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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Q & A with Elizabeth Acevedo on Her New Book
After the success of her debut novel in verse, The Poet X, whose cover is now adorned with the National Book Award and Printz Award medals, Elizabeth Acevedo's new novel, With the Fire on High, explores similar themes of family and heritage. Told in prose, the book follows high-school senior, mother, and budding chef Emoni Santiago as she forges a future for herself and her daughter in Philadelphia while defining her own rules and boundaries. Acevedo spoke with PW about portraying an underexplored side of teen motherhood, deciding how best to communicate a character’s story, and the importance of Emoni’s Afro-Puerto Rican and African-American heritage to her experience.
Elementary ESL students publish anthology of poems
Nearly 30 students enrolled in English as a Second Language writing classes at New Highland Elementary School are publishing an anthology of poems adapted from Kentucky educator George Ella Lyon's "Where I Am From" project that promotes a positive understanding of diversity.
New York State leaders want teachers to spend more time learning how to help English learners
Right now, students studying to be teachers in New York are required to spend six semester hours learning about language acquisition and literacy. Last month, state education policymakers proposed requiring teacher preparation programs to dedicate three of those hours to how English language learners learn and acquire language.
Brenda Cassellius Will Be the New Superintendent of Boston Public Schools
The Boston School Committee has voted to confirm Brenda Cassellius — a career educator who rose from paraprofessional to state commissioner, mostly in Minnesota — as the next superintendent of Boston Public Schools.
Guatemalan teen falls ill, dies after transfer to U.S. border shelter
A 16-year-old Guatemalan boy who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without his parents fell ill while in federal custody and died Tuesday after spending several days in intensive care at a hospital in Texas, U.S. Health and Human Services said Wednesday.
Hurricane Maria's Legacy: Thousands of Puerto Rican Students Show PTSD Symptoms
Food shortages, damaged homes, fear of death, loved ones leaving. The cumulative stresses of Hurricane Maria contributed to thousands of schoolchildren developing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, in Puerto Rico, according to a study published Friday.
Beginning Bilingual: California Awards 6 Grants on Teaching PreK Dual Language Learners in California
For the first time, this fiscal year the California Department of Education awarded $5 million through the Dual Language Learners Professional Development Grant to six organizations to train preschool teachers who work with dual-language learners.
English-Learners and Graduation: How ESSA Could Penalize ELLs and Their Schools
The nation's federal K-12 law may be penalizing older English-language learners and the schools that educate them, a new report from the Migration Policy Institute argues. By making four-year graduation rates such a prominent part of school accountability plans, the Every Student Succeeds Act could lead administrators in traditional high schools to turn away older English-learner students who may need additional time to earn their high school diplomas, posits Julie Sugarman, a senior policy analyst with the institute and the report's author.
'Do They Kick Out Pregnant People?' Navigating College With Kids
Nearly 4 million college students are student parents — that's about a fifth of all undergraduates. "These are the people we need to be investing in," says Lindsey Reichlin Cruse, who studies student parents at the Institute for Women's Policy Research. "They're really facing the odds, working hard to provide for their families and that's what this country is built on." And the data shows that investing in these students is a good bet. Student parents have better GPAs and grades than their classmates without kids. But, they are less likely to graduate. "It's these other factors, these life factors that get in the way," says Reichlin Cruse.
'They deserve to be heard’: Poetry project gives a voice to high school English language learners
ESL teachers at a high school in Hawaii believed a poetry project would help their language learners express themselves. The school has now self-published the collection of poems.