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"Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day…" - 5 new articles
April 29th Is The “Day of Remembrance for all Victims of Chemical Warfare” – Here Are Teaching & Learning Resources OpenClipart-Vectors / Pixabay
The United Nations has declared April 29th to be the “Day of Remembrance for all Victims of Chemical Warfare.” You might be interested in The Best Resources For Learning & Teaching About About The Dangers & History Of Chemical Weapons.      This Is Pretty Interesting: Meta-Analyses Ranking Instructional Math Strategies
In Teaching By Science, a post reviewed 44 meta-analyses on math instruction. You can see all of its results here. The image above shows the strategies it suggests showed a “very large effect.” I didn’t even understand what two of them were – use of heuristics and 7E Instructional Model NS. So I looked them up.
Here’s what I found about heuristics: At its most basic, a heuristic is “a short cut in problem solving; it is a rule for reducing the number of mental operations (or information-processing steps) taken to solve a problem” (Gray, 1994, p. 395). Sometimes heuristics are taught by teachers, sometimes students come across them on their own. It is important to note that heuristics are general strategies that a student can use on their own to help identify and solve a math problem (Gersten et al., 2009). Peer tutoring, a simplification of the problem by the teacher, or the use of math implements (such as a calculator or ruler) are not considered heuristics. Neither are algorithms – for example, the slope intercept equation (y = mx+b) is not considered a heuristic (Siew, Hedberg, & Lioe, 2005). A general heuristic might be something like (Gersten et al., 2009): Read the problem.
Here’s what I learned about the 7E Instructional Model NS: The 7 Es stand for the following. Elicit, Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Extend and Evaluate. The following explanation is my take on the 7Es that has been adapted from the BSCS 5E Engage, explore, explain, elaborate, evaluate.
There are some concerns about the use of meta-analyses, but they can still be very useful. If I was a math instructor, I’d carefully review the entire list.  Every ELL Teacher In The U.S. Will Want To Read These Results From An Ed Week Survey On Teaching English Learners
Education Week has just published two articles summarizing results of their survey on English Language Learner teaching in the United States: How Schools Serve English Learners Today, in Charts What Educators Say English Learners Need Most And every ELL educator in the U.S. will want to read them. Not because it will share any information that will be new to them. None of the results will be any surprise at all to any ELL teacher. But they will certainly feel like their perspectives are being validated. And, more importantly, their sharing the articles with administrators and colleagues might prompt them to make some changes in how they look at and work with ELLs. I’m adding this info to: The Best Ways To Keep-Up With Current ELL/ESL/EFL News & Research The Best Posts On Looking At Our Students Through The Lens Of Assets & Not Deficits (because of the quote at the top of the post)  Today Is “World Book & Copyright Day,” “World Book Night” & “UN English Language Day” – Here Are The Best Resources For Them LubosHouska / Pixabay
The UN and UNESCO say today is both “World Book & Copyright Day” and “UN English Language Day.” It’s also celebrated in some countries, particularly in the UK, as “World Book Night.” Here’s an explanation from My English Club about UN English Language Day: English, along with French, is one of the two working languages of the United Nations, and one of the Organization’s six official languages. Because it is so widely spoken, English is often referred to as a “world language”, or the lingua franca of the modern era. English Language Day at the UN is celebrated on 23 April, the date traditionally observed as the birthday of William Shakespeare. The Day is the result of a 2010 initiative by the Department of Public Information, establishing language days for each of the Organization’s six official languages. The purpose of the UN’s language days is to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity as well as to promote equal use of all six official languages throughout the Organization. Under the initiative, UN duty stations around the world celebrate six separate days, each dedicated to one of the Organization’s six official languages. The days are as follows: Arabic (18 December)
Here are some resources on both of these days: World Book Night: Leading authors line up for ‘sacred’ celebration is from The Guardian, which also has a whole collection of resources. Southern Californians ready for latest chapter of World Book Night is from The LA Times. The Best Videos Documenting The History Of The English Language Here’s the UN’s official announcement of language days. “Best” Lists Of The Week: Resources For Reading Instruction The Joy of Books is from Film English. Additional suggestions are welcome.  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: Native Words, Native Warriors is from The National Museum of the American Indian. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About The Code Talkers. How to study using the Production Effect is from InnerDrive. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Helping Students Learn How Best To Study.
The visual rubrics discussed in this video seem very interesting, but it also appears like it would be a lot of work for the teacher:  I’m adding it to The Best Rubric Sites (And A Beginning Discussion About Their Use). Overcoming Student Fears Surrounding Class Discussions is from Edutopia. I’m adding it to The Best Resources Sharing The Best Practices For Fruitful Classroom Discussions.
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