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

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Here’s my regular round-up of new “The Best…” lists I posted this month (you can see all 2,540 of them categorized here – you might also want to check out THREE ACCESSIBLE WAYS TO SEARCH FOR & FIND MY “BEST” LISTS).

Here are the lists from this month:

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

The Best Resources For Helping Teach About The 250th Anniversary Of The American Revolution

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

     

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:

Slate has begun an online word game called “Pears” that may or may offer an idea adaptable to the ELL classroom. First, you’re given six letters and have to create as many words as you can from then. Next, you’re given a two letter combo, and you have to use that combo and the other six letters to create a longer word.

Here’s a video ELLs can watch and write and talk about what they saw:

 

I’m adding this video to The Best Resources For Using “If This Animal Or Image Could Talk” Lesson Idea In Class:

 

The ten cornerstones of effective listening instruction is from The Language Gym.

From Idea to Draft: Scaffolded ESL Writing with Writing Sparks and Kiddle is from FLTMag.

Questions to Ask About Your Multilingual Students is from Edutopia.

What does research say about automatic speech recognition (ASR) tools on pronunciation training in ESL/EFL contexts?

This infographic summarises evidence from 38 studies.

🧑‍🏫 ASR is particularly effective for adult learners & intermediate Ss.

👨‍🏫 Ts can integrate ASR with… https://t.co/PqEpg0Tcww pic.twitter.com/wUy3emm2LL

— TESOLgraphics (@tesolgraphics) August 3, 2025

Here’s another video that ELLs can watch and then talk/write about what they saw:

 

Here’s another video for ELL students:

 

How to Teach Listening, Step-by-Step is from The Barefoot TEFL Teacher.

     

I regularly highlight my picks for the most useful posts for each month — not including “The Best…” lists. I also use some of them in a more extensive monthly newsletter I send-out. You can see older Best Posts of the Month at Websites Of The Month (more recent lists can be found here).

You can also see my all-time favorites here. I’ve also been doing “A Look Back” series reviewing old favorites, too.

Here are some of the posts I personally think are the best, and most helpful, ones I’ve written during this past month (not in any order of preference) – also note that I group many updates on the Trump administration’s current attack on education and democracy in weekly posts you can find here):

“Time Travel App” Is A Cool Tool For Visualizing World History

Shocking (NOT) Research Result – SEL Can’t Mitigate The Affects Of Poverty On Academic Achievement

“The Globe Of History” Is An Intriguing Tool For Learning About…History

Sentences Of The Week This is a new cool weekly feature I’ve begun publishing.

Great Free Curriculum For ELL Newcomers

“Vocab.top” Seems Like A Particularly Good Multilingual Dictionary

Wow! How Have I Never Heard Of These Videos For English Language Learners From Chasing Time English?

New Study Suggests The Main Reason Students May Find Math – Or Any Other Subject – Challenging Is Because They Don’t Know How To Handle Mistakes

Trump Administration Not Satisfied With Traumatizing Students Through ICE Raids & Cutting Their Food Stamps, Now They Want To Throw Them Out of Their Homes

Edward Deci, Researcher & Developer Of Many Strategies On Creating The Conditions For Intrinsic Motivation, Has Died

“Odyssey” Is An AI-Powered Video Tool That Could Be Useful To English Language Learners

“LineSpeak” Is An AI Tool To Assess Pronunciation & It Seems To Have A Generous Free Plan

Yet Another Reason Why People Still Complaining About Physical School Closures During COVID Need To Get A Life

“LingoLingo” MIGHT Have A Lot Of Potential For English Language Learners

New Study Finds Learning Another Language Slows Down Ageing Of Your Brain

Google Just Created A New AI Tool That Is Perfect For Teachers Of ELL Newcomers

Recommendations For Teachers From A Study On How To Enhance Student Motivation

Survey Finds Parents/Guardians More Likely To Respond To Messages About Absences Early In AM Or Later Afternoon

“Uttered” Might Become A Decent Video Option For English Language Learners

Another Article On Using Visualization To Help Further Success

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

Some Studies Say That AI Tutors Are Supposedly Effective, But For Whom?

