Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

…For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Monthly Archives: September 2011

September 22, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
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“How Many Really?” Is An Interesting Tool

How Many Really? is a BBC interactive that shows you how many people were affected by or participated in major historical events, and then you can compare other numbers with them.

It’s a sister site to last year’s BBC’s tool, How Big Really? That site allowed you to compare the physical dimensions of historical events with locations of your own choosing.

Thanks to Information Aesthetics for the tip.

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September 22, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
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The Best Resources For Helping Students Deal With Grief

With the new school year upon us, it’s likely that most of us will have at least one student, and probably more, suffer the loss of a family member or friend.

I thought a short “The Best…” list on the topic might be helpful, and I hope that readers will suggest additional resources.

Here are my choices for The Best Resources For Helping Students Deal With Grief:

I’m going to start with a post I wrote about a year-and-a-half ago titled Helping Students Who Are Grieving. In it, I share what I do, and some personal experiences. Readers contributed suggestions in comments there, too.

Helping Students Deal with the Loss of a Parent comes from Education Week.

How to: Help Your Students Deal with Grief and Loss from The Apple is an article I’ve previously recommended.

Additional suggestions are welcome.

If you’ve found this list helpful, you might want to consider subscribing to this blog for free.

You might want to also view the over seven hundred other “The Best…” lists.

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September 21, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
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“Talking WeeMee” & Other iPhone Apps For Speaking Practice

I’m just starting to use iPhone apps with my English Language Learners, and they’re loving it. These puppet/avatar apps reduce student fear because the “puppets” are on the screen with their voices, but their faces are not visible.

I’ve previously posted about Sock Puppets. It’s a neat app, and, in many ways, one of my favorites — it’s easy and provides opportunities for multiple characters to record. The free version allows audio recording for thirty seconds, while the paid version has a ninety-second length. Unfortunately, I found the paid version to be very buggy, and had lots of problems uploading it to the Web. I asked Lisa Johnson for advice (I first heard about the app from her) and learned that she only used the free version. She suggested that the ninety second length might be the problem, and she was right (thanks, Lisa!). So we’ll still be using it, but, unfortunately, it will only be in thirty second clips.

We’re also going to be trying out another app called Talking Wee Mee. It just allows one character, though it appears to provide a one minute recording time.

Lisa also suggested Photo Puppet Go. It’s a little more complicated than the other two I’ve mentioned, but it does have potential.

I’ll be including all these apps in The Best Sites To Practice Speaking English.

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September 21, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
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YouTube Makes Dramatic Addition To Video Editing Features

Yesterday, I updated Not The “Best,” But A List… Of Online Video Editors with new additions from YouTube and other sites.

Today, YouTube has just announced another major upgrade to their video-editing abilities by integrating the Magisto tool (that’s also on my The Best…” list) into their own editing process. Magisto is like a piece of magic, and does the editing for you…

Read all about it at Tech Crunch’s post, YouTube Integrates Magisto’s “Magical Video Editing” Tool.

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September 21, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Research Studies Of The Week

I often write about research studies from various field and how they can be applied to the classroom. I write individual posts about ones that I think are especially significant, and will continue to do so. However, so many studies are published that it’s hard to keep up. So I’ve started writing a “round-up” of some of them each week or every other week as a regular feature:

Stephen Krashen writes in Language Magazine about new research on the importance of reading aloud to students. Check out his article, Reach Out and Read (Aloud).

The WRITE Institute has a collection of useful research teaching English Language Learners. I’m adding it to The Best Ways To Keep-Up With Current ELL/ESL/EFL News & Research.

Judy Willis shares some great research on learning and the brain in hand-outs from her recent ASCD Webinar.

A new study reinforces the strategy that many of use in the classroom to help students develop self-control: “partition the quantity of resources to be consumed into smaller units.” In other words, asking a student, for example, to see if he/she could focus on class work for the next ten minutes and then, the next day, try for twenty, etc. I’m adding this information to My Best Posts About Helping Students Develop Their Capacity For Self-Control.

High Self-Control Predicts Good Adjustment, Less Pathology, Better Grades, and Interpersonal Success is another study I’m adding to that list.

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September 20, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment

Pretty Impressive Special Edition Of “Links I Should Have Posted About, But Didn’t”

NOTE: I usually publish a list like this once or twice a week. Today, though, I found several impressive new sites in my RSS Reader and thought people might want to know about them all sooner rather than later.

