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.
Strike a Pose: Yoga for Young People, from Babies to Teens
Of all the magical story time moments I’ve witnessed as a librarian, the most mesmerizing was watching a yoga instructor quiet a room of 20 rioting, rambunctious toddlers with a glitter calming jar.
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.
2024 Ezra Jack Keats Awards Announced
The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, in partnership with the de Grummond Children’s Literature Collection at the University of Southern Mississippi, has announced the 2024 Ezra Jack Keats Award winners. The annual award is given to early career authors and illustrators for excellence in portraying the multicultural nature of the world.
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.
Partial FAFSA fix lets students from immigrant families apply for financial aid
Students whose parents lack a Social Security number can finally fill out federal financial aid forms after the Biden administration announced a workaround Tuesday for one of the most glaring problems with what was supposed to be a simpler, easier form.
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.”