"Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day…" - 5 new articles

I’m adding this Dan Pink video to The Best Posts & Articles On Building Influence & Creating Change:

 

     

It’s time for another mid-year “Best” list.

Nine years ago I began publishing a regular Classroom Instruction Resources Of The Week post.  You can see all my “Best” lists on instructional strategies here.

Here are my choices from the past few months:

The Best Resources On The Gradual Release Of Responsibility Framework – And Its Variations

This Short Piece On Student Engagement Is Worth Reading & Would Be Worth A Faculty Discussion

The NY Times Tiny Memoir Contest Is The BEST – & You Can Use Their Materials & Models Anytime Of The Year

Inductive Teaching Has Always Been An Effective Strategy, Perhaps Even More So In The AI Era

UCLA Unveils Free Online Multimedia High School Textbook About Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders

Here’s A List Of “Interactive Teaching Methods” A New Study Has Found Effective In Social Studies Classes

This Is Pretty Interesting: Meta-Analyses Ranking Instructional Math Strategies

This Idea Of Beginning Lessons With A “Micro-Inquiry” Is A Good One, & I Like This Free AI Tool Designed To Create Them

How Did I Not Know That The PBS NewsHour Publishes A “Daily News Lesson” …Daily?

“Podcasting Democracy” Looks Like A Good Curriculum For Teaching The Constitution – It’s From San Francisco’s Public Television Station

I Would Have Students Read This Article On Ways To Learn Better & Then Respond To This Prompt

The Best Resources For Helping Students Understand The Impact Their Behavior Has On Classmates

A Good Assignment, With An Important Caveat

I Think It’s Okay Not To Teach Whole Novels In High School

The Power Of Affirmation In The Classroom

NBA Coach Echoes Rita Person’s Famous Line About Teaching

Project Zero, One Of My Favorite Teaching Resources, Unveils Spiffy New Website

The Best Resources For Using “Reactance” With Students To Help Them Learn About How Corporations Try To Manipulate Them

Here’s The Table Of Contents For Our New Book

Another Article On Using Visualization To Help Further Success

The Best Ideas For Teaching About Bad Bunny & His Super Bowl Halftime Show

The National Center for Civil and Human Rights Offers Great Lesson Materials For Free

I Love These “Game Poems” & Think They Would Be Great Models For Students Creating Their Own

The “Best” Lesson Ideas For Teaching About The Protests & Killings In Minneapolis

Here’s Advice I Gave To My Student Teacher Grandson This Week About Student Engagement

Two New (To Me, At Least) Sites For Excellent Free Lesson Plans

The Best Lesson Ideas About The U.S. Intervention In Venezuela

Video: “Proof” Is An Amazing Poem Written For The Inauguration Of Mayor Zohran Mamdani

Small Slights Matter – This Workplace Research Has SO Much Relevance To The Classroom

Meaningful feedback is by Jo Castelino. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning How To Best Give Feedback To Students.

At 250, the Declaration of Independence Still Sparks Hard Questions in Class is from The 74. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Helping Teach About The 250th Anniversary Of The American Revolution.

Elevating Tier 1 Instruction With Differentiated Small Groups is from Edutopia. I’m adding it to The Best Resources On Differentiating Instruction.

Boosting Engagement in Biology With Storylines is from Edutopia. I’m adding it to A BEGINNING LIST OF THE BEST RESOURCES ON TELLING STORIES WHEN WE TEACH.

Free Decodable Texts for Each Phonics Skill is from Reading Universe. I’m adding it to The Best Articles & Sites For Teachers & Students To Learn About Phonics.

The Claims of Close Reading appeared in The Boston Review. I’m adding it to The Best Resources On “Close Reading” — Help Me Find More.

Rethinking the KWL Chart + 8 ideas for working with conceptual organizers is from the University of Toronto. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About The Importance Of Prior Knowledge (& How To Activate It).

How Student-Led IEP Meetings Promote Self-Advocacy is from Edutopia. I’m adding it to THE BEST RESOURCES ABOUT IEPS.

Provide Models is from DistillED. I’m adding it to THE BEST RESOURCES TO LEARN ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF TEACHER MODELING.

7 Teaching Practices that Nurture Student Voice is from Cult Of Pedagogy. I’m adding it to The Best Resources On Student Agency & How To Encourage It.

Using Tech Tools to Amplify Classroom Thinking Routines is from Edutopia. I’m adding it to THE BEST RESOURCES FOR LEARNING ABOUT PROJECT ZERO’S THINKING ROUTINES.

Before You Decorate Your Classroom, Here’s a Better Idea appeared in Cult of Pedagogy. I’m adding it to SOME OF THE BEST RESOURCES ON SUPPORTING & VALUING STUDENTS’ IDENTITIES.

5 ways to boost reading fluency for middle and high school students is from Teach Learn Grow. I’m adding it to The Best Resources On Reading Fluency (Including How To Measure It).

Peer tutoring helps students while saving schools money is from Ed Source. I’m adding it to THE BEST RESOURCES ON PEER TUTORS.

How to get the most out of student grouping is from Teach Learn Grow. I’m adding it to  Best Posts On The Basics Of Small Groups In The Classroom.

