ELL News Headlines

Becca Katz is an outdoor education advocate and teacher. She writes, "The evidence for learning in nature is compelling, robust, and growing. Reduced stress. Improved attention and cognitive function. More physical fitness. Fewer behavioral challenges. Higher engagement. Enhanced cooperation. Better relationships among students and between teachers and students. It even has promising potential as an equity lever. But I fear the autopilot response that drove my students and me indoors is happening across our country post-pandemic. As we’ve returned to “normal,” we’ve forgotten the immediate benefits of learning outdoors."

There are a number of relatively small “moves” we teachers can make in the classroom that have the potential of generating larger positive impacts. A series from last year shared a number of suggestions, and here are even more (two contributors share the same suggestion, so that one might be especially worth paying attention to!).

Indigenous Knowledge Systems are the ways that Indigenous peoples make sense of the world around them, and how they recognize, value, share and use knowledge in their daily lives. The phrase is intentionally plural to honor the diversity of Indigenous nations, of which there are over 600 in the U.S. alone. Generally rooted in place-based knowledge, oral traditions and kinship, Indigenous Knowledge Systems reflect the unique experiences of each community, while sharing common traits.

It's common for Latino Americans to not be fluent in Spanish. According to the Pew Research Center, 24% of all Latino American adults say they can “only carry on a conversation in Spanish a little or not at all,” and 54% of non-Spanish-speaking Latino Americans say they’ve been shamed by other Latinos for not speaking Spanish.

On this edition of Conversations Kelly Yang talks with host Dan Skinner about the the fifth book in the Front Desk series, Top Story. Yang is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of many books for young readers, including the Front Desk series of novels.

Autumn is the perfect time to indulge in all things creepy and spine-tingling. Yet the season of ghosts and ghouls still has tons to offer those who prefer their fall reading to be on the sweeter side. These charming graphic novels for middle grade readers feature everything you’d expect from spooky season—haunted hayrides, magic, monster-hunting, and more—yet the stories are cozy, like a mug of hot cider. No matter the time of year, curl up with these titles and enjoy the gentle autumnal vibes.

Dr. Henry Saylor-Scheetz is principal of San Tan Heights K-8, a public school in San Tan Valley, Ariz. In this article, he writes, "At San Tan Heights K-8, my team and I are looking at every aspect of how we educate students. Among the most important changes we’ve made is departmentalizing our teaching teams by subjects in grades K-8. Our grade-level teachers are now specialists, and our students rotate between classrooms — starting in kindergarten."

Crow Farms sells to local school districts in the state as part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s expanded Local Food for Schools program in Oklahoma, which connects school districts with local farmers and ranchers to purchase locally-grown food. The program, which launched in the state last spring, is funded through a $3 million cooperative agreement with Oklahoma’s Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry. Similar programs run in states like Texas, New York and California.

School district leaders around the country are taking steps to help their communities process the Hamas attack from the weekend and the ensuing Israeli response.

For the past four years, I served as superintendent of Oxnard School District, located 30 miles up the California coast from Malibu. But unlike Malibu, most of our school district’s 14,000 students come from low-income, Spanish-speaking families. Yet, not all of our Latino families consider Spanish their first or second language. Nearly 500 families reported speaking Mixteco, an Indigenous language of Southern Mexico, which has scores of variants. For a long time, though, Mixteco wasn’t represented in any of our literacy materials, often making it hard for families to read together.