NEIU TESL

With Common Core coming, it's worrisome to think about how ELLs will fare in this push towards standardization. Albuquerque (my old stomping grounds) is participating in this study supported by a number of groups. It might be useful to follow thiis over the next year...

Interesting article discussing the challenges of learning another language on line, and why it's more challenging than regular classes. These are things we know, but still important that in the push for e-learning, others see the limitations and barriers to this kind of delivery system.

There are so many worthwhile webinars out there. I discovered this one on the Nik Peachey Scoop it! site I subscribe to - Global Conversations in Literacy Research. The first webinar features James Gee...he's a big name in literacy...so you might be interested.

Very interesting article with active links, even recordings of endangered languages. From National Geographic.

"This I Believe" is site I learned about from one of my grad students at Hamline. She uses it a source for writing, but in this particular case, she was integrating in some prosodics, so versatile. You might want to check it out...not especially created for ELLs, but can work for older learners who are not beginner.

I discovered this book title in a newsletter I subscribe to. It looks interesting, and the book is not very expensive (on Amazon). You can "look inside" to see what's offered. Maybe a good addition to a professional library...

Tuesday, Feb 21st is United National International Mother Language Day. I included the link to the site. There will probably be some interesting links/materials here. Worth checking out.

Well, this is a very opportune article!  If you want to know why I like Diigo so much, just read this article!

This looks very cool. TED has excellent production values, so the lessons will probably be VERY engaging! There are tons of videos, as we know, but so many aren't worth watching. You can subscribe to this new TED-ED site and keep up with the lessons they are converting. A ton of potential here!

Article about Competency-Based learning...not for ELLs, but worth looking at to see how schools are using this approach. This is high school in New Hampshire

This certainly looks like some very interesting research! Read the title to see what this is about. The source is the Harvard Business Review.

This was in Discover Magazine. It sounds like it might be worth checking out the book mentioned in the article.

If you don't already know about Larry Ferlazzo's blog, you should. This is a good sample of the kinds of things he finds...The Best from March. Nearly every day he has things to share. A great resource.

Always useful to get a list of resources - this one on Ed Tech blogs. Some of these I already know about, but not all. Worth checking these. Kathy Schrock is an active blogger who knows what going on out there.

Interesting view on phonics...there are several other links here with more info about this method of teaching reading.

This is not too surprising, but it's worrisome. You'll see that ELLs who have only been here 1 year are included in the results, but also those who have been here longer. It just emphasizes how challenging it is to write in these timed test situations. There is also a technology component as students used word-processing programs to do the writing. A much longer article about the NAEP results was also in this edition of Ed Week, but I don't have an actual paid subscription, so I couldn't access/share that.

It's a great short visual representation....

"Since 2003, StoryCorps has collected and archived more than 45,000 interviews with nearly 90,000 participants. Each conversation is recorded on a free CD to share, and is preserved at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. StoryCorps is one of the largest oral history projects of its kind, and millions listen to our broadcasts on our Listen page and on public radio"

From TED-Ed, source of some high quality materials. This 4 1/2 minute video is a very nice history of plural in English. Pretty advanced for students, but good for teachers.

This site is a treasure trove of NNS of English reading a short text. Each text includes a narrow transcription. There is an amazing range of languages available (and for some more than one speech sample).