I have a huge backlog of resources that I’ve been planning to post about in this blog but, just because of time constraints, have not gotten around to doing so. Instead of letting that backlog grow bigger, I regularly grab a few and list them here with a minimal description. It forces me to look through these older links, and help me organize them for my own use. I hope others will find them helpful, too. These are resources that I didn’t include in my “Best Tweets” feature because I had planned to post about them, or because I didn’t even get around to sending a tweet sharing them.

Here is A Pretty Impressive Special Edition Of “Links I Should Have Posted About, But Didn’t”:

When In Time is a new timeline creator that looks very easy to use. I’m adding it to The Best Tools For Making Online Timelines.

We Video is a new online video-editing tool. I’m adding it to Not The “Best,” But A List… Of Online Video Editors.

My Open Letter is a super-easy way for students to create a webpage — without registration — and also lets them copy and paste photos into it. I’m adding it to A Few Simple Ways To Introduce Reluctant Colleagues To Technology.

Instagram, the amazing iPhone photo app, just made many changes. You can read about them at Instagram Launches Its Biggest Overhaul Yet (But Still No Android App). I’m adding the info to The Best Sites For Beginning iPhone Users Like Me.

Klip is an impressive app to share videos from your iPhone. I’m adding it to the same list.

Visualize.me lets you immediately turn your resume into an infographic. Unfortunately, right now it only works through Linked In. However, its founder says it will integrate that ability to other sites, too, including Facebook and Twitter. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Creating Infographics.

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September 20, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Chart on “Respecting Teachers” vs “Blaming Teachers”

A few hours ago I posted about this week’s column I wrote for Education Week Teacher, but just mentioned it included an “interesting chart.”

The chart has received so much interest I thought it would be good for me to explain it in a little more detail here. I used the Google Ngram Viewer to compare how often the phrases “respecting teachers” and “blaming teachers” have been use in print over the past two hundred years.

I think the results are pretty interesting, so you might want to check it out….

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September 20, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
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This Week’s “Links I Should Have Posted About, But Didn’t”

I have a huge backlog of resources that I’ve been planning to post about in this blog but, just because of time constraints, have not gotten around to doing so. Instead of letting that backlog grow bigger, I regularly grab a few and list them here with a minimal description. It forces me to look through these older links, and help me organize them for my own use. I hope others will find them helpful, too. These are resources that I didn’t include in my “Best Tweets” feature because I had planned to post about them, or because I didn’t even get around to sending a tweet sharing them.

Here are This Week’s “Links I Should Have Posted About, But Didn’t”:

Uwemi shows your Facebook friends on a map. I’m adding it to The Best Ways To Make A Map Showing Your Facebook Friends (& Twitter Followers).

World War II: Pearl Harbor is a photo gallery from The Atlantic. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About Pearl Harbor.

Here’s a video showing “Top 10 Most Popular Tourist Destinations.” I’m adding it to The Best Sites Showing The Most Popular Tourist Destinations In The World:

Obama At 50 is a cool interactive timeline from The Guardian. I’m adding it to The Best Places To Learn About President Barack Obama’s Life.

A Brief History of Women’s Protests is a slideshow from TIME Magazine. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About Protests In History.

What TEDTalk would you play to open the school year? We counted your (almost 1,000) responses … is from TED Talks. I’m adding it to The Best Teacher Resources For “TED Talks” (& Similar Presentations).

Quora Attempts To Cut Through The Noise With ‘Browse’ is from TechCrunch. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Beginning To Learn What Quora Is All About…

7 Places to Get Free Supplies or Money for Your Classroom is an excellent post by Richard Byrne. I’m adding it to The Best Places To Learn About Education Grants.

In Pictures: The ocean’s giants comes from the BBC. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About The World’s Oceans.

Independence Day Around the World is a very cool interactive map. I’m adding it to The Best Websites For Learning About The Fourth Of July.

Here are some other regular features I post in this blog:

“The Best…” series (which now number 701)

Best Tweets of The Month

The most popular posts on this blog each month

My monthly choices for the best posts on this blog each month

Each month I do an “Interview Of The Month” with a leader in education

Periodically, I post “A Look Back” highlighting older posts that I think are particularly useful

The ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival

Resources that share various “most popular” lists useful to teachers

Interviews with ESL/EFL teachers in “hot spots” around the world.

Articles I’ve written for other publications.

Photo Galleries Of The Week

Research Studies Of The Week

Regular “round-ups” of good posts and articles about school reform

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September 19, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
10 Comments

The Best Beginner, Intermediate & Advanced English Language Learner Sites

Last week, my classes all of a sudden became more challenging.

