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"Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day…" - 5 new articles
Sentences Of The Week geralt / Pixabay
I thought readers might, or might not, find this new regular post useful. Each week, I highlight several sentences, with links to their sources, that I find interesting/concerning/useful. And they may, or may not, be directly connected to education. I may also include my own comments or related links. This regular post will join my other regular ones on teaching ELLs, education policy, Artificial Intelligence, infographics, and Pinterest highlights, not to mention sharing of my regular Education Week posts. Here are this week’s sentences: Kane doesn’t find a strong correlation between states’ reading gains since 2022 and the number of science-of-reading elements they’ve incorporated. See The Best Resources For Learning About Balanced Literacy & The “Reading Wars” So engagement may not cause a kid to learn more on Tuesday’s quiz. But it may be the reason they show up on Wednesday at all. See The Best Posts & Articles On Student Engagement Combining new and historical survey data stretching back to the 1990s, I find that Democratic voters have become wildly more supportive of teachers unions over the past decade. See The Best Resources For Learning Why Teachers Unions Are Important Perhaps the most striking finding from our survey is how strongly student engagement predicts attendance. Teens who say they care “a lot” about how they do in school miss about 10 fewer days per year than peers who say they care less. See The Best Resources On Student Absenteeism Ante-ChatGPT, more than ninety-eight per cent of all English-language articles being published on the internet were written by humans. By the fall of 2024, machines were writing around half of such articles. “94.7 percent of kids’ books are crud.” Janai Nelson, who as president and director-counsel of the Legal Defense Fund argued the Callais case before the Supreme Court, told me that the court had greenlit a sort of wink-and-nod colorblindness, where majority-Black districts are automatically suspect but a legislative body can create voting maps where no Black people are elected, and as long as they do not say they are doing that for racist reasons, the Constitution is fine with that. Like J.R.R. Tolkien’s One Ring, AI convinces many of those who use it that they can control its power properly. But can they? “They are cementing absolute minority control because they do not represent a majority of this country. And when they — if they — get away with the heist, we will be locked out of multiracial democracy for at least a generation.” Now, online classes are a simulacrum of education: the students pretend to learn, and I have to pretend that I am teaching them something. People are sick of being told that these technologies are inevitable, particularly when they can see, because they have experienced, the damage they are causing (all while these technologies are generating the wild profits for a small handful of billionaires). The core spiritual challenge now, Leo writes, is the dehumanization of human beings — by flattening their differences, reducing them to “data and performance,” turning them into means, working endlessly to perfect them. Are they weaving those relationships together or pulling them apart? Resort to real-time translation software and what remains is information, not expression. “The leader knows that people are going to be more likely to be loyal if they don’t have many other career options, so when I say losers, I kind of mean it literally,” she said. It was time that saved me.
     Classroom Instruction Resources Of The Week
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: 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.
Standards-aligned, Culturally and Linguistically Relevant Open Educational Resources (OER) for New Mexico contains some decent resources. Cold Calling is from DistillED. 3 Ways to Prime Students’ Brains for Achievement is from Edutopia. 6 Ways to Maximize Turn and Talk is from Edutopia. 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. I’m adding this tweet to The Best Posts & Articles About Asking Good Questions — Help Me Find More:
 Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL
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: One Simple Shift is from Helping Multilinguals Thrive. ELL students can watch these videos and then talk/write about what they saw:   Adapting Gradual Release of Responsibility for English Language Learners is from Edutopia. Tic Tac Toe Writing Challenge, Cristina’s Style is from Blog de Cristina.
I’m adding this tweet to The Best Resources For Learning About Total Physical Response (TPR):
Literacy and Multilingual Learners is a useful Padlet from Valentina Gonzalez. Persuading the Peculiar: a Speaking Game is from On the Same Page. Assessing multilingual learners: How to make informed decisions about home language testing is from Teach Learn Grow. Developing Reading Fluency in the MFL Classroom: What Cutting-Edge Research Tells Us and Implications for GCSE exam preparation is from The Language Gym. Employing AI in ESL Classrooms: Assumptions, Development, and the Use of AI-Integrated Writing Tasks shares a study using something like I did in the classroom – having students use AI to create and refine videos to develop their writing skills.  “Cool History Games” Is A Nice Collection Of … History Games
Cool History Games is a nice collection of ad-free games students can play with no registration required. They would be easy to play by projecting them on the front classroom whiteboard and have students divided into groups with mini-whiteboards. Then, just keep track of points. Then you’ve got a nice way to end class on a Friday!  Ed Tech Digest
Ten years ago, in another somewhat futile attempt to reduce the backlog of resources I want to share, I began this occasional “Ed Tech Digest” post where I share three or four links I think are particularly useful and related to…ed tech, including some Web 2.0 apps. You might also be interested in checking out all my edtech resources. Here are this week’s choices: FlashDrop lets you share large files for free. I’m adding it to THE BEST TOOLS FOR SENDING LARGE FILES. Mock Social lets you create fake text chats. I’m adding it to The Best Tools For Creating Fake “Stuff” For Learning. Forty News tells you about major events that took place on each day forty years ago. I’m adding it to The Best “Today In History” Sites. This is from Recommendo: MyTaxReceipt shows you a breakdown of how your U.S. federal taxes get spent — enter your Zip code and the amount you paid in Federal taxes (or you can use the default average for your Zip code). It generates a receipt-style summary showing what portion goes to defense, healthcare, interest on debt, and dozens of other categories. It’s eye-opening to see actual dollar amounts. The site also lets you message Congress about your spending priorities with one click. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About Taxes. DeskCap is a free screen recorder. I’m adding it to The Best Tools For Making Screencasts.  More Recent Articles |
