that I am in reality a warrior fighting against chaos.

My parents would be proud :)

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February 7, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment

On Storytelling…

Here’s a video from the organizer of Ignite presentations (which are somewhat similar to TED Talks) giving advice on how to present at those conferences. It, too, provides good advice on giving public presentations. Anecdote shares some additional advice related to the video.

I’ve added these resources to both The Best Sources Of Advice For Making Good Presentations and to The Best Teacher Resources For “TED Talks” (& Similar Presentations)

Both of those lists, by the way, also contain links to The TED Commandments – rules every speaker needs to know which is advice for people who are preparing to give TED Talks.

In addition, I’m adding 100 Things You Should Know About People: #56: People Process Information Best In Story Form to The Best Sources Of Advice For Making Good Presentations.

You might also be interested in The Best Digital Storytelling Resources.

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February 7, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Part Fifty-Nine Of The Best Ways To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly

The first part of this post is my usual introduction to this series. If you’re familiar with it already, just skip down to the listing of new sites…

Here’s the latest installment in my series on The Best Ways To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly. As you may remember, in order to make it on this list, the web tool has to:

* be easily accessible to English Language Learners and/or non-tech savvy computer users.

* allow people to create engaging content within minutes.

* host the user’s creation on the site itself indefinitely, and allow a direct link to be able to be posted on a student or teacher’s website/blog to it (or let it be embedded). If it just provides the url address of the student creation, you can either just post the address or use Embedit.in , a free web tool that makes pretty much any url address embeddable.

* provide some language-learning opportunity (for example, students can write about their creations).

* not require any registration.

You can find previous installments of this series with the rest of my “The Best…” lists at Websites Of The Year. Several hundred sites have been highlighted in these past lists. You might also want to take a look at the first list I posted in this series — The Best Ways For Students (And Anyone Else!) To Create Online Content Easily, Quickly, and Painlessly.

You might also want to look at The Best Ways To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly — 2010.

I’ll also be publishing an “all-time best” list sometime this year.

Here are the newest additions:

CREATE A TALKING DOG WITH BIG TEETH: Denture Your Dog lets you choose or upload a dog’s picture, give him/her a variety of different types of teeth, and then, using the site’s text-to-speech feature, make it talk. You can email the link of your creation for posting on a student/teacher website.

IMAGINE YOUR DREAM: With Max My Dream, you first say in 140 characters what you dreamed or want to dream. Then the site takes those words and converts them into a related dream-like sequence. It seems to be able to recognize key words and convert them into imagery. You’re able to link to or embed the final product. English Language Learners could write something to start things off, and then write or verbally describe the final dream-like sequence.

RECORD A MAD-LIB TRAVELOGUE: Clay Yourself is a site publicizing a hotel chain. Users get to create a clay-like avatar, choose a name for it, complete a “mad-lib”-like travel script, record themselves speaking the script they’ve helped create, and then place it in a virtual gallery. You can post the link to Facebook or Twitter, or email it to yourself. It hits all four domains — reading, writing, speaking and listening. You can’t beat that!

Additional suggestions are 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 over 600 other “The Best…” lists I’ve compiled.

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February 6, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
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The Best Sites For Learning About Protests In History

With the protests in Egypt very much in the news, I thought it might be useful to bring together my related “The Best…” lists together with other resources into one “The Best….” list.

There are clearly some omissions here, so I help readers will make suggestions for additions. I’ll also be keeping my eye out for more.

Here are my choices for The Best Sites For Learning About Protests In History (that are accessible to English Language Learners):

First, I’ll start off with links to previously posted “The Best…” lists:

The Best Multimedia Celebrating Mubarak’s Downfall

The Best Sites For Learning About The Protests In Egypt

The Best Sites To Learn About The Greensboro Sit-Ins (It’s The Fiftieth Anniversary)

The Best Sites For Learning About The Protests In Iran

The Best Websites For Learning About Martin Luther King

The Best Sites For Learning About Cesar Chavez

The Best Sites For Learning About Nelson Mandela

The Best Resources For Learning About Women’s Suffrage

The Best Resources For Learning About The “Freedom Riders”

The Best Resources To Help Students Learn About Occupy Wall Street

The Best Resources For Learning About Protests In Russia

Even though I include links to several “The Best…” lists about well-known figures in history, it’s also important to keep in mind what The New Yorker wrote in an exceptional article about pioneers in the civil rights struggle. It’s also accompanied by quite a few images.

