ELL News Headlines

An experienced educator offers practical tips to help English language learning specialists work effectively with classroom teachers.

I imagine the objective of the original family tree exercise was never to fill in box after box in rote fashion but to foster curiosity among children and conversation with their elders around history, connection and contribution.

This post continues a series in which educators share what they have learned from their biggest teaching mistakes.

Taking a break from textbooks or novels to read a comic is celebratory for students, even if the content of the book can be weighty. The use of artwork alongside text makes for a compelling reading experience that makes a story come alive. This is true for history and nonfiction, where words and images work together to invite students to participate in the narrative. 

Of all the magical story time moments I’ve witnessed as a librarian, the most mesmerizing was watching a yoga instructor quiet a room of 20 rioting, rambunctious toddlers with a glitter calming jar.

Federal accountability measures under the Every Student Succeeds Act include the outcomes of English learners in evaluating schools for improvement. That’s both in terms of the students’ English-language proficiency progress and their test scores in math and English/language arts.

The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, in partnership with the de Grummond Children’s Literature Collection at the University of Southern Mississippi, has announced the 2024 Ezra Jack Keats Award winners.  The annual award is given to early career authors and illustrators for excellence in portraying the multicultural nature of the world.

People develop their literacies in a variety of contexts, and regardless of content, we all rely on language as a medium of learning. All students are language learners, and all teachers are language teachers. Because learning requires language, language and literacies should be at the core of all educational practices, centered across subjects and disciplines.

Carrie Richardson, a teacher at Place Bridge Academy in Colorado, has noticed the enrollment at this newcomer center for Denver Public Schools is continuing to climb higher and higher. Place Bridge Academy enrolls around 850 students in preschool through 12th grade, said Richardson, who is a grade 4-5 educator of newcomer students. Over 50 languages are spoken at Place Bridge Academy, as well. Other schools in the district are also facing a surge in this population, she said, which is driving concerns that schools’ budget cycles can’t keep up with growing enrollment.

Students whose parents lack a Social Security number can finally fill out federal financial aid forms after the Biden administration announced a workaround Tuesday for one of the most glaring problems with what was supposed to be a simpler, easier form.