ELL News Headlines

Rachel Herrera is a physics teacher at Mission High School in San Francisco. In this essay, she writes, "My favorite part of my job is not actually part of my job. As a public high school teacher in a state and district with a teacher’s union, my contract entitles me to a “duty-free” lunch. Over the years, however, I have willingly and somewhat proudly developed a lunch crew."

Eleven-year-old Shayla had never taken music classes before she emigrated from the Dominican Republic this year and enrolled at P.S. 103 Hector Fontanez in the Bronx. The fifth grader is still hesitant to speak in English, which she said she’s learning “little by little.” But when it comes to music, she has a different tune.

Tributes have been paid to the two victims who died in the shooting at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, on Monday, who have been named as 42-year-old teacher Erin M. West and 14-year-old student Rubi P. Vergara.

Today’s post begins a series exploring unique challenges in teaching ELLs and how we can best rise to them.

In Aurora, high school students who are learning English as a new language spend 45 minutes per day in a class specifically designed to help them improve their language skills. But their teachers have been on their own to design the lessons that are key to helping students understand the rest of their classes with native English speakers.

Across more than five decades and three dozen books, Nikki Giovanni wrote poetry and prose that bridged the public and private spheres, celebrating Black identity, attacking white supremacy and extolling ordinary pleasures such as artichoke soup and a mother’s warm embrace. Her work often paid homage to earlier Black artists and activists, and made her an elder stateswoman among African American poets.

Students who started school as English learners but later shed that designation by becoming proficient in the language are more likely than their classmates to graduate from high school and enroll in college, all after posting superior grade point averages in school.

As the Watonga school system’s Indian education director, Hollie Youngbear works to help Native American students succeed — a job that begins with getting them to school. She makes sure students have clothes and school supplies. She connects them with federal and tribal resources. And when students don’t show up to school, she and a colleague drive out and pick them up.

Researchers have found bilingual education helps students learn English faster and can boost their standardized test scores, increase graduation rates, better prepare them for college and much more. California has removed the official barriers to offering this type of instruction since 2016, and the state now champions bilingualism and biliteracy, encouraging all students to strive for both. But eight years after repeal, California schools have yet to recover.

When parents are active participants in their children’s education — whether by attending parent-teacher conferences and other school events or simply talking about school at home — the involvement has long been identified as making a positive difference in students’ academic success. But language barriers and scheduling woes can get in the way of the ability of parents who don’t speak English as their first language to be actively involved in their children’s education.