ELL News Headlines

Let’s look closely at the literacy work that can be done with comics and graphic novels in literacy instruction, particularly with upper elementary and middle grades students. While some strategies helpfully focus on work at the word level, these visual texts afford additional possibilities.

The new school year brings the end of universal free meals for many students. In 2020, Congress gave schools waivers to provide free breakfast and lunches regardless of income, but that expired at the start of September. Students and families still can apply for free meals if they meet income thresholds.

Swarmed after school by concerned Korean parents, Heejae Lim often found her mom acting as an unofficial liaison between her teachers and friends’ families who spoke little to no English. Lim, an education technology entrepreneur and TED Fellow, watched as her mother would answer questions every day about how to support their child’s learning, parent-teacher conferences and cultural barriers around school jargon. Growing up in an immigrant family, Lim resonated with their struggles and later explored solutions to family-school partnerships as the founder and CEO of TalkingPoints, a communication app that helps multilingual and underserved families connect with their child’s teachers.

Thanks to a new cultural exchange, city public schools are welcoming 25 new bilingual educators from the Dominican Republic this month.

More than 100 students in Lodi Unified School District spent part of the summer running relays and braiding jump-ropes from plastic bags, all while learning more complex writing and reading skills in English. This summer school program was designed to strengthen English language skills for elementary and middle school students who speak another language at home and have not yet mastered English. At the same time, it aimed to give the 16 teachers who participated the skills to support these students throughout the school year. The program, titled “The Prolific Plastic Pollution Problem,” focused on the history of plastic and the effects of plastic pollution.

Stamford schools usually see a large influx of students new to the country over the summer, and this season, one particular group has had a spike in numbers: Ukrainians.

More than a year after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, plunging the nation into a humanitarian crisis in which girls have been forced from school and women from the workforce, thousands of young refugees who’ve fled the beleaguered nation are thriving inside American classrooms. Roughly 85,000 Afghan nationals have arrived in the United States as part of Operation Allies Welcome, President Joe Biden’s August 2021 initiative to aid those who worked alongside American military personnel and who were forced to escape after the U.S.’s chaotic pullout. It’s unclear how many of these refugees are school-aged but 44% of those held at U.S. military bases upon arrival last year were children — and more are en route, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

The M.S. in Environmental Science program at the UTSA College of Sciences and the UTSA Master of Social Work program in the College for Health, Community and Policy were recently named finalists in the graduate category for the 2022 Examples of Excelencia program by Excelencia in Education.

Fueled by her own childhood experience as an English language learner, a Milwaukee medical school student is collecting donations of books for newly arrived Afghan children.

State Superintendent Chris Reykdal announced Aug. 25 that he would be looking to expand dual-language education programs across Washington state in a push to build bilingualism in the state.