Instead of teaching two separate classes of United States History to Intermediate English Language Learners, one double-block period of Beginning ELL’s, and one period of IB Theory of Knowledge, my schedule now looks like this:

First Period: U.S. History to Intermediate ELL’s

Second Period: Prep

Third and Fourth Period: Combined class of Beginners and Intermediates

Fifth Period: U.S. History to Intermediate and Beginning ELL’s

Sixth Period: Theory of Knowledge

It’s all going to work out fine, and I’ll certainly get some new good ideas out of it to add to my upcoming book on teaching ELL’s :)   (Katie Hull, my co-author and colleague, and I just submitted our 90,000 word manuscript to editors over the weekend — it will be published next July, and I’ll have time to make additions in December).

But it did force me to make some changes to my new English class blog.  It now includes a list of accessible links to what, in my opinion, are the Best Sites For Beginners, Intermediates, and Advanced English Language Learners (Katie’s class of advanced students will now also use the site).

I just copied the sidebar from the class blog and pasted it here.  You can find more specific reviews for all of them if you search this blog.  I also included a section from the sidebar where I’ll be adding music and video sites that I’ll be using in the classroom via computer project — those sites are blocked to students, but not to teachers.

Let me know what you think — am I missing something?

Feel free to add suggestions in the comments, and also feel free to visit the class blog, which will be continually updated with new assignments and sites.

If you found this post useful, you might want to consider subscribing to this blog for free.

You might also want to explore the 760 other “The Best…” lists I’ve compiled.

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September 19, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Simple, Great Chart To Show To All Students

Jason Keath posted an incredibly simple — yet powerful — chart on Google Plus about the truth behind success.

Any teacher can draw it in thirty seconds on a whiteboard, and I think it can be helpful to all students — English Language Learners and mainstream.

Even I can draw it, and there are few who are as artistically-challenged as me :) I’ll certainly be replicating it tomorrow in class.

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September 18, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
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This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Good School Reform Posts & Articles

There have been quite a few recent good posts and articles about school reform issues:

I’ve got to start with Linda Darling-Hammond’s Getting teacher evaluation right at The Answer Sheet. It may be THE piece on teacher evaluation. I’m adding it to both The Best Resources For Learning About The “Value-Added” Approach Towards Teacher Evaluation and to The Best Resources For Learning About Effective Student & Teacher Assessments.

Praise for peer evaluations comes from Thoughts on Public Education. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About Effective Student & Teacher Assessments/

Public education’s biggest problem gets worse is by Valerie Strauss at The Washington Post. I’m adding it to The Best Places To Learn What Impact A Teacher & Outside Factors Have On Student Achievement.

The Grass Is Greener: Learning from Other Countries is by Yong Zhao. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Getting Some Perspective On International Test Comparison Demagoguery.

Christie misses the mark on grading teachers, author says is from The Star-Ledger in New Jersey. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About The “Value-Added” Approach Towards Teacher Evaluation.

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September 18, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment

“Teach With, Not ‘To” The Test”

“Teach With, Not ‘To” The Test” is an article about a short interview with Princeton Neuroscientist Sam Wang.

In it, he points out reasons why high-stakes standardized tests are not helpful to learning, including the fact that feedback is not immediate and that they create needless anxiety. He says low-stakes quizzes are useful, however, and suggests they be done in a game-style. That’s how I often use them, and you can see descriptions of some of the games I use at Games Students Play (more extensive lists can be found in my books).

He also points out that one benefit typical standardized tests provide are opportunities for students to demonstrate persistence. Though I think there are far better ways for students to develop that trait, I do have to agree with him. In fact, I wrote about that topic in The Most Effective Thing I’ve Done To Prepare Students For Standardized Tests.

I’m adding this post to The Best Posts On How To Prepare For Standardized Tests (And Why They’re Bad).

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September 18, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Three Intriguing Articles On Homework

Three intriguing articles have been published in the past week about homework. I’m adding them to The Best Resources For Learning About Homework Issues:

Why have homework? appeared in The Boston Globe. It discusses a new study which states that homework can improve academic achievement in math, but not in other subjects. I posted about this research a few months ago, and it’s worth checking out that post for the comments that readers left. Note that the Globe just instituted a paywall, though, for now, you can get around it by quickly registering for free at the site.

The Trouble With Homework appeared in The New York Times is by Annie Murphy Paul. It’s interesting but, to tell you the truth, I found the follow-up commentary left by students at The New York Times Learning Network to be more intriguing.

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