I was particularly struck by this passage:

“One thing that I think the history books,and the media, have gotten very wrong is portraying the movement as Martin Luther King’s movement, when in fact it was a people’s movement,” Diane Nash, a founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, said. “If people understood that it was ordinary people who did everything that needed to be done in the movement, instead of thinking, I wish we had a Martin Luther King now, they would ask, ‘What can I do?’ Idolizing just one person undermines the struggle.”

In community organizing, we often taught and discussed the long-term dangers to social change brought about by idolizing charismatic leaders. As a teacher, though, it’s easy to lose sight of that important concept when dealing with trying to help students learn so many other things. I try my best to communicate that message.

Here are some other good resources:

A Brief History of People Power is the title of a slideshow from TIME Magazine. This is how they describe it:

As mass protests in Tunisia seek to bring about regime change, TIME looks at other instances of popular rebellion.

Top Ten Protest Symbols is a slideshow from TIME Magazine highlighting images of what they think are — historically — the….top ten protest symbols. They certainly have some photos that most of us would agree belong there, but I think they’ve missed some important ones. How about a picture of Gandhi with his spinning wheel?

Unpredictable Uprisings is an interesting slideshow from The New York Times.

The 10 best protests is a slideshow from The Guardian.

Power to the people: A look at key political revolutions is a Los Angeles Times slideshow.

Revolt! Comparing Historical Revolutions is an adaptable lesson plan from The New York Times Learning Network (and includes a simple hand-out).

Top 10 Famous Protest Plazas is a great slideshow from TIME Magazine.

The 10 best protest songs – in pictures comes from The Guardian.

Ordinary folks changing the world is an interesting slideshow from Salon that includes some people you wouldn’t ordinarily think of…

16 Of History’s Most Rebellious Women is a slideshow from TIME Magazine.

Here are resources on the Tiananmen Square protests:

Remembering Tiananmen Square is a CNN video:

22nd Anniversary of Tiananmen Square Crackdown is a slideshow from The Washington Post.

Remembering Tiananmen Square (SLIDESHOW) comes from The Huffington Post.

Man vs. machine is a slideshow from The Washington Post.

Top 10 Most Influential Protests is a TIME Magazine slideshow.

Sound of Post-Soviet Protest: Claps and Beeps is an intriguing New York Times story that would have to be modified for ELL’s.

A Brief History of Women’s Protests is a slideshow from TIME Magazine.

Global Protests is a nice photo gallery from The Boston Globe.

Who Are the 99%? Ways to Teach About Occupy Wall Street is a lesson plan from The New York Times Learning Network. It has some good ideas on teaching about any kind of protest.

Here’s a TIME slideshow, Top 10 American Protest Movements.

Where Are They Now?: 7 Protest Songs With Legs is from NPR.

The Protester: A Portfolio is from TIME.

Voices of protest: five protesters tell their stories – interactive comes from The Guardian.

Additional suggestions are 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 over 600 other “The Best…” lists I’ve compiled.

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February 6, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments

“Max My Dream”

With Max My Dream, you first say in 140 characters what you dreamed or want to dream. Then the site takes those words and converts them into a related dream-like sequence. It seems to be able to recognize key words and convert them into imagery. You’re able to link to or embed the final product.

English Language Learners could write something to start things off, and then write or verbally describe the final dream-like sequence.

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February 5, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
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“Two Steps Back” Is A This American Life Episode Everybody Should Listen to — Especially Superintendents & Principals

Two Steps Back is a several year old episode of “The American Life.” It tells the tale of an innovative Chicago school with a collaborative principal getting the life crushed out of it by the desire for uniformity and control by the central office (it includes an interview with then Superintendent Arne Duncan) and a compliant new principal. Thanks to our school’s principal, Ted Appel, for letting me know about it.

And, while you’re at it, here’s a good piece about the importance of collaboration by Walt Gardner titled Principals as Saviors.

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February 5, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments

More Egypt Protest Resources

Here are the newest additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The Protests In Egypt:

The Middle East In Revolt is TIME Magazine’s constantly updated page with many multimedia resources.

Crisis In Egypt is the regularly update site for ABC News.

Timeline of Egyptian protests comes from CNN.

All Eyes On Egypt is an accessible text from the Weekly Reader.

Egypt protest signs – in pictures comes from The Guardian

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February 5, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
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“Edge” Is Somewhat Like TED Talks

Edge (which I originally learned about from David Deubelbeiss) brings together “big thinkers” to both talk about “big” issues and also write about them. Their videos are intriguing, though the presentation style is just “talking heads.” I found their Question Center far more intriguing, where they annually pose a question and then get tons of key players from around the world to answer it. For example, this year’s question was “What scientific concept would improve everybody’s toolkit?”

I’m adding it to The Best Teacher Resources For “TED Talks” (& Similar Presentations).

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