Larry Ferlazzo’s Website Update
July, 2008

I’m sending this update out a little early, and it might be the last one for the summer.  The next update might not be sent out until late August.

You might want to consider subscribing to my blog if you’d like to get more frequent updates over the next two months:

http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/about/how-to-subscribe-to-this-blog/

Here are the top posts from this past month:

The Best Online Video Sites For Learning English
(http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/06/03/the-best-online-video-sites-for-learning-english/)

The Best Ways To Make Comic Strips Online
(http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/06/04/the-best-ways-to-make-comic-strips-online/)

The Best Websites For Teaching & Learning About U.S. History
(http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/06/08/the-best-websites-for-teaching-learning-about-us-history/)  

The Best “Today In History” Sites
(http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/06/11/the-best-today-in-history-sites/)  

The Best Websites To Learn About California
(http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/06/13/the-best-websites-to-learn-about-california/)

Part Eighteen Of The Best Ways To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly
(http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/06/01/part-eighteen-of-the-best-ways-to-create-online-content-easily-quickly/)  

Part Nineteen Of The Best Ways To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly
(http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/06/16/part-nineteen-of-the-best-ways-to-create-online-content-easily-quickly/)

I’ve posted in the past about iCue (http://www.icue.com/) , the new site recently launched by NBC.

They launched an extraordinary new section to the site focused on U.S. History. It’s so good that I’ve added it to The Best Websites For Teaching And Learning About U.S. History that I posted earlier this month.

The enormous number, and quality, of video clips (with transcripts), plus interactive games and exercises, make this a great site for English Language Learners and other students.

I’ve written before about the excellent free bi-weekly email newsletter from Middle Web called “Of Particular Interest.” You can subscribe to it by sending a note to norton@middleweb.com with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line.

That was a preface to an interesting piece in the most recent edition.  Quoting John Norton, Middleweb’s editor: “A recent “practice guide” from the federal National Center for Education Research (http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/pdf/20072004.pdf) distills what its panel of scholarly authors believe are seven of the best research-based instructional strategies teachers can use to improve student learning…Don’t be put off by the lengthy scholarly introduction — skim and skip to
page 4.”

I followed John’s advice and thought that page was interesting.  I’ll be sharing it with colleagues.

Wordle (http://wordle.net/)  lets you either copy and paste or upload text. It then produces a word cloud that give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently. You choose from different formats about how you want your word cloud displayed, and then have them displayed on the website with its own url address.

This could be a fascinating exercise for English Language Learners and other students. Beginning ELL’s could use it to see the importance of learning sight words. Social Studies students could upload speeches by Barack Obama and John McCain and compare the two.

I know there have been other ways to identify high-frequency words from text, but I think Wordle is the easiest and has the most elegant presentation.

The Alt Search Engines blog just posted about a different kind of “search” than they usually do. This one is called Tox Mystery (http://toxmystery.nlm.nih.gov/) , is from the National Library of Medicine, and has the user search for hazardous chemicals within a house.

It’s animated, with audio support for all the text, and is an interactive game. It’s very accessible to English Language Learners.

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

280 Slides (http://280slides.com/)  looks like it might be the newest addition to my The Best Ways To Create Online Slideshows.

I need to explore it further, but I especially like its feature that lets you search for images and videos off the web right inside the slide-show creation process. Except for the wonderful Bookr tool, which is still by far the easiest way to make an online slideshow, all the other sites on my list require that you open up a separate window to search for images in order to get their url address first before you “plug” it in. This feature just makes it easier for English Language Learners and everybody else to create their shows. And 280 Slides has far more “bells and whistles” than Bookr.

You have to register if you want 280 Slides to save your presentation, but the process is simple and quick.

Mingoville (http://www.de.mingoville.com/content/view/13/29/)  is an exceptional site from Denmark designed to teach Beginning English Language Learners. There are many interactive exercises and games, it’s very colorful, and there are both listening and speaking activities. I haven’t explored the site fully, but it has an easy voice recording feature.

You can experiment with it as a guest for a few minutes, but then you have to register. It’s completely free, and registration took about twenty seconds.

It’s so good I’ve placed in on my website under Favorite Sites. In fact, if your students are a little intimidated by having 8,000 categorized sites to choose from on my site, going to Favorite Sites is a good place to start.

Larry Ferlazzo’s Website Update

June 2008 (Part Two)

I’m not including any of my "The Best..." lists (http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/about/websites-of-the-year/)  in this update, but you might want to check-out the latest ones.

Here are my choices for May (they're not in any order of preference):

Tutpup Math & Spelling Games
(http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/05/31/tutpup-math-and-spelling-games/)

Tutpup (http://tutpup.com/)  is a new site where students can compete in math or spelling games against other students from around the world anonymously — either with a made-up name or no name at all.

