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How California teachers are making bilingual education work online

Zaidee Stavely

November 06, 2020 |

EdSource |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Fresno, California

Teachers in some California dual-language classrooms are coming up with creative ways to help students practice and learn languages during remote-only learning. Across Fresno Unified School District, teachers develop and share lessons, record videos, and have students use educational programs like Flipgrid or Seesaw so students can record themselves speaking Spanish. During some Zoom breakout groups, teachers select a fluent language speaker in the group to model pronunciation for others.

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Innovative program helps Lawrence, MA, get off the mat

Tom Condon

November 02, 2020 |

The Connecticut Mirror |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Lawrence, Massachusetts

A program in Lawrence, MA has helped hundreds of families to enter the paid labor force by connecting with them via their children’s’ schools. Using a $700,000 grant, the program connects with parents when they register a child for school. Schools offer programs through resource centers that help them get the training and connections needed to find a job. Oftentimes the parents also get an actual job referral. A key component of the program is English language training as well as skills courses in healthcare, education, manufacturing, and other fields.

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Carlsbad Literacy Program begins in-person instruction after months of closure

Miranda Cyr

October 02, 2020 |

Las Cruces Sun-News |

Multi-Media |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Carlsbad, New Mexico

The Carlsbad Literacy Program provides free tutoring to adults who want help with their literacy skills. The program's students in the program include English language learners, and also helps with citizenship skills, and preparing for the High School Equivalency Test. The program is a nonprofit, which started in 1985, and relies on volunteers to serve as tutors.

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Harvard medical student knocks down a big barrier to COVID-19 info

Julia Sklar

September 26, 2020 |

The Boston Globe |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Boston, Massachusetts

A volunteer organization is helping to address a language barrier as it pertains to COVID-19 by translating and distributing public health information in the native languages of tribes. Although this is not as simple as translating word-for-word since some of the words do not exist in the local dialects and because some of the guidelines are not practical for the communities, the organization has translated the health sheets into 45 different languages and has worked with "schoolchildren in the tribe to act as conduits for the information."

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How Angela Merkel's great migrant gamble paid off

Philip Oltermann

August 30, 2020 |

The Guardian |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Germany

Five years after Germany sparked controversy with a welcoming message to the flood of refugees applying for asylum, more than half of those 1.7 million refugees have work and pay taxes, their youth show strong signs of belonging to their German communities, and more than 10,000 have mastered the language enough to enroll in German universities. Refuting anti-immigrant skeptics meant overcoming, or enduring, enormous social and economic challenges. Despite many bumps, the policy now appears to have avoided the nightmare scenarios foreseen by critics, such as inviting even more refugees.

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Can infusing western education revive northern Nigeria's Almajiranci system?

Hauwa Shaffii Nuhu

June 21, 2020 |

Minority Africa |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Nigeria, Niger

The Almajiranci system has been criticized for not integrating Western education and English lessons. To solve the issue, Malam Na’ibi, who owns an Almajiri school, started homeschooling around 30 students on subjects like math and English. These students can’t afford to attend schools that integrate Western education. “I just want to be able to speak the English language. I have never missed a class since we started.” Almajiranci school experts say the homeschooling method employed by Malam Na’ibi is exemplary of inclusive educational reforms that need to happen with the wider Almajiranci school system.

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‘I just need a connection': the refugees teaching languages across borders

Ruth Michaelson

June 17, 2020 |

The Guardian |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: Lebanon

NaTakallam offers classes in Arabic, Spanish, Persian and French that are taught by refugees. The 64 teachers conduct classes with 770 students entirely online, allowing people from all over the world to learn from native speakers. It also circumvents work restrictions for refugees in their new homes, which means they can earn money. The group’s teachers also speak in university classes, offer translation services, and some now work on New York University’s Arabic-language program. Deep friendships that help combat the isolation experienced by many refugees have also emerged from the online classes.

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Teton County shows promise in paying off 'education debt'

Tom Hallberg

June 03, 2020 |

Jackson Hole News & Guide |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Wyoming

Schools in Teton County are successfully addressing the achievement gap between English language learners, kids who don't have a strong grasp on English, and white students by taking a holistic approach. In order to improve graduation rates among ELL students, teachers, and administrators are focused on early interventions like additional lessons, and a funding model that offers more flexibility for the school's resource allocation. “If all of our students don’t feel connected to school culturally, it doesn’t matter what you do, they won’t do well.”

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The translators giving indigenous migrants a voice

Megan Janetsky Victoria Stunt

April 20, 2020 |

BBC |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Guatemala

The group, Promoters of Migrant Liberation, provides translation of indigenous Guatemalan, Maya, Mexican, and Afro-Caribbean languages for migrants in US detention centers. They help translate right from detention, throughout case preparation, and as migrants exit detention centers. The group is made up of only women translating for women migrants, but as detention centers see more migrants as a result of zero-tolerance policies, they’re going to expand to help children and men.

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Save the Words

Lorraine Boissoneault

April 01, 2020 |

The Believer |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Menominee, Wisconsin

Efforts are underway on the Menominee Reservation in northeastern Wisconsin to preserve the at-risk language of Menominee. That looks like conducting school entirely in Menominee, printing Menominee-language books, updating the language with twenty-first-century terms, and poring over old texts and audio transcripts to transfer vocabulary into a database. There are many challenges facing this initiative and many of the workers are volunteers or poorly-compensated, but those doing the work feel a great sense of responsibility and duty to carry on.

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