Comments on: Is Brainpop Bad For Students?

By: The Best Sites To Learn & Teach About Thanksgiving | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:47:06 +0000

[...] seems pretty insulting to Native Americans and to the student audience of the story. Jeez, I know Brainpop gets criticized, but even their Thanksgiving movie refers to the damage caused to Native [...]

By: Brainpop ESL Launches Today | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Brainpop ESL Launches Today | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 17:57:41 +0000

[...] I like Brainpop a lot, and believe that it’s well worth the money for teachers of World History and United States History. Since they added closed-captioning to their animations last year, their movies became especially accessible to English Language Learners. I’ve included them on a number of “The Best…” lists. In fact, I’ve defended Brainpop from attacks in Is Brainpop Bad For Students? [...]

By: Adrian

Adrian — Tue, 26 May 2009 00:50:15 +0000

I like BrainPOP and watch it all the time. It was good for reviewing the Science state testing.

By: The Best Posts From Other Blogs That Made Me “Think” In 2008 | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 17:36:01 +0000

[...] down and that post inaccessible, but I assume that should change shortly). That prompted me to write “Is Brainpop Bad For Students?” where I spoke positively about my experience with the [...]

By: Elona Hartjes

Elona Hartjes — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 00:58:14 +0000

My struggling/reluctant learners enjoyed using Brainpop’s math and science sections.

By: Carnival of Education, #190

Carnival of Education, #190 — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 06:08:24 +0000

[...] In Practice thinks that Brainpop is doing a pretty good job. [...]

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By: Mathew

Mathew — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 04:49:08 +0000

I watched the 9/11 video and I think he might be right in that one case. Otherwise I think Brainpop is a terrific reinforcer for skills/concepts I’m teaching with primary age English Language Learners.

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:50:42 +0000

Brainpop is a fun way for students to hear a little bit of content from a voice other than my own. For some students, “Tim” might explain something in a new way that helps them make a connection. For the other students, it’s just a brief, fun, educational interlude between more intense methods of learning. I see absolutely no reason to object to BrainPop in terms of it dealing with things too simply — that’s where we, the teachers, naturally step in.

By: alicemercer

alicemercer — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:05:30 +0000

Hmmm, is BrainPop’s dominant use as an information source? I always used it as an into/set/building background or prior knowledge in science then followed it up with hands on experiments, some lecture and notes, a handful of worksheets, and an assessment? It’s fantastic in that capacity with language learners.

I hate to jump to conclusions, but most of what I see from Dr. Stager suggests that he doesn’t understand a lot of what we do, and the theory behind English Language Development. Look at the statement,

Using Brainpop’s close-captioning to learn to read is a good idea but hardly dependent on BrainPop…

Close-captioning is NOT used to teach reading. It’s used as a scaffold for language learners if they miss something in the audio because hearing a new language is very different (and a harder skill) than reading it. This is NOT teaching them to read, it’s making sure they get the background information before they go onto study a subject in more depth.

While BrainPop may not be the “only” source for video with close captions, the pared down to essential nature of the illustrations and ideas in BrainPop make them much more accessible for language learners especially in elementary. It helps build some vocabulary and basic ideas to give students background (or schema) they likely do not have.

I have had “issues” with Dr. Stager in the past on this, as in this exchange at Wes Fryer’s Speed of Creativity. This may work somewhere, but it does NOT work where I teach. Students need background/schema, scaffolding and modeling of the stages of building a project. He is dead on that they need time to work with other kids independently, with input from the teacher as needed, BUT with ELD students they may not ask for help, even with they are drowning, so I’ve discovered I need to do frequent check-ins, etc. to make sure they are “on track”.

I’m searching in vain for a post/comment where someone basically said, Dr. Stager is great at critique, but he rarely offers anything he likes or approves of. The only things that come to mind that escape that are OLPC, and Logo. OLPC is not a workable teaching model where I work because it has no instructional plan, and seems to follow the velcro method of instruction (throw it out there and maybe something’ll stick). Logo/Scratch is nice, but my students need to learn English, not a computer language. Their Math proficiency (for what that is worth) is much higher than their Language Arts scores and their CELDT levels (this determines whether or not they are “fluent” English users).

I need teaching methodologies, and theories that work for that reality. He doesn’t offer that. His critiques are sometimes right on, but often miss key points that make a given application particularly well suited to use for English Language Development (such as with VoiceThread).

Look at these discussion of the “Hole in the Wall” project, which was the model/kernel that led to OLPC. First we have Dr. Stager, writing about how this is great because students are constructing their own knowledge, which left me saying WTH? because I’m wondering where teachers fit into that, kids just teaching themselves? I’m not picturing that as a successful model. He has a link to a post by Sylvia Martinez which shows how teachers fit into this model of instruction. Now THAT is useful.

The public will have a chance to see either myself discussing Web 2.0 and ELD instruction AND Dr. Stager discussing what to do with a Laptop at ILC (http://ilc2008.org/Default.aspx) in October. My presentation is on Tuesday at 11:30, and Dr. Stager is scheduled for Thursday at 1:00.

By: Larry Ferlazzo

Larry Ferlazzo — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 23:31:22 +0000

Gary,

English Language Learners throughout the world are using Voice Thread as an effective way to practice speaking, listening, and writing skills. We have an International Sister Classes Project where ESL classes from fifteen countries create Voice Threads and comment on each other’s creations (http://esleflsisterclasses.edublogs.org/).

As I mentioned in my post, I believe VoiceThread, Brainpop, a regular newspaper or any book can be viewed as simplistic if it’s not used in the context of classroom interaction that stimulates the imagination and higher-order thinking skills. Without that kind of interaction, I believe any text or activity is providing the “words without the music.”

It’s also really not that easy to find resources online that provide expository text with audio and is closed-captioned.
Brainpop does stand-out in that regard.

Larry