ELL News Headlines

Throughout the week, Colorín Colorado gathers news headlines related to English language learners from around the country. The ELL Headlines are posted Monday through Friday and are available for free!

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Using Comics and Graphic Novels to Teach Black History

Taking a break from textbooks or novels to read a comic is celebratory for students, even if the content of the book can be weighty. The use of artwork alongside text makes for a compelling reading experience that makes a story come alive. This is true for history and nonfiction, where words and images work together to invite students to participate in the narrative. 

Nuanced Accountability Would Help English Learners. New Research Shows How

Federal accountability measures under the Every Student Succeeds Act include the outcomes of English learners in evaluating schools for improvement. That’s both in terms of the students’ English-language proficiency progress and their test scores in math and English/language arts.

Students at the Center

People develop their literacies in a variety of contexts, and regardless of content, we all rely on language as a medium of learning. All students are language learners, and all teachers are language teachers. Because learning requires language, language and literacies should be at the core of all educational practices, centered across subjects and disciplines.

Multilingual teachers in short supply as newcomer needs grow

Carrie Richardson, a teacher at Place Bridge Academy in Colorado, has noticed the enrollment at this newcomer center for Denver Public Schools is continuing to climb higher and higher. Place Bridge Academy enrolls around 850 students in preschool through 12th grade, said Richardson, who is a grade 4-5 educator of newcomer students. Over 50 languages are spoken at Place Bridge Academy, as well. Other schools in the district are also facing a surge in this population, she said, which is driving concerns that schools’ budget cycles can’t keep up with growing enrollment.

District 87 is launching new curriculum to serve more English language learners

District 87 is launching a new curriculum for middle and high schoolers enrolled as English language learners — part of an effort to better serve the growing demographic group. The Bloomington district’s school board adopted the English 3-D program during its January meeting, and this week educators are exploring the newly-arrived materials.

Take Five: New Middle Grade in February

These Take Five lists can help you with collection development, displays, reading lists, and more. This collection features new middle grade titles by authors that include Kelly Yang and Saadia Faruqi.

This Tennessee ESL teacher ensures that her students learn the language — and feel the love

Missy Testerman has been teaching at Rogersville City School for 32 years. But for the past few years, she’s been teaching more children who weren’t born in the rural Appalachian community where the school is nestled. Some of the children are from Mexico and Honduras. Others are from India, China, and various Arabic-speaking nations. She heard stories about immigrant families braving dangerous routes to get to the United States.

“We’re very rural,” said Testerman, 54, who also directs the ESL program at the school. “But what we’ve seen here is that [Spanish-speaking immigrants] aren’t settling close to the [southern] border anymore … they’re coming to towns like ours.”

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