Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

…For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Author Archives: Larry Ferlazzo

February 1, 2012
by Larry Ferlazzo
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PBS Report On Hans Rosling

If you’ve seen the amazing video “Hans Rosling’s 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes,” (and if you haven’t, I’ve embedded it at the end of this post — you can also find it on Part Two Of The Best Videos For Educators — 2010) you’ll want to see yesterday’s PBS News Hour report, which is embedded here. You can also get the transcript at their site:

Watch Rosling Brings Life, Sword-Swallowing to Health Statistics on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

And here’s his amazing video on the world:

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February 1, 2012
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment

“The ‘Good’ Kids Are Compliant, The ‘Bad’ Kids Are Defiant, And Nobody Is Engaged”

“You see schools where the ‘good’ kids are compliant, the ‘bad’ kids  are defiant, and nobody is engaged.”

That’s a quote from the Daniel Pink video I posted about earlier today. He gives a nice review (from the 79 minute mark to the 81st minute) about the difference between learning and performance goals, which I’ve previously posted about and used in lesson plan you can find in my book.

At the 86th minute, he also makes a nice comment about the fact that schools and other institutions have a “poverty of metrics” in relation to standardized tests.

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February 1, 2012
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Daniel Pink Talks About Schools & Motivation

The Superintendent of Montgomery County Schools in Maryland had a book discussion group with Daniel Pink last night, and posted a video of it earlier today.

It’s ninety-minutes long, and I’ve only had a chance to watch/listen to the first thirty minutes. So far, I would especially recommend the section from about the ten minute mark to the 25 minute mark. I’ll be listening to the rest of it later tonight.

I’m adding this post to My Best Posts On “Motivating” Students.

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February 1, 2012
by Larry Ferlazzo
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“I Am Spartacus” Deja Vu

Remember the climactic scene in the movie “Spartacus” where all the captured slaves say, “I am Spartacus” to avoid having the Romans find the real one?

Well, I had a Spartacus deja vu moment in class today.

A student named “John” has been out with a medical issue for a couple of months, so I let him take a U.S. History test with an open book.  Other students jokingly said they wanted to use their book, too.

My response: “Only students named ‘John’ get to use a book today.”

Then, one student said, “My name is John,” immediately followed by another student saying the same thing and so on.  It was hilarious, and I’m sure none of them had seen Spartacus….

I love teaching…..

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January 31, 2012
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Special Edition Of “Links I Should Have Posted About, But Didn’t”

(Usually, I just post a weekly version of this regular feature. However, sometimes I post an extra “Special Edition” when I have more good links than usual)

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. 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 Special Edition of “Links I Should Have Posted About, But Didn’t”:

Be Better at Twitter: The Definitive, Data-Driven Guide is from The Atlantic. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Beginning To Learn What Twitter Is All About.

Writing Rules by Henry Miller, Elmore Leonard, Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman & George Orwell is from Open Culture.

To My Old Master is an amazing letter written by a former slave to his “owner.” I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About The American Civil War.

Foldables and Notebookables is from “TeachFine.” I’m adding it to The Best Teacher Resources For “Foldables.”

The Wall Street Journal has a pretty intriguing interactive examining the phrases President Obama has used in his three State of the Union speeches. I’m adding it to The Best (& Most Intriguing) Resources For Learning About The State Of The Union Message.

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January 31, 2012
by Larry Ferlazzo
3 Comments

The 26th EFL / ESL / ELL Blog Carnival Is Up!

David Deubelbeiss has just posted The 26th EFL / ESL / ELL Blog Carnival!

Bloggers from all around the world have contributed posts connected to the theme of “fun.”

It’s a month late this time because of technical issues with the Blog Carnival site that we’ve usually used for submissions. However, we won’t be using them again to avoid a repeat of this snafu.

The March 1st edition will be hosted by Adam Simpson. You can read about his plans for it at his post, No, don’t stop the carnival. Instead of using the submission form we’ve used in the past, just send the link to your post directly to him or to me (my contact form box may look a little weird, but it is functioning. I’m asking Edublogs to see if they can fix it). And there’s always Twitter or email at mrferlazzo at aol dot com.

