Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

…For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

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June 27, 2017
by Larry Ferlazzo
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I’ve Found These Decent Online Exercises To Teach Paraphrasing – Can You Suggest More?

This afternoon, I was searching for some online exercises to reinforce the idea of paraphrasing with English Language Learners (I want to add them to The Best Online Resources To Teach About Plagiarism), and I didn’t have a whole lot of luck.

Most of the ones specifically geared towards ELLs just switched out a word or two, and seemed to me to be very poor examples. The rest seemed to be geared towards University-level students and were far too advanced for ELLs.

Here are the decent ones I found – I hope you’ll suggest more:

E.L.L. Practice + Prompt | The Value Of Diversity is an interactive I created for The New York Times Learning Network and includes some questions on paraphrasing.

Paraphrasing Quiz

Paraphrasing

Paraphrase Craze

June 26, 2017
by Larry Ferlazzo
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The Best Harry Potter Teaching & Learning Resources

The first Harry Potter book was published twenty years ago today.

Here are are a few related teaching and learning resources (feel free to suggest others):

As usual, The New York Times Learning Network has you covered with Teaching and Learning About ‘Harry Potter’ With The New York Times.

Teaching Harry Potter is from the National Education Association.

Over the years, I’ve also shared several posts about J.K. Rowling:

Illustrated J.K. Rowling Quote On Failure

‘I’m sorry to disappoint you’: JK Rowling tweets her rejection letters

Here are some lesson resources specifically for English Language Learners:

Learn pronouns and the importance of learning from failures and mistakes through this interactive on J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series.  It’s a lesson I posted for ELLs at The NY Times Learning Network.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (EFL activities) is from Sandy Millin.

Michelle Henry has a ton of resources.

ESL Printables has many free…Potter printables.

The ISL Collective also has lots of ELL printable sheets.

Harry Potter twenty year anniversary is from The British Council.

June 22, 2017
by Larry Ferlazzo
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The Best Suggestions On Ways Teachers Can Sanely Approach PD Over The Summer & Still Have Time To Relax

It’s summertime and, in addition to getting some R & R, it’s an opportune time for us educators to also pursue some kind of useful professional development (you might also be interested in The Best Resources On Professional Development For Teachers — Help Me Find More).

I thought it would be helpful to compile a list of suggestions and resources – feel free to offer others in the comments section:

If you don’t have a life like me, and are planning/hoping to write a book, check out So, You Want To Write A Book? Here’s The Best Advice…

Dive into Summer Professional Learning – and More! is from Middleweb.

Sharing Your Best Work With Other Teachers is from Edutopia.

Write an Op-Ed piece: How to write an opinion essay and why you should do it now is from Kappan Online.

If you are going to attend some conferences, here is some specific advice:

Shy? Going to a Conference? – Try These Strategies to Connect is from Richard Byrne.

A Beginner’s Guide to Education Conferences is from Middleweb.

10 hints to make the most of teaching and academic conferences is from Statistics Learning Center.

If you can’t attend the ISTE conference this year, you can explore it “virtually”:

There are also Webinars, and Richard Byrne has you covered with Three Tips for Getting More Out of Webinars.

If you’re a teacher of ELLs, and didn’t participate in our virtual conference last Saturday, all the videos are still available: Video(s): My #VirtuEL17 Session On SEL & ELLs (Plus Supporting Links) & Everyone Else’s Session, Too!

You might also want to peruse, at your convenience, these lists:

The Best Articles (& Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice & Resources To Teachers In 2017 – So Far

All My NY Times Posts For English Language Learners – Linked With Descriptions

All My BAM Radio Shows – Linked With Descriptions

The Best Resources, Articles & Blog Posts For Teachers Of ELLs In 2017 – So Far

All Mid-Year 2017 “Best” Lists In One Place

June 22, 2017
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Good Reminder About How To Give Constructive Feedback

The advice offered in the new article, Good managers give constructive criticism—but truly masterful leaders offer constructive praise, won’t be new to anyone familiar with the growth mindset concept, but it’s a good reminder, nevertheless.

Here’s an excerpt:

Its goes on to say:

General compliments like “Awesome job on that presentation,” or “You’re a great writer” may make an employee feel good, but they rarely shape long-term behavior and competency. When praising a colleague, it’s essential to single out the specific behavior or trait you observed and when you observed it, says Zenger. For example: “In last week’s meeting, I noticed you were willing to question the CEO’s vision for our pod’s sales goals—I really appreciate your confidence.”

It also includes useful links to research.

I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning How To Best Give Feedback To Students.

June 21, 2017
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Problems As Opportunities

I’ve previously written about and shared on the topic of turning problems into opportunities (see The Best Examples Of Turning Problems Into Opportunities — Help Me Find More).

The Harvard Business Review has recently published a short and useful article on the same topic.  To Build Your Resilience, Ask Yourself Two Simple Questions provides some simple guidelines that could be useful for all of us and, if edited, might be good for students to read and write a response to it.

Here’s an excerpt:

June 18, 2017
by Larry Ferlazzo
6 Comments

What Are Your Rules About Students Eating In Class?

Explore many responses – both in the comments section of this post and in the embedded tweets!

What are your rules about students eating in class?

I’m raising this question because it’s come up in the student evaluation of my IB Theory of Knowledge class – several students thought I should be more liberal about it.

These are what my rules have been:

* If it’s after lunch, and you didn’t have a chance to eat during the lunch hour (which is very short) because of a school-related activity, you can eat in class.

* If we’re doing a small group activity with talking and moving around, feel free to eat.

* Other than those times, eating can be distracting to you and to people around you, so I ask that you do not eat.

In my other classes with younger students, I have a blanket “no-eating” policy.  It has been my experience that – in those situations – students eating has generally been very distracting to the “eater,” it’s distracting to others who want the person eating to share their food with them, and they there is more of a tendency to leave a mess.

Of course, I also maintain an ample stock of graham crackers, trail mix and fruit snacks that I give out to students who miss the free breakfast or who continue to be hungry, and often will give out a snack to the entire class.  In those cases, the regular rules do not apply.

I’m eager to hear from other teachers about your policies and what grades you teach!

ADDENDUM: Here are some responses I’ve received on Twitter:

June 18, 2017
by Larry Ferlazzo
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What’s Your Best Lesson For Beginning Or Intermediate English Language Learners?

I’d like to publish a summer series with teachers of English Language Learners share what they think are their best lessons for Beginning or Intermediate English Language Learners.

If you’d like to contribute, just let me know in the comments section and I’ll email you.

It would need to be between 500-and-750 words. If you have your own blog, feel free to post it there and I’ll just share a link to it.

I’d like to begin publishing the series in late July or early August….

I look forward to hearing from you!

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