ELL News Headlines

It’s been a little over 80 years since President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, forcibly relocating all Japanese immigrants and their descendants into concentration camps after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Many of the prisoners were American citizens. These nonfiction and fiction titles will illuminate the injustices they endured and shine a light on their resilience to survive this betrayal.

English and health studies are 14-year-old Dilip Godiya’s favorite subjects. Unlike other subjects taught at his school in the city of Nepalgunj, they don’t require him to be effortlessly fluent in Nepali. Dilip grew up speaking Awadhi at home, the mother tongue of half a million Nepalis and millions more in northern India, so adjusting to Nepali as a language of learning was a major challenge. Until fourth grade, he found it difficult to read and hesitated from speaking up in class.

Fifteen months ago, Dev Shah spent a miserable five hours spelling outdoors in chilly, windy, damp conditions at a supersize regional competition in Orlando, Florida, only to fall short of his dream of returning to the Scripps National Spelling Bee. He did return, and asking precise questions about obscure Greek roots, Dev rushed through his second-to-last word and rolled to the National Spelling Bee title Thursday night.

Controversies over how best to teach children to read go back many years. Most recently, two questions have emerged that leave teachers of English learners puzzled: First, does research on reading, sometimes referred to as "the science of reading," include English learners, or is it based solely on English-speaking monolinguals? Second, do English learners, also known as emergent bilinguals, have a "bilingual brain" that requires a fundamentally different sort of reading instruction than monolingual students require?

Throughout the Falmouth, MA school district, 5.8 percent of students are in English Language Development classes, and that number has been increasing steadily over the years. In 2011, just one percent of students were in ELD classes.

Ethnic media outlets can be a lifeline for new immigrants who lack a firm grasp of English. They introduce their readers to civic life in America and to each other. They can be especially helpful in places like New Jersey, where communities are spread out rather than concentrated in big cities. Sino Monthly, with six people on the payroll, never aimed to be a paper of record. In fact, it is one, having become a staple for New Jersey's Chinese community.

After María Mejía's son was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder in preschool, the question of where he should go to kindergarten focused entirely on his special education needs. Mejía and her husband, Spanish-speaking immigrants from the Dominican Republic, only later learned that Joangel, now 7, would have been an ideal candidate for one of the four elementary schools in Boston that teach students in both English and Spanish, Joangel’s first language. Experts say such programs offer English learners the best chance at academic success. BPS has pledged to start dozens more. But kids like Joangel, who have individualized education plans, are often left out, their families unwittingly forced to place them into English-only special education programs to help meet their learning needs. Mejía said she was shocked when she learned there was an alternative.

Outside Chevak School, in western Alaska, the lake is ice, and the snowy tundra unfurls to the Bering Sea. But that doesn't stop new, first-grade teacher Amelia Tulim from trying to lighten the mood with an outdoor egg hunt. Inside the colorful plastic eggs: small, animal-shaped erasers.

Spirits, magic, mythology, and more — take a look at these fantasy YA novels that School Library Journal recommends for Pride Month during June.

In Texas today, a judge will hear the latest challenge to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program. Here & Now's Deepa Fernandes talks to Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us, a bipartisan organization lobbying for immigration reform, and Norma Ramirez, a beneficiary of the program.