ELL News Headlines
Throughout the week, Colorín Colorado gathers news headlines related to English language learners from around the country. The ELL Headlines are posted Monday through Friday and are available for free!
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Best of 2023: Orange County district pioneers new Korean American studies course for high school
Jeff Kim, a world history teacher in Anaheim Union High School District, had long dreamed about how a Korean American studies course could help his students connect with their heritage. But it was the surge of hatred against Asian Americans during the pandemic that made him realize just how urgently the class was needed.
Best of 2023: Mónica Mancillas' 'How to Speak in Spanglish' embraces in-between space of her culture
There’s been a lot of discussion recently in Arizona about how English language learners are taught to speak English. But a new picture book for kids takes a different approach to that question.
Best of 2023: An Alaska district aligns its school year with traditional subsistence harvests
Seventy miles inland from the Bering Sea, on roadless lands beside the Kuskokwim River, three Yup'ik villages are perfect examples of the educational challenges faced in Alaska. This year, the district was allowed to operate on an academic calendar that's aligned with seasonal subsistence harvests. School leaders spent much of 2022 working to get it approved by the state.
Best of 2023: Encouraging Latinx Youth to Embrace Ethnic Pride Can Enhance Their Well-Being
Encouraging Latinx adolescents of Mexican origin to embrace their ethnic pride, cultural values, and connections to their cultural community contributes to positive development and better adjustment during adolescence, a new University of California, Davis, psychology study suggests.
To Effectively Support English Learners, Build Teachers’ Skills, Experts Say
Back in her early days of teaching, Rebecca Bergey thought it was her job as a teacher of English learners to prepare her students with enough language to survive in content area classes. But as Bergey — now a principal researcher at the nonprofit American Institutes for Research — grew in her teaching, she realized that language learning operates at a systems level.
Tailoring Instruction to Support English Language Learners
At P.S. 249 in Brooklyn, New York, over 20 percent of the students are English as a New Language (ENL) learners, many of them newcomers to the U.S. The school’s diverse population includes children who speak Spanish, Haitian Creole, Arabic, Urdu, Bengali, Ukrainian, and Georgian, and many start kindergarten with little or no English. When principal Elisa Brown first came on board in 2000, the school was using a pull-out model to serve these learners. She quickly noticed that by the time students were picked up from their various classrooms and brought to the specialized language learning teacher, they were getting minimal instruction time—maybe 10 minutes per day. And often, what they were learning was not connected to what was being taught in their regular classroom.
Many California College Employees With DACA Protections Lack Backup Plans If Program Ends
Iveth Díaz has spent much of her career helping undocumented immigrant students navigate college. But when her own application to renew her work permit and temporary protection from deportation was delayed because of backlogs, she had to resign from her job for three months.
How to Support Early-Career Teachers: Advice From Native Educators
Two years ago, Stephanie Wright and Tyler Sumpter were part of the next generation of Native teachers. Graduates of the University of Oregon’s Sapsik’ʷałá master’s program, they respectively began their careers as educators at schools in Washington and Oregon.
When your classroom is a garden
Researchers have found kindergarten through third grade classes spend, on average, 89 minutes a day on English language arts, 57 minutes a day on math — and just 18 minutes a day on science. One way advocates are trying to encourage more science time? Adding outdoor classrooms to elementary schools.
Best of 2023: Cardozo English educator named D.C.’s 2024 Teacher of the Year
Beth Barkley thought she was attending a ceremony for International Day of the Girl on Wednesday. The high school English teacher stood in the library at Cardozo Education Campus as the city’s mayor explained the importance of attaining “educational equity across genders.” But, in a ceremony focused mostly on her, Barkley learned that she had been named D.C’s 2024 Teacher of the Year.