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

Each week, I publish a post or two containing three or four particularly useful resources on classroom instruction, and you can see them all here.

You can also see all my “Best” lists on instructional strategies here.

Here are this week’s picks:

I like the Poetry Comic Strips described in 6 Cool Visual Thinking Activities That Strengthen Student Writing. I’m adding it to The Best World Poetry Day Resources – Help Me Find More.

An Active Learning Strategy for Using Videos in Class is from Edutopia.

I wonder when they’ll try to do this with teachers? https://t.co/MIYzeNxOvk

— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) February 26, 2026

Checking for understanding that leads to action: adaptive teaching is from The Education Endowment Foundation.

I am really proud of these two tools. Totally cost-free and ad-free. I hope you and your students find them useful. https://t.co/6wUa5WD7rp

— Craig Barton (@mrbartonmaths) February 26, 2026

How Should We Plan Reading Comprehension Lessons? is by Timothy Shanahan. I’m adding it to The Best Posts On Reading Strategies & Comprehension – Help Me Find More!.

A Low-Stakes Public-Speaking Game for High School Students is from Edutopia.

     

Not Every Instructional Strategy Is a Winner. What to Use and What to Drop is the headline of one of my recent Education Week columns.

Educators share the approaches that have been ineffective and those that have proved successful.

Here are some excerpts:

     

I’ll be interviewing Dr. Marie Heath, and be joined by Carol Salva and others, at this free webinar on September 29th, 3:30 Pacific Time, webinar.

You can learn more about it – and register – here.

The research is pretty settled on the importance of students feeling a sense of belonging at school, and it’s particularly critical for our ELL students in this political climate.

You might also be interested in THE BEST RESOURCES FOR LEARNING HOW TO PROMOTE A SENSE OF “BELONGING” AT SCHOOL.

     

The New York Times published a very interesting article yesterday, In the Age of A.I., Some in China Wonder if Learning English Is Worth the Trouble.

I think it’s warning that international educators of English should take seriously, and one that ELL teachers here in the United States should, as well.

I’ve posted a lot about how teachers can incorporate Artificial Intelligence in language instruction (in fact, I think it’s one of the very few areas in education that AI use can benefit students).

And I’ve also written a fair amount about how AI is going to require ELL teachers to radically restructure how we teach English. I STILL Think Teachers Of Intermediate & Advanced ELLs Should Consider Radically Redesigning Their Classes is my most recent article.

Katie Hull and I share a lot more about that in our forthcoming third edition of The ESL/ELL Teacher’s Survival Guide, which will be coming out early next year.

I also think it’s connected to the many posts I’ve published highlighting research that a primary focus on reclassifying ELLs is misguided.  You can find many of those articles near the bottom of The Best Resources For Learning About The Ins & Outs Of Reclassifying ELLs.

     

NWimagesbySabrinaE / Pixabay

When I would get a new student into my ELL classes, one of the assessments I always did was have them read a short passage out load to me to give me a sense of their English reading proficiency.

Here are the places where I would get those passages though, of course, you can always just have an AI chatbot generate one for you (you also be interested in The Best Resources On Reading Fluency (Including How To Measure It)):

Edhelper was always my favorite, though you have to pay a few bucks for a subscription.

Reading is Fundamental

And that’s about it.  I guess this is a short-and-sweet “Best” list!

Addendum:  If you are going to use AI to create text for these assessments, I would recommend you check out these two Ed Week articles:

More Kids Are Learning to Read on AI-Generated Text. What Are the Pros and Cons?

Using AI-Generated Text in Reading Class? Watch for These Pitfalls