A Simple Visual Routine to Help Students Engage With Poetry is from Edutopia. I’m adding it to The Best World Poetry Day Resources – Help Me Find More.

Assessment: The bridge between teaching and learning is by Dylan Wiliam. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About Formative Assessment.

Ramping Up Relevance With Community-Centered Learning is from Edutopia. I’m adding it to The Best Ideas For Helping Students Connect Lessons To Their Interests & The World.

A Tool to Help Students Navigate Difficult Text is from Middleweb. I’m adding it to The Best Resources On “Close Reading” — Help Me Find More.

Scaffolding Strategies to Teach Challenging Text is from Middleweb. I’m adding it to The Best Resources On Providing Scaffolds To Students.

6 Active Reading Strategies to Engage Students (DOWNLOADABLE) is from Ed Week. I’m adding it to The Best Posts On Reading Strategies & Comprehension – Help Me Find More!

Math is creative? Yes! 4 ways to encourage creativity in math class is from Teach Learn Grow. I’m adding it to The Best Apps, Online Tools & Other Resources For Math.

From Superheroes to Taylor Swift: Using Students’ Passions to Ignite Learning is from Edutopia. I’m adding it to The Best Ideas For Helping Students Connect Lessons To Their Interests & The World.

     

For the next several months, each week I’ll be republishing posts from the past that I think readers might still find useful.  This post first appeared in 2019.

I’ve written a lot – both here and in my books – about teaching and learning inductively (see The Best Resources About Inductive Learning & Teaching).

One inductive strategy is the use of data sets – a list of short passages (ranging from one sentence to a paragraph) which students categorize and then add new information to those categories.  They can then do a variety of follow-up options, including turning those categories into paragraphs and those paragraphs into an essay.

You can find tons of data set examples in my books and in that “Best” list (including at my ASCD Educational Leadership article, Get Organized Around Assets, and at one of my NY Times pieces.

One of the goals of using these kinds of data sets and the inductive process is to help give students one simple strategy they can use when they have to write essays for our class and other classes.

As students have shared on this blog in the past, they appear to have found it very helpful.

In my Long-Term English Language Learner support class, we’ve been using a data set about Kenya from their Geography test to learn this process. They followed it to write an essay about Kenya.

Now, they get to choose their own topic (subject to my approval) and, using the process I scrawled (with student assistance in reconstructing the steps they used to write their Kenya essay) on the sheet of paper pictured at the top of this blog post, get to write an essay. The sheet uses the topic of cars as an example of how they can construct their essay.

My handwriting ain’t pretty, but it gets the job done 🙂

This instructional strategy, I think, is a good example of transfer of knowledge – applying the skill you learned in one context to another one.

If you’d like a refresher on transfer of knowledge, check out this animated video I did on the topic with Education Week:

 

     

Eight years ago I began this regular feature where I share a few posts and resources from around the Web related to ESL/EFL or to language in general that have caught my attention.

You might also be interested in all my Best lists on teaching ELLs.

Also, check out A Collection Of My Best Resources On Teaching English Language Learners.

In addition, look for our latest book on teaching ELLs, The ELL Teacher’s Toolbox 2.0.

Here are this week’s choices:

Here’s a recent issue of my favorite ELL journal, Humanising Language Teaching.

Grammar: Used to, Get used to, Be Used To. Mixing Tradition and the Power of AI is from The Blog de Cristina.

From Classroom to Supermarket is from TESL blog.

Science of Reading for ELLs and MLs is from the New York State Education Department. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About Balanced Literacy & The “Reading Wars”

Stop Teaching Word Lists: Webb’s Research Proves There’s a Better Way is from The Language Gym.

What does research say about using computer-mediated collaborative writing (CMCW) in synchronous/anachronous way?

This infographic summarises evidence from 113 studies.

🧑‍🏫 Employing technological tools can enable Ts to assign a range of multimodal writing tasks, e.g. poster… https://t.co/Yo4nAKsmi5 pic.twitter.com/jLsgm0ar6E

— TESOLgraphics (@tesolgraphics) December 9, 2025

Dozens of community members ask the Detroit school district to offer more support to newcomers and English learners.

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— Chalkbeat (@chalkbeat.org) December 9, 2025 at 7:01 PM

Supporting English Learners in General Education Classrooms is from The American Educator. I’m adding it to The Best Advice To Content Teachers About Supporting English Language Learners.

How a Podcast Gives Newcomer Students a Platform, and a Path to Belonging is from Ed Week.

     

For the next several months, each week I’ll be republishing posts from the past that I think readers might still find useful.  This post first appeared in 2019.

Clker-Free-Vector-Images / Pixabay

The Pudding regularly publishes excellent infographics.

This month, they shared two exceptional ones related to United States History.

One they title A brief history of the past 100 YEARS as told through the New York Times archives. It shares very brief summaries of each decade based on which topics received the most coverage in The NY Times.

That one’s good, but this next one is fantastic.

It’s called This is a chart about the world through the eyes of the US. They analyzed NY Times headlines from the past 120 years and created an interactive showing which country received the most attention month-by-month. It would be a great tool in a U.S. History class.

I’m adding this info to The Best Websites For Teaching & Learning About U.S. History.