If I Was Still Teaching, I’d Use This Writing Prompt As Part Of My Unit On Artificial Intelligence

I Benefited A Lot From Reading This Piece About AI In Education, & I Think All Educators Could, Too

Must Watch Video: “ICE Took Their Classmate. They Started Writing Letters.”

I Wish Some Ed “Reformers” Would Stop Already With Their Pushing For Videotaping All Classrooms, All The Time

I Just Don’t Understand How Some Major Education Organizations Cannot Speak Out Against Trump Administration Actions

Here’s My One Idea For How To Be An “Education Governor” Or Even An “Education Leader” In 2026

Take A Chill Pill On “Grade Inflation,” Please

“Why Do I Have to Learn About Science? Tips for Helping Students See Why It Matters”

“AI Is Different From Other Ed Tech. Here’s How”

“If You Avoid Conversations About Race and Gender, You’re ‘Abandoning’ Students”

“What Should SEL Look Like in the Classroom?”

“In These Troubled Times, Chris Emdin Urges Educators to Restore the Sacred Art of Teaching”

“Teaching Students How Today’s Events Parallel History”

“How Can Educators Teach in These Turbulent Times?”

“How to Stop Hemorrhaging Teachers”

     

Mohamed_hassan / Pixabay

I often write about research studies from various fields and how they can be applied to the classroom. I write individual posts about ones that I think are especially significant, and will continue to do so. However, so many studies are published that it’s hard to keep up. So I’ve started writing a “round-up” of some of them each week or every other week as a regular feature.

You can see all my “Best” lists related to education research here.

Here are some new useful studies (and related resources):

The Extent of Student Mobility Among Vulnerable Groups in California is from EDWorkingPapers.

My favourite study. For those following along. This comes from p. 110 of https://t.co/wAhQ39QlhR pic.twitter.com/DpkVt39GWh

— Christian Bokhove (@cbokhove) August 5, 2025

The Work of Raj Chetty is from Homo Economicus, and contains useful commentary on his education studies. I’ve shared a fair amount about those studies over the years.

“Controlling for rich measures of cognitive and personality skills and social background, we find substantial benefits [of scholastic athletics] at all levels. Participation in athletics promotes social mobility for disadvantaged and minority students.” https://t.co/ehIto6O9zx pic.twitter.com/NG4Rc2KDDA

— Daniel Willingham (@DTWillingham) August 12, 2025

Professors on average have decent understanding of which pedagogical techniques are effective, but education professors are on average the worst at this. 😂 https://t.co/6PgQh4y9Yd pic.twitter.com/EV0O4A7voP

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 13, 2025

Periodic reminder that the famous study on the superiority of handwritten over digital notes was based on a sample of n = 65 and the key finding that handwritten note-taking leads to deeper encoding has failed to replicate. #learning #psych pic.twitter.com/GF3KlYlZgC

— AJ Thurston, PhD (@AJThurston) August 15, 2025

The one about effort being contagious: Studies every teacher needs to knowhttps://t.co/cjrmGuCqWs pic.twitter.com/N5f7Ttn4BR

— InnerDrive (@Inner_Drive) August 16, 2025

     

The Globe of History, like some similar 3D globe tools, lets you use a slider to choose the year and then shows you markers. Once you click on the markers, it will tell you what happened there at that time.

Google Maps Mania describes how this part of it is a little different:

While many history maps pull raw facts from Wikipedia or Wikidata, the creators of Globe of History have built a multi-stage pipeline to turn this information into structured, readable narratives. Using AI, this system expands the raw data into more detailed historical summaries, which are then cross-referenced using AI-driven fact-checking to double-check the generated text.

I’m adding it to The Best Websites For Teaching & Learning About World History.