ELL News Headlines

One Charlottesville, Va., elementary school teacher grapples with how to have this conversation with her students the week after the violence erupted in her city just as a new school year is about to begin.

A group of mayors and county officials from around the country wrote to President Trump Tuesday, asking him to defend the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program from a potential court challenge led by Texas.

The Trump administration on Wednesday formally terminated an Obama-era program that granted Central American minors temporary legal residence in the United States, shutting the door on 2,714 people who had won conditional approval to enter the country.

Whether you're a teacher who's already back in school or one who's heading back soon, we hope this blog can serve as resource to you. Here are links to some stories that have caught our eye this month along with a look ahead at some upcoming notable events.

What can educators do to make English language learners (ELLs) and immigrant students feel welcome within the school community?  Here are some of our most popular resources on the topic, along with related resources.  We also include a list of organizations that have related lesson plans on race, civil rights, and immigration, as well as booklists for kids and teens and the latest lesson plans focused on recent events in Charlottesville, VA.

How should educators confront bigotry, racism and white supremacy? The incidents in Charlottesville, Va., this past weekend pushed that question from history to current events.

Valerie Strauss of The Washington Post writes, "The 2017-2018 school year is getting started, and teachers nationwide should expect students to want to discuss what happened in Charlottesville as well as other expressions of racial and religious hatred in the country. While such discussions are often seen as politically charged and teachers like to steer clear of politics, these conversations are about fundamental American values, and age-appropriate ways of discussing hatred and tolerance in a diverse and vibrant democracy are as important as anything young people can learn in school. Civics education has taken a back seat to reading and math in recent years in 'the era of accountability,' but it is past time for it to take center stage again in America’s schools."

A common complaint among English-language-learner educators is that high-quality learning materials are hard to come by. The Council of the Great City Schools wants to do something about it. The council—which represents 70 of the nation's largest urban public school systems—has formed a purchasing consortium to encourage the production of better instructional materials for English-learners.

When Bao Bao left the National Zoo for China, thousands of fans showed up in February to bid the giant panda adieu. To Kyree Cox, who had grown to love the spunky bear during Bao Bao’s three and half years in Washington, it felt like saying goodbye to a childhood friend. "I thought, after they took her, 'She's going to be gone forever. Why?'" the 18-year-old D.C. student said. But last month Cox found himself in an unlikely position: on the other side of the globe, staring into the majestic animal's eyes again. This time, he was her caretaker.

April Salazar longs to make her Grandma Alice's tortillas with her daughter. It is the same tortilla recipe her grandmother's mother made in Baja California and later in Tucson, Arizona, after she fled the Mexican Revolution. There's just one problem: she needs the stars to align… and the cooperation of her two-year-old daughter.