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

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:

Chartle is a game where you have to guess data about a particular country.  It’s like Dataguessr. I’m adding it to The Best Tools For Comparing Demographics Of Different Countries.

PDF Peak has lots of tools for…PDFs. I’m adding it to Not “The Best,” But “A List” Of Ways To Convert PDF & Word Documents.

PDF Tools World has…lots of PDF tools.  I’m adding it to the same list.

LeedPDF is a PDF annotation tool.

Pie Chart Maker does what its name says.  I’m adding it to The Best Tools To Make Simple Graphs Online.

Create music with Beat Maker.

Draw Audio is another music-making tool.

 

     

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 2018.

Note: This article complements one written by one recently posted at Colorin Colorado and written by Diane Staehr Fenner, Jill Kester, and Sydney Snyder. That piece is titled The Five Pillars of Equitably Grading ELLs. 

Larry Ferlazzo and Katie Hull Sypnieski are teachers in the Sacramento City Unified School District and authors of several books on teaching English Language Learners.

Grading English Language Learners – A Perspective From Two Teachers

By Larry Ferlazzo and Katie Hull Sypnieski

Our Overall perspective on grading

We must begin by saying that grades have seldom been an issue in our classes – whether they were ELD/ESL, mainstream, intervention, or advanced courses.

Because of that experience, we are often bewildered by the amount of energy, pressure and angst about them that we see among many teachers and administrators.

We view grades as information.  They are one of many forms of communication we use with students and their parents, and definitely not the most important kind.   As Rick Wormeli says, they are not rewards or punishments.

We view grades as, in many ways, the lowest level of communication between students, parents and ourselves. As its Latin word root suggests, they are “steps toward something.” Assessments, however, are an entirely different kettle of fish.  Its Latin roots mean to “sit beside” and to assist.   Whereas a grade is just a letter, continuous assessments (both teacher and student-initiated) and reflections on their meanings provide directions for a student’s journey– assisting them to adjust both their routes and their destinations.

We emphasize building upon our students’ assets instead of their deficits. That doesn’t mean we ignore or minimize challenges they are facing.   It does mean, however, that we focus on leveraging both their academic and non-academic strengths, like perseverance, critical thinking ability, appetite for learning, and success in outside-of-school venues, towards targeting needed areas of academic improvement.  As most teachers know, highlighting past examples of student success and the steps that made it happen can go a long way in helping them find the appetite/desire to applying those qualities again and again – especially to further a high-interest goal.

Just to be clear, even though some might consider us “easy” graders because of our perspective, we also feel confident – and proud – of our students’ results on “high-stakes” assessments, such as state tests and International Baccalaureate – supervised Oral Presentations and Essays.

Grading For English Language Learners

This portion of our article is divided into two sections:

• How we handle grading in our English Language Development classes
• How we handle grading ELLs in our mainstream classes

ELD CLASSES:

We base our grading structure in ELD classes (where students are all Beginner or Intermediate ELL students) on a Course Of Study that we helped our district develop a number of years ago.

Our slightly modified version (taken from the work of Thomas Guskey and others) looks like this:

Grading Guidelines

35%– Product Criteria (quality of student work)

• Daily Assignments
• Homework
• Essays/Projects

35%– Process Criteria (how students do their work)

• Collaboration/working with other students and teacher
• Daily participation and effort
• Daily attendance
• Perseverance and grit
  

30%–Progress Criteria (evidence that students are progressing)

• Academic language development
• Demonstrated growth in speaking and listening
• Demonstrated growth in reading fluency and comprehension
• Demonstrated growth in writing proficiency
  

ELLs IN MAINSTREAM CLASSES

First, we must say that at this time, our own District does not offer grading guidance to mainstream teachers who have ELLs in their classes. We hope that will change in the near future.  To our best knowledge, our state of California also does not provide guidance in that area.

In addition, our experience is in middle and secondary schools, and we will focus most of this section in those areas.

However, based on guidance from other states and districts – as well as the federal government – and based on our own experiences, we offer the following thoughts and advice:

Federal guidelines make it clear that it is the responsibility of high schools to create a pathway for a student who enters high school as a Beginner to be able to graduate in four years (which is a particularly challenging timeline since it takes four-to-seven years to gain proficiency in academic English).   They must graduate with the prerequisites to enter college.  They must be able to attain success in the school’s “standard instructional program.” We can’t see how that is possible without a system of differentiated instruction and  differentiated grading for ELLs in our schools.

The federal government also provides clear instructions that accommodations on assessments must be made by states’ Departments of Education on any assessments administered to ELLs.  Though those guidelines only specify state assessments, it doesn’t appear to us much of a stretch to believe that teachers should follow them in their own classes, too.  We’re not experts, but we wouldn’t be surprised if a Civil Rights complaint to the Department of Education would result in the same opinion.

The districts and states that we have found to have specific grading policies for ELLs in mainstream classes appear – in various degrees – to have some key points in common:

• It is the responsibility of the teacher to make content and assessments comprehensible to ELLs.
• No student should be retained because of English language challenges.

These policies point out the difference between being “equal” and being “fair” and make it clear that treating ELLs “equally” by treating them the same as English-proficient students is not “fair” and could even be unlawful.

Guidance from the state of Indiana offers an example of a “fair” assessment for ELLs:

If a student is struggling with sequential vocabulary, they may not be able to write an essay on the water cycle. However, if given the opportunity to do a hands-on type of assessment through experimentation or pictures, the same student may be able to demonstrate knowledge of that content, confirming for the teacher their knowledge of science, not their limitations in English.