There are a number of sites where users can compete in learning games like these. The problem I’ve had with them is that there is no way to “level the playing the field.” In other words, an English Language Learner might be playing against a native-English speaker. A situation like that does not create much encouragement for an ELLer if they are going to lose all the time.

However, the key difference between Tutpup and these other sites is that Tutpup has multiple levels of play to choose from going from extremely easy to extremely hard. This ability to choose your level helps a lot.

Plus, there’s some sort of teacher’s option that allows students to sign-up in a class. It’s not clearly explained on the website what this means exactly — can students choose to play online with their classmates? If that were the case, my opinion of Tutpup would increase even more. I’ve emailed them for clarification, and will post their response (assuming I receive one).

Users can register a nickname or they can play without registering. Their spelling game is a good listening exercise, since audio for the word is voiced and the player has to then type the word correctly.

For now, I’ve just placed the link on my Math page.

More About Maintaining A "Good" Class
(http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/05/30/more-about-maintaining-a-good-class/)

This is the third in a series of posts on various positive classroom management strategies and tactics. You can see the rest of the series by clicking here. Though this series is a little different from the rest of my “The Best…” series, they have enough in common for me to include these classroom management posts withing that category.

These are just a few more ways I try to keep my classroom as a close to being a “community of learners” as possible. As I’ve stated in the other two posts on this same topic, I really don’t have to devote much effort to classroom management in my high school ESL classes. However, my mainstream ninth grade English classes are a different story.

Teaching ninth-grade mainstream students in an inner-city high school provides different kinds of challenges than teaching English Language Learners — no better, no worse, just different. And class management can be one of them.

Of course, even with my list of over twenty-five different tools I use, sometimes none of them work. I might just not be using them effectively enough, or maybe there are issues beyond my control that are contributing to the problem (for example, my gender). In my five years of teaching, I’ve had to move two students out to another class because nothing seemed to work. I’ve also had more than two moved into my classroom because of behavior issues elsewhere, and those have worked out fine.

Here are a few more ideas from my classroom management “toolkit”:

HAVING STUDENTS PUT POST-IT NOTES ON THEIR DESKS: For students who have particular challenges, like difficulty focusing or not having much self-control when it comes to speaking without thinking first, I offer the suggestion (which they are free to reject) of their putting a reminder post-it on their desk at the beginning of each class. I have multi-colored post-its that they can choose each day, and they can spend the first two minutes of class (which is usually a time for silent reading) writing and decorating it. Depending on their issue, they might write “FOCUS!” or “THINK!”.

Other times, after a discussion, they might decide on another optional use of post-its. One strategy I’ve used at times is having students write a hash mark on a post-it for every ten or fifteen minutes they feel they’ve been “on-task” and carrying their weight in class. On occasion, I’ve felt like I’ve had to offer a reward of some kind as an incentive, but the vast majority of time this has worked because the student has just wanted to develop more self-control.

SAYING I”M SORRY: It’s not unusual for me to show impatience, make a mistake, accuse a student of doing something when he/she did not, or just have a bad day. My sense is that many of my students have not experienced many adults apologizing to them. Not only does my apology depolarize tension, but I think it’s good modeling behavior as well.

TRYING TO INVOLVE STUDENTS IN DECISIONS TO CHANGE SEATS: I’m often tempted to arbitrarily change a student’s seat because of behavior issues. Sometimes I succumb to that temptation. However, what I try to do instead is engage the student in a conversation about how he or she is doing in class, where he/she wants to be at the end of the school year, and wonder if changing seats might be a tool to help them reach their goal. Generally, after that conversation, they agree, and then I ask them for their suggestions about what they think would be a good place for them to be and why. Usually it works out pretty well.

RECOGNIZING STUDENTS: I don’t know if this activity can be correctly defined as part of a class management strategy, but it does help maintain a positive classroom atmosphere. I can’t remember where I first read about this idea, but every Friday I have a “What I See In You” time. I pick a student, ask him/her to stand, and spend a few minutes sharing what I see in them, examples of their actions, etc. Every student is recognized during the course of the school year, and they seem to like it a lot.

DEVELOPING STUDENT CONTRACTS: Sometimes, particularly when a student’s behavior is worsening, I’ll sit down with him/her to discuss what would make the class work better for him/her and, in turn, what he/she could do to make it work better for me. We’ll then write out a contract which we both sign.

I hope you’ve found these ideas useful. Feel free to contribute classroom management suggestions based on your experience, too.

