ELL News Headlines

In this interview with Larry Ferlazzo, Raquel Ríos answers a few questions about her new book, Teacher Agency for Equity: A Framework for Conscientious Engagement. Raquel is an Instructional Designer at New Teacher Center, a national resource on mentoring and coaching for teacher effectiveness located in Santa Cruz, Calif. Her research focuses on language, literacy, and critical mindfulness in education. She lives and works out of New York City.

When the fourth-graders in Mrs. Marlem Diaz-Brown's class returned to school on Monday, they were tasked with writing their first essay of the year. The topic was familiar: Hurricane Irma. By Wednesday, they had worked out their introduction and evidence paragraphs and were brainstorming their personal experiences. To help them remember, Mrs. D-B had them draw out a timeline — starting Friday before the storm. Then, based on their drawings, they could start to talk about — and eventually, write about — what they experienced.

A TED Talk shaped Michelle Cottrell-Williams' perspective as a teacher. The talk, led by scholar Brene Brown, delved into how vulnerability and shame influence people's connections with one another, Cottrell-Williams recalled. The 35-year-old teacher took the lesson to heart and, since then, has made it a point to talk less and listen more to her students, to let them be the guides for their own learning. "I learned how important empathy is," she said. Cottrell-Williams, a social studies teacher at Wakefield High School in Arlington County, was named Virginia Teacher of the Year on Monday. She was selected from among educators representing eight regions across the state.

The state of Illinois is home to the fifth-largest Spanish-speaking population in the United States, with thousands of children from bilingual homes heading to Illinois schools. As the university that provides one out of every eight teachers in the state, Illinois State's College of Education is making strides to equip current and future elementary school teachers with the skill set to teach English learners and bilingual children in the classroom.

After a sizable earthquake struck near Mexico City on Tuesday and Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico on Wednesday, Northwest Indiana residents with ties to both areas are watching closely and waiting to hear from loved ones.

A 7.1 earthquake shook the region near Mexico City on Tuesday, knocking down buildings and killing dozens of people. Judy Woodruff learns more about the destruction from Richard Ensor of The Economist.

In 2015, Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha discovered the lead contamination after Flint, Mich., switched its drinking water source. She talks with NPR's Michel Martin about helping reverse the problem.

Despite legislation already on the runway in Congress, it's unclear whether lawmakers will approve permanent legal protections for undocumented immigrants brought to the United States illegally when they were minors — even as President Donald Trump sends strong signals he wants such a deal for the so-called "Dreamers." Also unclear: what if any role education policy will play in those arguments in Washington.

Abeer and Nora al-Sheikh Bakri are sisters from Douma, Syria. They fled their homeland in 2012 after their country's civil war engulfed the city. They spent four years in Egypt before being resettled in Clarkson, Georgia, in 2016 with other members of their families. Suffice to say they know what it’s like to watch homes crumble before their eyes. So when Hurricane Irma bore its weight down on the southeastern U.S., displacing more than half a million people by Sunday, they sprung into action.

Last spring, in a weathered trailer in Bar Elias, Lebanon within walking distance from the nearby refugee camps, Syrian teenagers were hard at work at Arabic, math, science, and English lessons. For many of the students in the makeshift schoolhouse, refugees who have fled war and violence in their home country, it was the first time they had sat in a classroom in years.