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

OpenClipart-Vectors / Pixabay

This could be a useful video in World History:

 

     

geralt / Pixabay

I’ve somewhat skeptical of the way many so-called “gifted and talented” programs are set-up.

I love the way the International Baccalaureate program runs at my old high school.  Yes, we have IB Diploma candidates who take all IB classes.  But anyone else can opt into taking any IB class, and we specifically recruit students who are not taking any IB courses.

Here are some useful perspectives on these kinds of programs:

Why America’s Debate Over Which Children Are ‘Gifted’ Won’t Go Away www.nytimes.com/2025/10/27/n…

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— Larry Ferlazzo (@larryferlazzo.bsky.social) October 27, 2025 at 6:51 AM

Schools Grapple With a Hard Problem: Who Is Gifted? is from The NY Times.

Our Smartest Little Babies: The many ways we’ve tried to identify gifted 4-year-olds, and how they’ve failed. is from Slate.

I Was Enrolled In A “Gifted” Program As A Kid. Years Later, I Discovered A Dark Side I Never Knew About. is from BuzzFeed.

Public Attitudes Towards Gifted Education is from IAEP.

Young, Gifted, and Black: Inequitable Outcomes of Gifted and Talented Programs is from The Journal of Public and International Affairs.

US Schools Debate Gifted and Talented Programs is from Voice Of America.

Pros and Cons of Gifted Learning Programs in Schools is from Education Corner.

Should We Still Label Children as ‘Gifted’? is from The NY Times Learning Network.

     

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 2016.

As regular readers know, I’m a big fan of students teaching their classmates, and tons of research backs-up the value of that practice (see The Best Posts On Helping Students Teach Their Classmates — Help Me Find More).

This past week was the most recent time I applied this idea in my classes.

I simultaneously teach World History and U.S. History English Language Learner classes (fortunately, this year I have the help of a student teacher – it gets a bit hectic when one is not around). World History students learned about World War I a couple of weeks prior to the U.S. History class getting there. So the World History students divided into pairs to prepare a short unit made-up of a cloze (also known as a “gap-fill” or “fill-in-the-blank” – see The Best Tools For Creating Clozes (Gap-Fills)); a data set, which is a series of short texts that students categorize and supplement with more information they find (see The Best Resources About Inductive Learning & Teaching); and a “Make-and-Break,” a term coined by my friend and mentor Kelly Young to describe a simple sequencing activity.

Here is the entire prep and planning packet used by my World History students, which also included a requirement to prepare teaching “moves” and a lesson plan. The process is easily adaptable to just about any topic or subject area. It’s somewhat similar to a lesson you’ll find in one of my student motivation books.

I gave students four days to prepare the unit, including making a master packet and multiple copies of student hand-outs for when they taught. Here is an example of one of the master packets prepared by a group of students.

Fortunately, we were able to use the library for our three days of teaching. U.S. History students were divided into seven groups, as were the World History students. Each group was assigned to a table, and each day the World History group taught one of the three lessons. At the end of each day, the U.S. History students would do some reading in their textbook for a few minutes while I met with the World History class to review the lesson for the following day.

It all went very well. The U.S. History students are eager now to “turn-the-tables,” and both classes will be using the same process on a historical topic of their choice for part of their final “exam” – a “Genius Hour” version (see The Best Resources For Applying “Fed Ex Days” (Also Known As “Genius Hours”) To Schools).

Here are a few reflective comments by my World History students:

When I teach, I liked to tell what I learn and know about the lesson.

When I teach, I learned be a teacher was not easy so we have to be nice to our teacher.

I learned about to be more patient and pay attention to others.

I like about taught other people what I know. I like the way they focus and hard-working what I’m teaching.

What I liked about this project is that I could help my “students” understand what we were doing.

What I learned about teaching is that it could be hard work if the student does not focus.

Teaching is a responsible profession that you need to carry with you because the future of your students depends on you.

I learned how to explain something to the students.

     

Neal.Fun has been unveiling new, cool, and useful-for-the-classroom tools for years.

The newest project there is called Size Of Life.

It lets you compare the sizes of many different living things, with great non-AI illustrations.

I’m adding it to The Best Web Tools That Show You Objects To Scale.

You might also be interested in The Best Online Tools For Comparing The Physical Sizes Of Different Countries.

     

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:

I’m adding these sites to Not “The Best,” But “A List” Of Ways To Convert PDF & Word Documents:

Hexye PDF Tools

PDF Converter

10 Brilliant Uses of Edtech in 2025 is from Edutopia. Because one of the “uses” it highlights is use of a simultaneous translation tool. I’m adding it to THE BEST RESOURCES TO HELP ELL STUDENTS WITH SIMULTANEOUS TRANSLATION IN THE CLASSROOM.

Historical Tech Tree offers an interactive history of…technology.

Where Did Everyone Go? is an interesting site about global tourism. I’m adding it to The Best Sites Showing The Most Popular Tourist Destinations In The World.

Music Map lets you type in the name of your favorite musical artist and then creates a web of similar ones. I’m adding it to The Best Places To Get Blog, Website, , Book, Movie, & Music Recommendations.