Beat The Clock
(http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/05/28/beat-the-clock/)

Beat The Clock (http://www.go4english.com/qg/archive.php?cid=10031001)  is a British Council game where the player has to complete a sentence by choosing the right word before the timer runs out.

The games are categorized by theme, and there are tons of them.  They are also labeled by the appropriate English level (beginner, early intermediate, etc.).

I’ve placed the link on my Intermediate English page under Word and Video Games.

Listen And Write
(http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/05/26/listen-and-write/)

Listen and Write (http://www.listen-and-write.com/audio)  is a new web tool that I think has a lot of potential for English Language Learners.

A user first chooses a text he/she wants to hear read to him/her. Many of the choices are from the Voice of America, and are both high-interest and accessible. Their levels of difficulty are also indicated.

Then the story is dictated to you, and you have to type it correctly. You can choose the speed of the reading and how often it’s repeated. When you type only the correct letters actually show-up on the screen, and you can ask for hints.

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

Webon
(http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/05/20/webon/)

Webon (http://www.webon.com/) appears to be, next to Jottit, the easiest website-builder I’ve come across.   I’ve emailed some questions to the company about their features, and until I get those answers I’m not ready to say its better then Jottit, but it is certainly easier to make it look attractive.  It’s unclear to me, though, if you can embed presentations into it.  I’ll let you know what I learn.

(I just heard from Webon, and you can indeed easily used embed codes!)

It’s very easy to grab images off the web and write captions.  One of its features that I like a lot is that your images automatically become a slideshow.  It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles that other slideshow creators have, but it seems to work well enough.

Middlespot
(http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/05/18/middlespot-again/)

I wrote a post a few days ago about Middlespot (http://www.middlespot.com/) , a neat new combination bookmarking and search engine application. I like it a lot, and included a few questions in my post (which I also sent to them) about additional features that would make it great for English Language Learners (and others).

They are planning to add the ability to search and save images, and they hope to do so in the next thirty days. They also are planning on adding an embedding option, so you won’t just have to link to the url of your saved screenshots.

They also graciously pointed out that they already had the biggest option I was concerned about — the ability to write comments on each saved screenshot. Scott Brownlee from Middlespot wrote:

..you can also make a personal comment (annotation) on each screenshot in theworkpad. If you place your mouse cursor over a screenshot in a workpad, a small m will appear that provides you with the ability to comment and delete that result.

Assuming their plans to allow images happen, it’s a safe bet that Middlespot will be ending up on one of my “The Best…” lists soon.

Mapdango
(http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/05/14/mapdango/)

Mapdango (http://www.mapdango.com/)  is called a “mash-up” — a combination of a variety of web applications. It’s a neat geographical and map search engine that, after you enter the location you’re interested in, will show you the area’s weather, areas of interest from Wikipedia, Flickr photos, and other items.

One particularly useful feature is that it shows all of the above connected to its geographical location on a map, too.

It’s a easy way to get a sense of a community. My students will be using it tomorrow to learn a little more about the places where our international sister classes are located.

I’ve placed the link on my website under Sites That Cover Many Areas.

Splashcast & Qlipboard
(http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/05/14/splashcast-qlipboard/)

Ronaldo Lima, Jr., a very talented EFL teacher in Brazil, and my colleague in our growing international Sister Classes Project, wrote a great post in February comparing VoiceThread, Splashcast (http://splashcastmedia.com/)  , and Qlipboard (http://www.qlipmedia.com/) . These are three web applications that, as Ronaldo wrote, “unite pictures and voice in slideshows.”

I’d strongly encourage you to read his comparison of the three sites. I, for one, clearly did not read it very closely.

I say that because I just saw a Splashcast by Sudanese students taught by Hala Fawzi, another participant in the Sister Classes project. It’s a great presentation, and I was surprised to find that you could easily leave audio comments on it. Of course, if I had carefully read Ronaldo’s post from a few months ago, I wouldn’t have been surprised.

I agree with Ronaldo that Splashcast doesn’t seem quite as easy to use as VoiceThread, but it’s nevertheless another viable alternative. One advantage it does have is that you don’t have to be registered with Splashcast in order to leave an audio comment (like you do with VoiceThread). So it’s easier to leave comments. However, it also doesn’t have comment moderation. You can easily delete comments that are left, but you can’t review them before they’re posted.

Ronaldo also wrote about Qlipboard. The last time I had looked at the site, it required a download to use. However, as Ronaldo pointed out, and which I missed, they have since added an online version.

In the online version, you can only use one photo. A major advantage, however, is that you don’t have to register for the site at all. You can just grab the url of an image off the Web, leave a voice commentary (it has a few other features, too), and you get an embed code and a url. Others can leave comments, too, though it doesn’t appear to me to be quite as obvious how to do that as with VoiceThread or Splashcast.

