I’ve placed the link on my Geography page.

We did assessments and evaluations at the beginning of the year, at mid-year and at the end of the year.  You can read more about this — and download the actual assessments — at my post Mid-Year Results Of My “Experiment”. Two of the assessments tested basic knowledge of U.S. History (admittedly, pretty low on Bloom’s Taxonomy) and the third was a student evaluation of the class.

In January,  the results showed that student achievement gains were about equal, though students in the technology-oriented class seemed more engaged and interested in U.S. History.

The two June assessments that tested U.S. History knowledge on a basic level were, like they were in the ones we gave in January, just about the same in both classes.

The one where students evaluated the class itself — if they liked it, if it made them want to study more US History, etc — was a bit of a surprise.  As I wrote earlier in January, even though both classes evaluated it positively, the zero period class was more engaged.  In the year-end one, again both classes evaluated it positively, but this time the non-tech class was much more engaged.  The only place where the tech class evaluated it more positively was that they clearly felt like they developed more computer skills — which was to be expected.

I’m not surprised that the knowledge level is similar, but I am surprised that the non-tech class felt that they liked it more and got more out of it.  The fact that the tech class took place an hour before regular school began, and that students repeatedly complained about having to getting-up early, might have some effect on the difference, but the amount of difference really was pretty striking, so it’s unlikely to have been the only factor (by the way, all students voluntarily chose to take the early class).

In retrospect, I would have done two things differently:

1) I wish we had given a straight pre-and post-assessment on English comprehension.  Based on the data from our family literacy home computer project, I would have expected that those in the computer lab would have had a greater increase in understanding English, though I might very well have been proven wrong.

2) I would have put more time into figuring-out how the tech class could have connected more with our International Sister Classes. We started out strong in that regard — for example, students were corresponding with an EFL class in Spain to learn how the Spanish Conquest of the New World was taught in that country — but ended up succumbing to the impulse of having to “cover the curriculum” and those connections fell by the wayside. I suspect with a little more strategic planning on my part that kind of cooperation could have been integrated.

Feedback is welcome.  Again, you can download the assessments by going to my January post.

If you’d like to see the actual raw data, let me know in the comments section and I’ll email it to you or, if there’s enough interest, I’ll include the link to download it on a future post.

“It covers 6 primary history topics - Ancient Greeks, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Children in Victorian Britain and Children of WW2 - with a photo and video library and an interactive timeline, plus quizzes, activities and games.”

It’s very accessible to English Language Learners, and the games have audio support for the text.

The only disappointment is that the videos aren’t available to watch if you’re in the United States.

I’ll be adding the link to the World History page on my website.

So, here’s another (short) “The Best…” list…

My choices for The Best Sites To Help ELL’s Learn Idioms & Slang include:

In2English has an excellent series of Animated Idioms exercises.  They include an animated cartoon with text and audio explanations of each idiom.  This site is clearly my number one favorite on the list.

On The Tip of My Tongue is a great site from France that teaches English idioms through the use of cartoons, audio, and games.

NDI English Village has the idiom in text form and illustrates it with a picture.  Then it shows several sentences using it correctly with audio support.  When you go to the link, click on the blue colum in the middle to see the different idioms.

The Slang Game teaches English…slang and idioms.

Slang-o-lator is a neat, colorful, game that first shows an image along with a slang phrase (”hanging out”).  Players then have to choose the correct definition.

The Biz Idiom game can be fun.

Here’s a game to test your knowledge of English animal idioms.

Try The Great Walk game from English Portal Games.

Eye On Idioms is an activity from Read Write Think.

The Idiom Connection has written explanations of many idioms (though they’re not presented in the most accessible way). However, they do have a lot of good quizzes.

Suggestions and feedback, as always, are welcome.

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous “The Best…” lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.

I’ve placed the link on my website under Asia.

I really like the accessible and helpful information about the bills, and it might provide an opportunity for writing to an authentic audience.

However, I wouldn’t be surprised if emails from the site end-up getting immediately deleted from many Congressional mailboxes.  I have the same concern with this site as I have with phoning into talk radio — it can give people the illusion of doing something about a problem without having an actual effect at all.

However, an actual “snail mail” letter to a Congressperson might actually be read, or perhaps an email from a personal email address.  I can see this site, and the email written there, being used by students as a draft for a final version.  Even better, it could be used as preparation for a face-to-face meeting with a Congressman or staffperson.

After registering (which is very easy — I love sites that don’t require an email activation), you can very easily make a recording or use a text-to-speech feature to create audio.  You’re then given a unique url address for the recording.  It’s as simple as that.

It has other capabilities, too, including responding to the audio message.

I’m adding it to my website under Multimedia Resources From News Outlets.

They’re simple introductions explaining what they like to do for fun, the food they like to eat, their ethnic background, their favorite book, and their future goals. They used images they took with our digital cameras as well as photos off the Web. The whole process probably took a total of three hours between registering at VoiceThread, creating a storyboard, uploading images, and recording the narrative. It probably would have taken less time if we didn’t regularly have technical problems with some of our computers not recording.

Feel free to leave comments on them if you’d like (you have to be registered at VoiceThread to do so). I think you can see why VoiceThread is number one on two of my “The Best…” lists:

The Best Sites To Practice Speaking English

The Best Web 2.0 Applications for ESL/EFL Learners — 2007

Students will next be writing a fable that they will demonstrate in a VoiceThread.

After next week, I’ll be adding some of these VoiceThreads to The Best Online Examples of My Students’ Work.