ELL News Headlines

The new question-of-the-week is: What are the best ways we can support Long-Term English-Language Learners? Many students in our schools are "categorized" as Long-Term English-Language Learners (commonly viewed as students who have been ELLs for six years or more).  This series will explore what that term means, and how we can support students who fit into that criteria.

Nearly 40 years after high school students in Oakland, Calif., campaigned to make Martin Luther King Jr. Day a holiday, students at the same school are taking inspiration from their predecessors.

To teach a love of reading, Corrina Reamer starts by writing. Each fall, she pens a letter to her 11th grade English class at T.C. Williams High School International Academy in Northern Virginia. She tells the students who she is: where she's from, the jobs she has held, which TV shows she favors. Then, she asks for a reply. "I read all of those letters," Reamer said. Over the next few weeks, "I think about it. I come up with three-to-five books for each kid, and we sit down, face-to-face, to read the jackets."

The medal has officially been passed. At an inauguration ceremony at the Library of Congress on Thursday, author Jason Reynolds became the seventh National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. He will hold the post for two years. When it was Reynolds’s turn to speak, he vowed to uphold the responsibility and, he too, told a couple of stories. The first directly related to his platform as ambassador, "GRAB THE MIC: Tell Your Story." He was on an author visit at the middle school in Florida when he watched a girl stand with him in front of staff and students and gain the courage to speak into the microphone. She was visibly moved by hearing her voice reverberate around the room.

Teachers who work with English-language learners are more apt to use general digital resources rather than tools designed specifically for English-learners, a recently released report from the U.S. Department of Education indicates.

Equipped with a couple of new grants from the state, the Worcester schools plan to begin expanding their bilingual program to the high school level next year, with the goal of eventually having a dual language option in every grade.

What are practical ways to implement restorative practices? Today, Erika Niles, Gina Laura Gullo, Cheryl Staats, Kelly Capatosto, Ricky Robertson, Victoria Romero, and Dr. Laura Greenstein share their recommendations.

Jason Reynolds is the seventh national ambassador for Young People's Literature. Reynolds will spend his two-year term traveling the country getting young people to tell their stories.

State and local officials cannot block refugee admissions in their jurisdictions, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, finding the Trump administration's new refu­gee policy is likely "unlawful" and "does not appear to serve the overall public interest."

School districts across the country are offering students a broad array of target languages to learn in dual-language programs across the country. Schools now offer dual-language education in 18 languages, according to newly released data from the U.S. Department of Education. The report from the office of English language acquisition lists the number of states that offered programs in each language during the 2016-17 school year.