Accommodations during class could include differentiation strategies such as providing more time, allowing access to cellphone translation, providing needed background knowledge though home language materials,  offering similar texts at different lexile levels, giving students writing frames and sentence starters, pre-teaching key vocabulary, speaking at a slower rate, and recruiting peer tutors or in-class language “buddies” – just to name a few.

Larry spent nineteen years as a community organizer prior to becoming a teacher.  As an organizer, he recognized that “we live in the world as it is, not as we would like it to be.”  That doesn’t mean we have to be cynical, but it does mean that as we continually strive towards how we should treat all ELLs, we also have to recognize that because of time pressures, lack of professional development, and just plain overwork, some mainstream teachers might not be able to provide the differentiated instruction needed by ELLs.

In those situations, we believe that it’s critical for teachers to at least recognize that ELLs are faced with the sometimes overwhelming task of learning academic content and the English language simultaneously, and show compassion and support when it comes to giving them a letter grade.

We should always strive towards creating the world as we would like it to be. However, that doesn’t mean we should act oblivious to how the world is at the present time.

Another option some districts use is to apply Pass/Fail grades to ELLs in content classes or to provide letter grades indicating accommodations were made (though those notations can appear on report cards, they may not be able to be added to formal transcripts).

The lives of many of our English Language Learners, who have been uprooted from their home, culture, and native language through no choice of their own, can be very difficult.

Let’s not make it harder.  Instead, let’s demonstrate good sense, compassion and respect good educational practice. Let’s treat them as we would like our own children to be treated if we had been uprooted to a new country, a new culture and a new language.

     

geralt / Pixabay

At least, for now, I’m going to make this a weekly feature which will highlight additions to THE BEST NEW – & FREE – ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TOOLS THAT COULD BE USED IN THE CLASSROOM.

Here are the latest:

Color Buk is yet another AI powered tool for creating coloring pages.

Oboe uses AI to create “courses” on different topics, including flashcards and quizzes. I wasn’t impressed with what it created to help someone learn about teaching ELLs, though.

Meeting.ai is yet another app for taking meeting notes, but this one sticks out because it takes “visual notes.”

Clever School has multiple AI tools for teachers.  I’m adding it to The Best Free AI-Powered Multi-Use Tools For Teachers.

Cinematic Reads uses AI to recommend books based on your favorite moves and TV shows.  I’m adding it to The Best Places To Get Blog, Website, , Book, Movie, & Music Recommendations.

AI Rap Generator does what its name says.

GroupGPT lets you use ChatGPT with friends.

AutoMusic lets you use AI to create…music.

Newsletter Buddy looks like an interesting tool for creating email newsletters. I’m adding it to The Best Applications For Creating Free Email Newsletters.

 

     

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 2017.

The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center published this amazing short film today.

Here is how they describe it:

“America is in the Heart” is a novel written by Carlos Bulosan in the 1940’s to capture his Filipino American experience, but its words still resonate with the greater immigrant experience today.

This film, created by Frank Chi and presented by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, features a passage read by comedian Hasan Minhaj, community organizer Ivy Quicho, and writer Junot Díaz – and features footage from throughout the United States of some of the 45 million immigrants who have become Americans since the publishing of the book in 1946.

You can read more about it in the NBC News story, ‘America Is in the Heart’: Smithsonian video spotlights U.S.’s immigrant history.

The text of the video will make a great centerpiece for a lesson. Since it’s so short, it will be easy to transcribe or copy from the book itself. I just haven’t had time yet to do either.

It even includes shots of students learning in an ESL class!

 

     

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:

 

How to Handle Large Classes Without Losing Your Mind is from The Barefoot TEFL Teacher. I’m adding it to  The Best Resources On Teaching Multilevel ESL/EFL Classes.

A third of students in California public schools begin school as English learners, meaning they do not yet speak, read or write English fluently.

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— EdSource (@edsource.org) September 8, 2025 at 8:00 AM

4 Strategies to Foster a Sense of Belonging for Multilingual Learners in K-12 Schools is from Support Ed. I’m adding it to THE BEST RESOURCES FOR LEARNING HOW TO PROMOTE A SENSE OF “BELONGING” AT SCHOOL.

As I’ve written before, I think AI translation tools might cause a complete revaluation of how we teach ELL classes, but studies like this new one show that ELLs will misuse ChatGPT just as much as everybody else.

See Apple’s new AirPods Pro 3 live language translation feature is from CNN. I’m adding it to THE BEST RESOURCES TO HELP ELL STUDENTS WITH SIMULTANEOUS TRANSLATION IN THE CLASSROOM.

This is a new study on the use of formative assessment specifically with ELLs.  I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About Formative Assessment.

Types of Writing for Secondary Students: A Practical Chart is from On The Same Page.

Empowering Voices: A Three-Year Intervention to Reduce Public Speaking Anxiety among ESL Learners shares some interesting ideas.

Enhancing Reading Skills in ESL Learners through Google’s Read Along: A Study is more useful research.

This could be a good video to show ELLs and have them talk/write about what they saw:

 

I hadn’t seen this 2012 Mr. Bean performance before, and it would be another good one to show ELLs, especially since many are already familiar with him:

 

Here’s yet another good video to show ELLs:

 

Why Do L2 listeners Struggle? Watching the Difficulties Evolve from Beginner to Intermediate level is from The Language Gym.