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"Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day…" - 5 new articles
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: I’m adding this tweet to The Best Posts On Looking At Our Students Through The Lens Of Assets & Not Deficits:
Transforming ESL Writing Fear Through Autobiography is from LRNGO. I’m adding this video to The Best Ways To Use Photos In Lessons: 
Check out a recent issue of my favorite language-teaching periodical, Humanising Language Teaching. ELL students could watch this video and then talk/write about what they saw: 
How to make listening actually drive acquisition: Ten staples of Listening as Modelling is from the Language Gym. Scaffolding Text with AI: Sample Prompts is from Colorin Colorado. I’m adding it to THE BEST STRATEGIES FOR “ENGINEERING” TEXT SO THAT IT’S MORE ACCESSIBLE TO ELLS. Five Instructional Strategies for Supporting English-Language Learners is from TechNotes. 11 surprising Truths About Grammar Acquisition — and How Long It Really Takes to Master It! is from The Language Gym. I’m adding this video to The Best Resources For Using “If This Animal Or Image Could Talk” Lesson Idea In Class:
12 (Nearly) Useless Things Language Teachers Do When Teaching Grammar is from The Language Gym. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Grammar Practice. 10+1 Reasons Why you Should Read How to Write Mediation Activities is from HLT Magazine. Here’s another video for ELLs to watch and talk/write about:  10 + 1 Halloween Songs: An Update is from On The Same Page. I’m adding it to The Best Websites For Learning About Halloween. 3 Simple Formative Assessment Techniques You Can Use in Your Next Song Lesson is from The Song Activity Factory.      More Research Shows What Most Educators Know: Teachers Get Better As They Gain More Experience
For a long time, some researchers claimed that teachers improved in their first few years, but then stopped. Ridiculous, I know, but if I had a dollar for every time I heard that nonsense, I’d be a very rich man. It’s been debunked in recent years (see Statistic Of The Day: “For Teachers, Experience Really Does Matter”). And a new study has stabbed that theory in the heart even further. You can read the study, Think Again: Do the returns to teacher experience fizzle out?, co-authored by Linda Darling-Hammond. And you can check out a summary at The 74 – Yes, Teachers Keep Improving with Time. I’m adding this info to The Best Articles For Helping To Understand Both Why Teacher Tenure Is Important & The Reasons Behind Seniority-Based Layoffs.  Cinco de Mayo Is Coming Up – Here Are Teaching & Learning Resources GDJ / Pixabay
Cinco de Mayo, May 5th, commemorates the defeat of the French by the Mexican Army in 1862. It’s a holiday in some parts of Mexico, and is celebrated by Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans in the United States. You might be interested in The Best Sites For Teaching & Learning About Cinco de Mayo.
 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: Meaningful feedback is by Jo Castelino. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning How To Best Give Feedback To Students. How and Why to Use Concept Maps is from Cult of Pedagogy.
The poverty of Explicit Instruction is from The Education Contrarian.
 A Key Issue Often Overlooked In Efforts To Reduce Use Of Laptops In Class – It’s Going To Make More Work For Teachers Mohamed_hassan / Pixabay
I agree with calls to reduce screentime in class for students and, if I was still in the classroom, I would have done so already (see Was This The Biggest Teaching Mistake I Made This Year?). But, as I said in this BlueSky post, an overlooked issue in this discussion is that reducing student screentime will result in more work for teachers:
I never had students spend much time on laptops in my ELL classes, though pushed them to use it in their homes (see The Role Of Tech IN My ELL Classroom? Not Much, But That’s Not The Whole Story). And, since my ELL classes were pretty small, it was easy to handle grading and I was able to print-out any needed paper copies off my printer. Three periods of over 30 students each in my IB Theory of Knowledge classes were a different story. If I was teaching this year, I’m pretty sure that making copies and hand-grading would have added at least five-to-eight hours each week to my workload. I could have handled that since my kids are grown and I don’t have a life, but that’s a pretty big “ask” for most teachers. And please don’t quote that BS statistic about how Artificial Intelligence is saving teachers 5.9 hours each week. If you believe that, I’ve got a bridge I want to sell you. It would be nice if this campaign against screentime didn’t become just another in the endless efforts to squeeze blood out of a rock (the rock being teachers). Some ways schools could mitigate this problem could be: * Providing teachers with high-quality fast printers so they can print out class materials instead of having to wait in the teacher copier room and hope the machines don’t break down. * Create district or school-wide grading policies “codifying” that teachers should not actually grade every assignment, so that individual teachers don’t get pushback if they don’t. * Bring back student teaching assistants (TA’s) if you work in a district like ours that banned their use. TA’s can help make copies. * Create a school program like ours did for several years where TA’s worked in the school office and teachers could submit materials for copying. They would then deliver them the following day.
I’m all for schools making changes to benefit students. But those changes don’t have to hurt teachers, too. ADDENDUM: Several states — and the LA public schools — are setting limits on screen time is from NPR  More Recent Articles |
