ELL News Headlines

As the Department of Education releases $122 billion directly to states as part of the American Rescue Plan, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona is encouraging states to make sure students who have been hit hardest by COVID-19 are provided with the resources and support they need.  American Rescue Plan funds can be used by SEAs and school districts to equitably expand opportunities for students who need the funds most, including students from low-income backgrounds, students of color, students with disabilities, English learners, students experiencing homelessness, and students with inadequate access to technology.

On Monday Christine Chen, of Boulder, packed her kids into the car and headed to grandma and grandpa's house. She hadn't seen her parents in weeks and wanted to have a face-to-face conversation about rising hate against people of Asian descent, including the elderly. Then word came of an active shooter at the King Soopers in South Boulder. The store is only a few blocks from her home. Chen realized she was going to have to have a conversation about violence with her kids, not just her parents. Rather than hearing from someone else, she told them "something bad happened in our neighborhood and we did not know very much information."

This is the final post in a nine-part series from Larry Ferlazzo on hybrid teaching.

Though it can seem daunting, getting students outdoors for even 30 minutes offers many benefits, during the pandemic and beyond. This checklist can help get you started.

Christine Rosalia and Becky Gould teach high school English to new immigrants in the South Bronx. In this article, they write, "Teaching writing remotely, we have observed the challenges of learning on the iPads. Try writing more than a tweet on a mobile device and you will quickly understand that it is not a machine designed to facilitate the writing process. These difficulties pose even higher barriers for English language learners in high school...The education department may have had good intentions of quickly putting more iPads in the hands of lower-income students. However, for older students, the workarounds needed to learn on a mobile device are the technological equivalent of making a house to live in with toothpicks."

The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation announced the winners of the 2021 Ezra Jack Keats Awards this week. The winner of the writer award is Tricia Elam Walker for Nana Akua Goes to School. Heidi Woodward Sheffield won the award for illustrator for Brick by Brick, which she also wrote.

Children’s book creator LeUyen Pham remembers the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic as a time of contrasts and confusion. With her husband and kids at home, the house was suddenly loud all the time, while Los Angeles was abnormally quiet. Unanswerable questions swirled everywhere. So Pham did what authors do. She wrote. Within months, she turned her jotted-down ideas into the text and art for Outside, Inside, a picture book published in January.

As Asian American communities reel from an uptick in violence and hate spurred by racist rhetoric about the coronavirus pandemic, advocates are urging Americans to be allies in actionable ways that go beyond words. Asian American community leaders shared advice with the PBS NewsHour about ways Americans can help.

When the crime rate began to rise in their native Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Lorena Diaz-Germes' parents made a life-changing decision. They would take their small family and immigrate to the United States, leaving behind everything and everyone they knew, in order to provide their two kids with greater educational and life opportunities. It’s a sacrifice Diaz-Germes, a DACA recipient, Honors student, and Criminal Justice major, doesn't take for granted, and one she knows didn't come easily for her parents.

There is a common misconception in the education community that allowing students who are English-language learners (ELLs) to use their first language in the classroom will slow down their English learning process. Three Rider University graduates are working to change that.