ELL News Headlines

Guillermina McLean loves working with her kindergarten students who don’t speak English, because, she said, she can relate to them. McLean came to the United States from Mexico not speaking English and had to jump back into her education years after trading school for work as a child. McLean, who turns 75 in a few months, was recognized as para educator of the year by the Colorado Association for Bilingual Education. She’s worked in Aurora schools for more than 20 years.

Friday's tornado decimated several neighborhoods in Bowling Green, Ky. Schools remain closed, so bus drivers are using the opportunity to check in on students and deliver meals to their families.

Lodi Unified, a diverse, mid-size district in the Central Valley, typifies what most districts in California are experiencing as they ponder how to spend their unprecedented funding windfall against a backdrop of dire and escalating needs. Last year, more than 70% of the district’s students were low-income, English learners, in foster care, homeless or in the migrant program. With a growing percentage of Latino and Asian students, Lodi’s demographics closely mirror those of the state as a whole.

As the number of linguistically diverse children nationwide continues to rise, it is no surprise that education leaders are interested in investigating instructional models that can be replicated to better serve this population. In California, nearly 60 percent of children zero to five live in a home where a language other than English is spoken. Yet the same programs and policies that were intended to support these students often end up holding back and stifling their potential. Since 2008 the Sobrato Early Academic Language (SEAL) model, which started out in three elementary schools and feeder schools and now reaches 50,000 students in over a hundred preschool and elementary classrooms, has been working to address these gaps by providing a research-based approach to meeting English learners’(ELs) linguistic and academic needs by capitalizing on their assets.

After months of deliberation, the editors of School Library Journal and their insightful reviewer committee members have selected 139 titles addressing topics — such as climate change, racism, and history — that are more relevant than ever. They also include a balance of fantasy, historical and realistic fiction, and, for the first time in years, a breakout list of poetry. There’s a nice sprinkle of story time picks and slice-of-life tales.

American Indian storytelling has enjoyed a major resurgence over the last 20 years. It has survived several attempts at eradication, largely by external forces. Here are some of the incredible difficulties it’s been through in the past 100 years or more, followed by a closer look at some of the traditions of American Indian storytelling.

Book sales are soaring among teenagers and young adults nationally. So, the Burlington Public Library is targeting young readers with improved facilities and programs. The library has remodeled and expanded an area designed for young readers, and programming has been introduced to offer teens everything from yoga to cooking classes.

On a sunny day in early November, teacher Trish Curran wasn’t corralling elementary phys ed students as she normally would be. Instead, she was educating her colleagues at Taos Municipal Schools on the benefits of walking. Technically, it was a normal districtwide professional development day: one without students, where school staff members are expected to come and learn something new, refine existing skills or plan upcoming lessons. But with teachers and custodians walking the track together in one session, and counselors and administrators learning about homeopathic remedies side by side in another, it was obvious that this had little in common with traditional professional development days.

This webinar illuminates the challenges English learners have experienced over the last two years. Speakers describe state- and district-level efforts to help ELs re-engage in high school, recover academically, and address mental health needs. Participants also hear the results of new research on the postsecondary aspirations of immigrant-background Latina/o students and how the pandemic may have helped shape their decisionmaking.

In this question of the week, educators respond to the following: "What are the most important lessons you have learned from your students?"