ELL News Headlines

Salvadoran American Finn Medrano knows firsthand the frustration students feel in a school where teachers don’t look like them and can’t understand their native language. He saw that same frustration in the eyes of the Latinx high school students in Photovoice for English Language Learners, a program in the recent Huguenot High School Summer Academy.

Feel Your Best Self (FYBS) is a free bilingual toolkit for kids that teaches 12 simple coping strategies to strengthen emotional well-being through the use of puppets, videos, and supporting materials. In this Q&A with Colorín Colorado, the FYBS team shares how the idea came about, why they wanted to make the materials in Spanish, and how schools are using the toolkit to support students.

In higher grades, multilingual students need to develop a grasp of academic English. Here’s how to help them acquire the skills they need.

For years, state and local education leaders have known of a shortage of certified bilingual educators who would be qualified to teach in dual language immersion schools. It’s why researchers at The Century Foundation, a progressive think tank, recently published a report exploring sustainable pathways from across the country for helping more individuals get their certification to become bilingual teachers.

After the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021, tens of thousands of girls were banned from attending school beyond sixth grade. Many found a way to continue their studies through informal tutoring centers, but those too have come under increased scrutiny as the government continues to crack down on women and girls' access to education. As a group of girls in Kabul have been grappling with all this, they've formed a connection with some other teens half a world away in California. The two sets of students, through meetings on Zoom talking about their lives and goals, formed the Flowers for the Future club, now a branch of the Eileen Murphy Foundation.

Here’s the latest installment in a series on ways to help ELLs develop more English-speaking skills from Larry Ferlazzo.

The new character, named TJ, made his debut Sunday as part of a segment about showing confidence.

Elana Rabinowitz is an ESL teacher and coordinator at Middle School 113 The Ronald Edmonds Learning Center in Brooklyn. In recent years, many of her students have been recent arrivals to the United States — children from asylum-seeking families who fled violence and economic hardship. Some of them had been out of school for months or years as they made their way to the U.S. Rabinowitz wants them to feel comfortable sharing their stories and identities. As soon as a new student is placed in her class, Rabinowitz buys a flag from their country of origin. But she wants them to feel at home in New York City, too, so she decorates her classroom with cozy secondhand furniture she finds at stoop sales. 

When Sonia Águila was in high school, her school counselor told her she didn’t think college was for her, because she was not fluent in English. It would be better, the counselor said, if she found a job to help her parents.

The terminology used to describe students in need of English-language support in schools has evolved over time, with the goal of emphasizing multilingualism as an asset.