ELL News Headlines

Darraj introduces smart, courageous, and sensitive Farah Hajjar, a fifth-grader whose biggest concern should be deciding on a topic for her application essay at the Magnet Academy. Farah Rocks, as everyone calls her, and her Official Best Friend Allie Liu, are both in the gifted class at Harbortown Public School. Both are hoping to get into the super exclusive academy where they will be partners on every science fair project. However, when the new girl starts bullying Farah’s little brother, Farah starts failing her classes on purpose so she won’t leave him unprotected. When Farah tries getting adults to help, she isn’t taken seriously and when she tries talking to Allie about it, they end up getting in a fight. Can Farah figure this out on her own? Darraj shines a light on sibling relationships, and the malicious, repetitive behaviors of bullies that often go unchecked.

Spanish remains the language most frequently spoken by English-learners in U.S. schools by a wide margin, with roughly 76 percent of the nation's 5 million English-learners speaking Spanish, but the numbers for several other languages are surging. Overall, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Somali were the top five languages spoken by English-language learners in the nation's K-12 public schools during the 2016-17 school year, according to recently released data from the U.S. Department of Education.

The women walked into the cafeteria to heap the table with food: brownies brushing pupusas, glazed doughnuts grazing platanos fritos. Putting down the spoon, Landeros, a parent liaison at the elementary school in Northern Virginia, smiled as she surveyed the merry, multicultural scene. The late-December gathering marked the second Christmas celebration hosted by From Neighbors to Friends, a parent group — among the first of its kind in Alexandria City Public Schools — that provides language lessons and fosters friendships between English- and Spanish-speaking mothers.

Today, MSI Information Services announced the appointment of new leadership for the company’s flagship media brands. Rebecca T. Miller has been named Group Publisher of Library Journal, School Library Journal, and The Horn Book. Kathy Ishizuka has been named Editor-in-Chief of School Library Journal.

Can The Three Kings compete with Santa Claus? They definitely do in Ishel Vidal's household in Houston, Texas. The 36-year-old photographer and her husband have opted to give their children, ages 14 and 7, most of their holiday presents on Three Kings Day, celebrated on Jan. 6. instead of on Christmas Day. While it's been a rich holiday tradition in Spain, Latin America and the Caribbean, Chia Santiago, 91, can attest to how the celebration has taken a back seat to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day — unlike her childhood days.

Under a canopy on the edge of a squalid encampment, a young physician named Dairon Elisondo Rojas holds office hours every day from 10 to 4.

Nelba Marquez-Greene's 6-year-old daughter Ana was killed in the Sandy Hook shootings. In this letter to teachers, written a year after the attack, she writes, "As another school year begins and old routines settle back into place, I wanted to share my story in honor of the teachers everywhere who care for our children."

The Milken Educator Awards, hailed by Teacher magazine as the "Oscars of Teaching" has been opening minds and shaping futures for over 30 years. ELL Teacher Julie Rowell was named a 2019-20 recipient of the national recognition, which comes with an unrestricted $25,000 cash prize. Rowell's ELL classes engage students who typically have only two to three years of English, propelling them via group learning projects and individualized strategies that have them swiftly engaged in conversations. Her students regularly advance more than a year per grade, and Rowell helps put them on a pathway to higher education by deploying the student-centric AVID system (Advancement Via Individual Determination).

Cicely Lewis, a Georgia high school librarian who challenges students to "Read Woke," has been awarded the 2019 National Teacher Award for Lifelong Readers. Lewis created the Read Woke challenge in 2017 in response to growing concern among students about the shootings of unarmed Black boys, the repeal of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and the lack of diversity in young adult literature.

For nearly five years, teachers and staff at Lake Elmo Elementary have been working with the Hispanic families that attend the elementary school to create lasting partnerships. Brandon Auge, a English Language teacher at Lake Elmo Elementary, said opportunities for staff to meet with parents are very important. "It provides an opportunity for us to learn how we can be more responsive to the families that we're serving," Auge said. "If we learn more about the lived experience of our families, the better we can all be. It’s about is getting to know and understand the successes and the challenges that all of our families are having, and providing a really intentional opportunity to learn about that, so we can respond to it."