ELL News Headlines

It's common for Latino Americans to not be fluent in Spanish. According to the Pew Research Center, 24% of all Latino American adults say they can “only carry on a conversation in Spanish a little or not at all,” and 54% of non-Spanish-speaking Latino Americans say they’ve been shamed by other Latinos for not speaking Spanish.

On this edition of Conversations Kelly Yang talks with host Dan Skinner about the the fifth book in the Front Desk series, Top Story. Yang is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of many books for young readers, including the Front Desk series of novels.

Autumn is the perfect time to indulge in all things creepy and spine-tingling. Yet the season of ghosts and ghouls still has tons to offer those who prefer their fall reading to be on the sweeter side. These charming graphic novels for middle grade readers feature everything you’d expect from spooky season—haunted hayrides, magic, monster-hunting, and more—yet the stories are cozy, like a mug of hot cider. No matter the time of year, curl up with these titles and enjoy the gentle autumnal vibes.

Dr. Henry Saylor-Scheetz is principal of San Tan Heights K-8, a public school in San Tan Valley, Ariz. In this article, he writes, "At San Tan Heights K-8, my team and I are looking at every aspect of how we educate students. Among the most important changes we’ve made is departmentalizing our teaching teams by subjects in grades K-8. Our grade-level teachers are now specialists, and our students rotate between classrooms — starting in kindergarten."

Crow Farms sells to local school districts in the state as part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s expanded Local Food for Schools program in Oklahoma, which connects school districts with local farmers and ranchers to purchase locally-grown food. The program, which launched in the state last spring, is funded through a $3 million cooperative agreement with Oklahoma’s Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry. Similar programs run in states like Texas, New York and California.

School district leaders around the country are taking steps to help their communities process the Hamas attack from the weekend and the ensuing Israeli response.

For the past four years, I served as superintendent of Oxnard School District, located 30 miles up the California coast from Malibu. But unlike Malibu, most of our school district’s 14,000 students come from low-income, Spanish-speaking families. Yet, not all of our Latino families consider Spanish their first or second language. Nearly 500 families reported speaking Mixteco, an Indigenous language of Southern Mexico, which has scores of variants. For a long time, though, Mixteco wasn’t represented in any of our literacy materials, often making it hard for families to read together. 

New research from Gallup and Amazon found mentorship positively impacted young adults in their career outcomes, but professionals from low-income backgrounds were less likely to have those figures in their lives. The report offers three recommendations for potential role models.

Today’s post is the second in an ongoing series offering strategies to support older students experiencing reading challenges.