ELL News Headlines

In elementary school, interactive read-alouds are commonly used to build various literacy skills, such as students’ listening comprehension, background knowledge, vocabulary, and understanding of language structures. Beyond their academic benefits, however, read-alouds can also serve as a support for developing social and emotional learning (SEL) skills. 

The use of education technology in schools, such as artificial intelligence, digital surveillance and content filters, poses a threat to the civil rights of students with disabilities, LGBTQ students and students of color, a new report released Wednesday warns.

At 12 feet tall, Little Amal is hard to miss. But the towering puppet, who represents a 10-year-old Syrian refugee searching for her mother, has already had an outsized impact on people worldwide as she carries a message of hope for marginalized people everywhere.

Next month, the Cherry Creek School District will open a first-of-its-kind facility — part school, part therapeutic mental health facility — to meet the needs of students in crisis. The number of facilities in Colorado that serve students with intense mental health or behavioral needs has drastically dwindled over the past 20 years, leaving many children without critical care. The new Traverse Academy is an effort to address that problem.

Author and illustrator Jerry Craft, who won a Newbery Medal for his graphic novel The New Kid, had never been to Africa. The New York City native had also never visited a school outside of the United States. So he had no clue what to expect from students when he arrived at Nyaani Primary School in the rural Kenyan village of Wamunyu in July. "They were singing and dancing. And then we all stood up one by one and they gave us Swahili names," says Craft, who was dubbed "Nyeusi," which means "Black." It was quite the introduction for Craft and the rest of the literacy team assembled by his buddy Kwame Alexander, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of 39 books, including Newbery Medal-winner The Undefeated.

New York City’s school bus workers have reached a tentative contract agreement with bus companies servicing thousands of routes — meaning a majority of families who could have been impacted by a strike will see uninterrupted bus services.

As National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, Meg Medina is making history as the first to hold office hours. The Newbery-winning author is launching Meet Meg Medina: Family Office Hours with the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, an opportunity for DC-area families to speak with her for 20 minutes at the Library of Congress. In each session, children, teens, and family members can talk about their favorite books and ask questions about writing. Medina will share her favorite Library of Congress resources as well as book recommendations connected to a child’s interests.

Today’s posts wraps up a three-part series on English-language learners and math instruction.

The READ Act, passed by the Minnesota legislature, mandates that school districts switch to a literacy approach that emphasizes the science of reading. But it didn’t focus on the experiences or needs of multilingual learners. Sahan Journal checked in with schools that serve immigrant communities to see how the new approach may work.