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

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The Berlin Wall came down 29 years ago on this day.

You might be interested in The Best Sites To Learn About Walls That Separate Us.

     

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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):

Research Bite #60: Teacher–student relationships and student outcomes is from Tips For Teachers. I’m adding it to The Best Resources On The Importance Of Building Positive Relationships With Students.

“while almost all schools engaged in private fundraising, the magnitude was $500 to $700 more per pupil at low-poverty schools compared to high-poverty schools. Private fundraising thus offset the difference in public funds by an estimated 23% to 35%.” journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3…

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— Paul Bruno (@paul-bruno.com) March 23, 2026 at 3:35 AM

Course Corrections? The Labor Market Returns to Correctional Education Credentials journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3…

“a GED or vocational certificate increases quarterly earnings by approximately $450 or $250, respectively. Completers work more hours and earn higher wages post-release.”

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— Paul Bruno (@paul-bruno.com) March 23, 2026 at 3:34 AM

High school grade point averages are the dominant predictor of academic success at public universities, from Theodore J. Joyce, Mina Afrouzi Khosroshahi, Sarah Truelsch, Kerstin Gentsch, and Kyle Du www.nber.org/papers/w34975

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— NBER (@nber.org) March 24, 2026 at 8:01 AM

Schools Made Steady Progress Boosting Attendance With This Strategy Change is from Ed Week. I’m adding it to The Best Resources On Student Absenteeism.

     

How to Run a Classroom That’s Not Screen-Dependent is the headline of one of my recent Education Week columns.

Educators share tips for navigating thorny decisions about ed tech.

Here are some excerpts:

     

Teachers might or might not be aware of the “Zoom In’ instructional strategy. It typically means showing students a small part of an image, and then gradually showing them the rest of it. Sometimes I’ve had students draw on the whiteboard what they think the rest of a projected image looks like, along with making observations and asking questions.

In the last part of this post, I’ll paste what I think is a decent explanation of the strategy from ChatGPT.

But what prompted this post was my learning about a website called Castle Light.

It offers an interesting “take” on the Zoom In strategy.  The site shares six images.  With each one, you move around a circle that illuminates tiny portions of the image, and then you have to answer a question about it.  It could be a fun game to play at the end of a period to promote language acquisition.

I’m adding this info to The Best Ways To Use Photos In Lessons.

Here’s ChatGPT’s description of Zoom-In:

Zoom-In Strategy

Students see a small portion of an image, then the teacher gradually reveals more of it. At each step students:

• Observe carefully

• Make predictions

• Revise their thinking as more information appears

It’s widely used in ELL instruction, inquiry lessons, and social studies.

Other names you might hear

• Reveal the Picture

• Mystery Picture

• Partial Picture Strategy

• Slow Reveal

But “Zoom-In” is the term most often used in teaching resources and PD.

Why teachers use it

It encourages:

• careful observation

• academic language (“I think… because…”)

• inference and evidence

• student engagement

Example sequence

1. Show tiny corner of the image

2. Students guess what it might be

3. Reveal more

4. Students revise predictions

5. Continue until full image is shown

Many teachers use it before introducing a new unit or concept.

Here are three powerful variations of the Zoom-In strategy that work especially well with English learners and that many teachers use to deepen thinking.

1️⃣ Zoom-In + Evidence Frames

Students must justify each prediction with evidence.

How it works

1. Show a small section of the picture.

2. Students predict what it might be.

3. They must use a sentence frame.

Sentence frames

• I think this might be ___ because I see ___.

• This detail suggests ___.

• My prediction changed because now I see ___.

Why it works

ELL students practice:

• academic language

• evidence-based reasoning

• revising ideas

2️⃣ Zoom-In + Vocabulary Hunt

Students look for objects or clues connected to key vocabulary.

Example

If the unit is about industrialization, students might look for:

• machines

• smoke

• factories

• workers

Procedure

1. Reveal a small part of the picture.

2. Students identify possible vocabulary connections.

3. Keep revising as more of the picture appears.

Language frame

• This could relate to the word ___ because ___.

Great for content-based ELL instruction.

3️⃣ Zoom-In + Prediction Timeline

Students track how their thinking evolves.

Steps

Students keep a chart:

Why this is powerful

Students learn:

• predictions change

• new evidence reshapes thinking

• reasoning improves over time

This models historical thinking and scientific thinking.

Teacher tip

The most effective Zoom-In images have:

• multiple clues

• ambiguity at first

• clear reveal payoff

Examples teachers often use:

• Dust Bowl photos

• Ellis Island scenes

• Civil Rights protests

• factory interiors

     

There are tons of sites that allow teachers to create online learning games and have students play them online (see The Best Websites For Creating Online Learning Games), with Wayground being the best.

There are fewer sites, Bamboozle probably being the most popular one, where you can create games to project on screens and have students play them in teams without their own devices.

Oly joins that second group.

It provides lots of options for different types of games, and has a generous free option.