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Don’t miss our updated collection of children’s and young adult booklists, featuring more than 30 new titles written by/about American Indians and Alaska Natives. Books are organized by topic and range from traditional bilingual stories to photo essays about contemporary American Indian families. We encourage you to get creative and look for opportunities to include these books throughout the year and across the curriculum!
For suggestions on selecting other related titles, take a look at Tips for Choosing Culturally Appropriate Books & Resources About Native Americans by Dr. Cathy Gutierrez-Gomez.
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These books and multimedia resources tell the stories of "Code Talkers", Native Americans who were recruited during multiple wars by the U.S. military to use their languages as a secret code. While many Americans never knew of their heroism and contributions to history, these resources help ensure that their legacy will be recognized by future generations.
Thanks to Debbie Reese, Ph.D., (Nambé Pueblo) at American Indians in Children's Literature for her recommendations on these titles and the titles featured in the booklists above.
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Our multilingual tips for parents, available in multiple languages that include Diné (Navajo), offer many ways for parents to help kids become successful readers. Although we've divided these tips by age, many of them can be used with children at various ages and stages.
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As National Adoption Month winds down, we are pleased to share our resource section featuring a number of tools for parents and educators of internationally adopted children who may be English language learners.
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Dr. Laurie Weaver is a Professor of Bilingual and Multicultural studies at the University of Houston-Clear Lake. Laurie is also a proud single parent of Marisa, whom Laurie adopted from Guatemala when Marisa was about six months old. We interviewed Laurie to ask her about the language development of internationally adopted children.
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Our new blog post from Diane Staehr Fenner focuses on themes she's been noticing while she has been busy out in the field: supporting students with trauma; young dual language learners; and dual language programming. For each theme, Diane shares what she's noticing in terms of urgency or demographics, suggests some ideas on what you can do to address these issues, and provides a few resources for each topic in case you’re interested in learning more.
 
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The following article was written by an ELL district-level leader about her recent efforts to create a supportive community for immigrant students and families, as well as staff, throughout her district. Her strategies represent a wide range of activities, from reviewing school enrollment forms to forming community support teams. There are a number of practical tips here for ELL educators and school leaders in a variety of contexts.
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Community Support for ELLS
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All students and families, including ELLs, can benefit from strong community support of their school. This may happen through partnerships with organizations or local businesses, volunteerism, or other kinds of projects. Here are some great examples of schools looking for creative ways to address their families’ needs – and remember, it’s ok if you don’t have anything in place yet! Start small, and build on your early successes.
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When building a support network for ELLs, community organizations can play a valuable role and offer resources that schools may not have at their disposal. Take a look at these strategies for getting started.
See more
See more great examples and articles from projects like an autism screening clinic and a local neighborhood park in our related resource section.
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Visit Wolfe Street Academy, a community school in Baltimore, MD with more than 76% ELLs, to see how community partnerships are supporting students and families through programs and services that include dental screenings, food giveaways, after-school activities, and much, much more.
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 Community Schools: Video Interview Highlights
Our Wolfe Street resource page includes in-depth interviews with school leaders, staff, parents, and partners. Here are some of our favorite clips! (Parent clips are in Spanish with English subtitles.)
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Making Community Connections: How Two Schools Have Used Hit TV Shows for Inspiration
These two examples showcase how schools were inspired by popular television shows to engage their students and staff in an exciting project. (And of course, you don’t need a TV show filming down the street to try a new idea!)
- Buffalo, NY: Principal Kevin Eberle from International Preparatory School at Grover Cleveland High School in Buffalo, New York shares what happened when the show Extreme Home Makeover™ came to Buffalo. Inspired by the show, the school held their own “extreme” neighborhood clean-up and food drive, bringing positive attention to the school from the media, local neighbors, and the city.
- Prince William County, VA: Inspired by The Amazing Race™, Principal Nathaniel Provencio and Assistant Principal Deborah Ellis of Minnieville Elementary School started the school’s own annual "Amazing Race" back-to-school event, in which new staff first go on exciting scavenger hunts through the school and then into the students’ neighborhoods in order to get to know their new school community better. The event culminates with a family receiving new school supplies and furniture such as bookshelves or desks for doing homework.
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For students and families who are new to winter weather, this article offer ideas on how to address both the fun and challenging aspects of winter with lots of examples from schools across the U.S. and Canada.
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See our booklists, lesson plans, and brief video with teacher Amber (Prentice) Jimenez about ELLs’ first experiences of snow.
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Literacy expert Rachael Walker offers lots of ideas on places that can provide free books for your school, library, or community program.
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Field trips can have lots of benefits for ELLs as well as their classmates – students get in-depth, hands-on experiences and a chance to build background knowledge that can contribute to their academic success. While organizing a field trip for students and families who speak multiple languages can be daunting, a little bit of planning can go a long way. Kristina Robertson offers some insight into ways to make the field trip experience with ELLs go more smoothly and to provide a meaningful academic experience.
Virtual Field Trips
If you can’t leave the building, take a look at these online resources for students!
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Inviting Guests to the Classroom
Visitors from the community have a lot to offer your students – new experiences and perspectives, different kinds of language models, and a chance for engagement. As with field trips, however, some extra planning will help your ELLs and your visitor get the most out of the experience. Here are some tips! (Many of the featured tips targeted towards adult ESL learners can be adapted for K-12 settings.)
For more general ideas, see Invite Community Guests to Your Classroom! by fourth-grade teacher Lindsey Petlak.
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Parent Resources and Outreach
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Parents of ELLs may not know that the library is available for their use, even if they are immigrants (documented or undocumented). Here are some great bilingual resources explaining what is available for kids of all ages, including kids with special needs. Don't miss our related bilingual tip sheet too!
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By John Herrington
 Astronaut John Herrington shares his passion for space travel and his Chickasaw heritage as he gives children a glimpse into his astronaut training at NASA and his mission to the International Space Station. Learn what it takes to train for space flight, see the tasks he completed in space, and join him on his spacewalk 220 miles above the earth. This unique children's book is illustrated with photos from Herrington's training and space travel and includes an English-to-Chickasaw vocabulary list with space-related terms.
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In 2016, First Nations Development Institute (First Nations) partnered with Debbie Reese, Ph.D., (Nambé Pueblo), to create the Native American Children's Literature Recommended Reading List and Discussion Guide to encourage a "national read" and discussion about these important Native narratives.
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First Book is currently running a special promotion on books from its Favorite Series and Characters section of the First Book Marketplace. In this section you can find books kids love, from board books to YA, including bilingual titles which can help families read together, and titles in Spanish to support Spanish-dominant newcomers. Books from this section are 20% off the already reduced First Book price using promo code FAVEGIFTS at checkout. Free shipping is included for orders of $25 or more. This opportunity is first-come, first-served while funding lasts. This promotion is made possible with generous support from Disney.
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