Dani Lyra will be hosting the May 1st edition.

Let me know if you might be interested in hosting future editions.

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

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January 31, 2012
by Larry Ferlazzo
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A Prime Example Of English Language Learner Assets

In my book English Language Learners: Teaching Strategies That Work, I talk a lot about looking at English Language Learners through the lens of “assets” instead of “deficits.” Their stories and experiences, even tragic ones, are examples of “assets” that can be used to deepen learning in the classroom.

Last week, in my United States History classes with Intermediate and Beginning English Language Learners, a prime example of this was front and center. We were just about to start a unit on the American Civil War, and I asked students to talk with their family members about civil wars that occurred in native countries — what happened and how it affected their families. You can see all their responses here at our class blog, but here are a few samples:

My parent remember that during the civil war in thier country, many people die.It was a chaos, people fight each other but they like brothers and sisters.It make them feel sad and anger.

In civil war my mom said their was a lot voilence their was nothing to eat chid was crying during the war their was nothing to drink

My father tell me that when the war begain in lao and the soldier came to kill the hmong people and my family run to the forest and hid atfer that my family came to thailand

After those family discussions, and the sharing of them in class, I think it’s safe to say that my students are approaching learning about the Civil War on a much deeper level than many other mainstream students. I’m going to approach other U.S. History teachers at school to see if they’d like to spend a portion of a period having their students connect with mine about their experiences….

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January 30, 2012
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Easily Create A Musical Playlist With Choruzz

Choruzz lets you — without needing to register — search for music videos and create a playlist of them. You’re then given a unique url address for your list that you can share.

It’s very easy to use, and it meets my “Raffi” test — in other words, plenty of songs are accessible that you can use with English Language Learners.

I’m adding it to Not “The Best,” But “A List” Of Music Sites.

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January 30, 2012
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. 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”:

10 awesome apps for iPhoneography is from Matador. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Beginning iPhone Users Like Me.

GE Teach looks like a great tool for teachers using Google Earth. You can read more about it at Richard Byrne’s blog. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Google Earth Beginners Like Me.

IPads In The Classroom comes from Ed Tech Teacher. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Beginning iPad Users.

The Very First App You Should Load on Your New iPad is from Jeffrey Thomas. I’m adding it to that list, too.

And if you’re considering using iPads in the classroom, Redefining Instruction With Technology: Five Essential Steps by Jennie Magiera is a must read. That’s going on the the same list.

States Anticipate Technology Challenges With Common Tests is from Ed Week. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About The “Next Generation” Of State Testing.

An animated journey through the Earth’s climate history is from The BBC. I’m adding it to The Best Sites To Learn About Climate Change.

NASA Visualization Shows Global Temperature Changes (VIDEO) is from The Huffington Post. I’m adding it to the same list.

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

“The Best…” series (which now number 835)

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

The Week In Web 2.0

Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL

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January 30, 2012
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments

Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL

I’ve recently started a regular feature where I share a few posts from around the Web related to ESL or EFL that have caught my attention:

On Teaching Effective Learning is from Teacher 2 Teacher, and shares some good ideas for student reflection.

Smile is a nice lesson plan, including materials, and is from Film English.

How to make things fall apart – A behaviour model for creating incompetence is an excellent post by Maria Constantinides.

Beating the Humdrum is from Language Moments, and has some excellent ideas on how to “liven-up” a less than interesting textbook. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Adapting Your Textbook So It Doesn’t Bore Students To Death.

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January 29, 2012
by Larry Ferlazzo
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January’s Best Tweets

Every month I make a short list highlighting my choices of the best resources I shared through (and learned from) Twitter, but didn’t necessarily include them in posts here on my blog. Now and then, in order to make it a bit easier for me, I may try to break it up into mid-month and end-of-month lists (and sometimes I’m a bit late).

I’ve already shared in earlier posts several new resources I found on Twitter — and where I gave credit to those from whom I learned about them. Those are not included again in this post.

If you don’t use Twitter, you can also check-out all of my “tweets” on Twitter profile page or subscribe to their RSS feed.

This month, I’m using Storify to “curate” my best tweets:

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