I’ll be posting links to both Splashcast and Qlipboard on Examples of Student Work page. Of course, VoiceThread has been there for quite awhile.

Interested In Joining Our Sister Classes Project In The Fall?
(http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/05/10/interested-in-joining-our-sister-classes-project-in-the-fall/)

I’ve posted before about our Sister Classes Project (http://www.sacbee.com/220/story/846880.html) , where classes of Intermediate English Language Learners ranging from the early teens to the early twenties have exchanged presentations (VoiceThreads, slideshows, etc.) and comments at our Student Showcase blog.  We have teachers from seven countries who participated this semester.

It’s been fairly low-key,  hasn’t taken up an enormous amount of time and been a great experience for students and teachers alike.

It looks like we’ll be starting-up again in the fall, and we’ll be open to additional classes joining us.  Let me know if you might be interested.

Gut Instinct
(http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/05/03/gut-instinct/)

I recently learned, through the blog Primary Teacher UK, about a wonderful new learning game called Gut Instinct (http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/games/gut_instinct/pop.shtml) . It’s from the BBC.

It has questions divided into three categories — English, Math and Science, and is accessible to Intermediate English Language Learners, and maybe even Early Intermediates.

But the exciting feature of the game is that students can super-easily create their own virtual “rooms” for between two-and-thirty people where they can compete with their peers. Players also can compete with everyone who’s playing at the same time. However, it’s probably going to be less energizing for English Language Learners to compete with native English-speakers, so getting to choose to play with their friends is a a great option.

All they have to do is all type in the name of their room (or “league”), choose their avatar and nickname, and the game begins.

I’m placing the link under Word and Video Games on my website.

Explore A Pyramid
(http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/04/28/explore-a-pyramid/)

National Geographic has an interactive exercise where the “player” operates a robot to remotely Explore A Pyramid (http://www.mywonderfulworld.org/toolsforadventure/games/pyramid.html) .

I’ve placed the link on my World History page under The First Civilized People.

Larry Ferlazzo’s Website Update

June, 2008

The craziness of the end of the school year is rapidly approaching, and I thought I’d get this newsletter out early.

I’ve compiled quite a few new “The Best…” lists since the last update went-out, all of which are too lengthy to include in an email.  Instead, below you’ll find links to fifteen of the newest “The Best…” lists.

I’ll try to get out another update later in June that’s a more typical update with ten specific new websites I’ve posted about.

The Best Websites For Creating Online Learning Games
(http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/04/21/the-best-websites-for-creating-online-learning-games/)

The Best Sites For Students To Easily Create & Display Online Projects  (http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/04/23/the-best-sites-for-students-to-easily-create-display-online-projects/)

The Best Popular Movies/TV Shows For ESL/EFL
(http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/04/26/the-best-popular-moviestv-shows-for-eslefl/)

The Best Sites To Learn About U.S. Presidential Elections
(http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/04/27/the-best-sites-to-learn-about-us-presidential-elections/)   

The Best Resource Sites For ESL/EFL Teachers
(http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/04/29/the-best-resource-sites-for-eslefl-teachers/)

The Best Ways To Keep-Up With Current Education Issues
(http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/05/01/the-best-ways-to-keep-up-with-current-education-issues/)

The Best Ways To Keep-Up With Current ELL/ESL/EFL News & Research
(http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/05/01/the-best-ways-to-keep-up-with-current-elleslefl-news-research/)   

The Best Sites For Learning Economics & Practical Money Skills
(http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/05/04/the-best-sites-for-learning-economics-practical-money-skills/)

The Best Websites To Teach & Learn Life Skills
(http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/05/04/the-best-websites-to-teach-learn-life-skills/)

The Best Ways To Create Online Slideshows
(http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/05/06/the-best-ways-to-create-online-slideshows/)  

The Best Ways For Students To Create Online Animations
(http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/05/11/the-best-ways-for-students-to-create-online-animations/)

Part Fifteen Of The Best Ways To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly
(http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/05/07/part-fifteen-of-the-best-ways-to-create-online-content-easily-quickly/)

Part Sixteen Of The Best Ways To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly
(http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/05/14/part-sixteen-of-the-best-ways-to-create-online-content-easily-quickly/)

The Best Ways For Students To Create Online Videos (Using Someone Else’s Content)
(http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/05/14/the-best-ways-for-students-to-create-online-videos-using-someone-else%e2%80%99s-content/)  

The Best Websites For Teaching & Learning About World History
(http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/05/17/the-best-websites-for-teaching-learning-about-world-history/)