The Los Angeles Times uses technology from the company Visual DNA to have users take a News Match Quiz. It’s really pretty neat. You’re asked some simple questions and shown a variety of images you use to answer — What is your favorite kind of treat? What would spark a conversation with you?

Then, at the end, you’re given a report on your personality and a series of newspaper articles the program thinks you’d be interested in.

It’s useful for English Language Learners on a number of levels. I’ve seen the Visual DNA technology used in other sites, and have liked it, they those other sites have usually been dating-related or on other sites not appropriate for the classroom.

A somewhat similar quiz sit– though not nearly as good as Visual DNA’s application — is called ID Solution. It identifies your “cultural taste.” One thing I do like about it is that some the questions ask your preferences of various texts instead of images.

I’ve had a link to the prototype version for quite awhile on The Best Visually Engaging News Sites, but it appears that they have now worked out all the bugs.

Thanks to Read Write Web for the tip.

I’m adding it to The Best Art Websites For Learning English, as well as placing the link on my website under Music and Art.

I’ve placed the link on my website under Short Story.

And this is just one of many exceptional online exercises on that site.  I’ll be highlighting others in future posts.

There’s a ton of different and engaging online activities there for Beginning through Intermediate English Language Learner students.

I’ve placed the link on my website under Vocabulary on my website, even though it also includes reading and listening exercises..

Of course, in a lot of ways you do something like this with an application like Daymix and, unlike with the new Google news feature, you don’t have to sign-in at Daymix to create your custom page.

But I could see Google’s page just being one more way for students to create their own high-interest content to read.

Thanks to Mashable for the tip, which also has more info on it.

I’ll be adding direct links to various sections on my website.

Claireece Precious Jones endures unimaginable hardships in her young life. Abused by her mother, raped by her father, she grows up poor, angry, illiterate, fat, unloved and generally unnoticed. So what better way to learn about her than through her own, halting dialect. That is the device deployed in the first novel by poet and singer Sapphire. “Sometimes I wish I was not alive,” Precious says. “But I don’t know how to die. Ain’ no plug to pull out. ‘N no matter how bad I feel my heart don’t stop beating and my eyes open in the morning.” An intense story of adversity and the mechanisms to cope with it.

This month, PUSH is coming to movie theaters as Precious. You can see the trailer at the link.

The National Center For Family Literacy is working with the film distributor, who will offer literacy tips on its website. The film will also be in limited release in November to help recognize National Family Literacy Month.

Both are accessible to English Language Learners.

I’ve placed the direct links on several sections on my website.

Thanks to Phyllis’ Favorites for the tip.

I’ve been exploring what possible sites might be out there students can use. I’m narrowing them down but, since I haven’t actually had them do this activity yet, I can’t say positively which one is best. But I thought I’d share the conclusions I’ve reached after my initial experiments, and invite readers to share their experiences with these sites and others.

So, given that caveat, here are my choices for The Best Sites For Students To Create & Participate In Online Debates:

I like Create Debate a lot. One of its key advantages is that it appears to allow the creator of the debate to moderate the discussion. I’m imagining that a student can create the debate and that I then add it to the site under my name and within the initial prompt indicate which student started it. Then, they and others can contribute, but I can check regularly and delete any inappropriate comments made by others.

Heads Up seems to be an ideal site, and is specifically designed for students and teachers to use. However, it’s designed for use in the United Kingdom. I haven’t contacted them yet (but will soon) to see if non-UK schools can participate.

Opposing Views highlights key questions (political, scientific, etc). It then, in a fairly succinct “bullet” format, has an “expert” share pro and con arguments. Users of the site can also leave their own comments.  The language and lay-out of the site is fairly accessible to Intermediate English Language Learners.  After reading the arguments, users can easily leave their own comments on the issue.

Two other sites – Riled Up and For And Against — appear to have some potential, but moderation of discussions on both sites seems very limited so I’d be concerned about using it in class.

Procon is not a site to participate in debates but, instead, offers what seems to be very well-researched pro and con positions on multiple controversial issues. It could serve as a good model for students to use as they craft their own positions.

Debategraph is in a category all its own. It looks like a cool way to visualize arguments, but I can’t quite figure it out.

Additional suggestions and feedback are welcome.

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