ELL News Headlines

This collection of reviews from School Library Journal features a wide range of titles, including Spanish-language titles and books about different celebrations.

Teacher John Downes-Angus writes, "I was hired to teach AP English Language to juniors and English to seniors. About a month after I was offered this job, though, my principal asked me if I’d teach a year-long journalism class." It's been huge learning curve for him, but well worth it: "This is not my most organized or efficient class, but figuring out how to teach it for the past two years has been some of the most fun I’ve had in my 10 years working as a teacher here in New York City," he says.

Schools are required to test the progress of their English learners each year to determine whether they still need language instruction services or can exit out of such programs. In close to 40 states, that test is known as the WIDA ACCESS test.

New American Leaders is a national nonprofit nonpartisan organization dedicated to training immigrants, refugees, and second generation Americans to run for office and manage campaigns. It provides the necessary resources so they can step into their own political power, NAL CEO and president Ghida Dagher said. The first thing that NAL does is ask participants to embrace their immigrant heritage as part of their new American background, rather than shy away from it.

Feeling like part of a larger classroom community improves students’ grades and their self-confidence.

The laborious process of tracing out our thoughts, letter by letter, on the page is becoming a relic of the past in our screen-dominated world, but giving up this slower, more tactile way of expressing ourselves may come at a significant cost, according to a growing body of research that’s uncovering the surprising cognitive benefits of taking pen to paper, or even stylus to iPad — for both children and adults.

From graphic novels centering underrepresented perspectives to charming rom-coms and nonfiction about climate change, these summer reading selections will inspire young adults to make positive change in their communities — and themselves.

Amid a nationwide literacy crisis, New Mexico stands out for its dead last ranking in reading performance on the federally administered nation’s report card. Arsenio Romero has been New Mexico’s secretary of education only since last year. But he has ambitious plans to work on turning around his state’s literacy reputation, and he wants to do it fast—including a big push this summer.

No doubt, books and empathy go hand-in-hand or, in this case, ear-to-ear. In a climate of contagious divisiveness, acknowledging and accepting all manner of differences is paramount to being good citizens and, most importantly, good people. For both May’s Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and beyond, consider lining shelves and adding to TBR piles with some of these edifying, entertaining 2024 choices.

The winner of this year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee has been crowned. Bruhat Soma, a 12-year-old from Florida, bested the competition Thursday with his spelling of “abseil,” a word used to describe descending a vertical surface area with a rope attached to one’s body.