ELL News Headlines

Someone who can communicate in many languages has mental flexibility, an expansive vocabulary, and more. Students in our classrooms with languages other than English in their linguistic repertoires have advantages. The question for us educators is how we tap into that linguistic capital — especially if we do not speak or understand the languages that our students know. How and why do other languages fit into the mainstream classroom?

A group of 12 parents stood inside the Glendale-Mountain View Community Learning Center's learning lab in Salt Lake City Friday morning waiting to receive their diplomas. They were the latest cohort to graduate from the Padres Comprometidos program.

For the past 25 years, the American Library Association has been granting the Pura Belpré Award to young adult and children’s literature that “allows Latinx children to see themselves represented, and for all children to see Latinx protagonists in their books.” But the history of how storyteller and librarian Pura Belpré ended up at the 115th Street branch and her contributions to New York City's public library system are not always taught to younger generations.

When Luis Paulino started eighth grade at a new school in a new country, he was made to feel like he didn't fit in. Paulino, who arrived in New York from the Dominican Republic in 2006, remembered being bullied for his differences. By 2010, Paulino was no longer the new kid in school. He was a tutor in algebra class, where he first met Angel Gonzalez, another Spanish speaker who had just moved from the Dominican Republic.

Evolving COVID rules have been confusing enough for native English speakers. Parents who speak limited or no English have found it difficult to understand and get answers about the protocols, say educators and advocates who work with immigrant families. That communication gap is often filled by parent leaders and community groups when families can’t get assistance from their schools or are waiting for translated versions of guidance from the education department.

Sylvia Acevedo has been many things in her life —entrepreneur, business leader and a literal rocket scientist. Her journey on the dirt streets of Las Cruces, New Mexico, Acevedo said, and education was the thing that helped her live the "life of my dreams."

Talk about a storybook ending. Author Jamil Jan Kochai searched for more than a decade for Susan Lung — the second-grade teacher who had changed his life over 20 years earlier. And on Saturday night, in one of those "life is better than fiction" twists, the two were finally reunited at one of his book-reading events.

A colleague from Kyiv, Ukraine, whom I’ll call N.M., sent me brief essays her students wrote on what they would do when the war ends. As both a scholar and a novelist, I knew that these voices, which expressed a beautifully straightforward and pure yearning for the simplest things that are lost in war, needed to be heard by the world.

Designing instruction that is accessible to English learners (ELs), or multilingual learners, is of the utmost importance. It’s simply not enough to make content available to learners. That’s like being given a car but no keys to use it. Equitable instruction is instruction that provides every learner with what they need for academic success.

A growing number of children’s book authors and literacy activists have been pushing for more bilingual books for kids. That objective resonates with many bilingual households, particularly in California, where more than a quarter of residents speak Spanish as a first language.