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Childish Gambino - This Is America (Official Video)

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Childish Gambino

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Childish Gambino - This Is America (Official Video)

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Migrants from all over the world make their way to Arizona’s southern border

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From PBS Newshour

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Migrants from all over the world make their way to Arizona’s southern border

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Migrant crossings on the Arizona-Mexico border have remained high this year. While much of the conversation has been focused on Texas, Arizona has been one of the busiest border sections this year. Amna Nawaz reports from Pima County, where people from all over the world come to enter the U.S.

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For Dimensions Post

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When a Salvadoran woman grabbed her 4-year-old daughter and fled their home country in February, the coronavirus wasn't yet a global pandemic.

By the time they reached the U.S.-Mexico border a month later, that had changed. She crossed the Rio Grande, planning to ask for asylum. But Border Patrol agents took her and her daughter right back to Mexico, despite her pleas.

"They told me they didn't care," the woman said in Spanish, asking us not to use her name, out of fear for her safety. "They didn't care what happened to my life. That I had to go - whether to Mexico, to El Salvador, to wherever I wanted, but I wasn't getting into the U.S."

Since March, immigration officials have turned away tens of thousands of migrants like this woman and her daughter. They carried out more than 105,000 rapid expulsions through the end of July, under a public health order that has closed the border to migrants during the coronavirus pandemic, according to data released Thursday. Those expulsions included families and unaccompanied children.

Immigrant advocates say it's the culmination of a three-year push to end asylum protections for most migrants from Central America. They say most migrants are turned away with no access to due process, often without any explanation.

"The administration believes they found the silver bullet with the public health laws where they can just simply bypass the entire asylum system," said Lee Gelernt, the deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Immigrants' Rights Project, which has clashed frequently with the Trump administration in court.

While the country's attention has been focused on the coronavirus, the Trump administration has also proposed sweeping new regulations that would permanently limit asylum protections for migrants arriving at the southern border.
Closed the border to asylum-seekers
The proposed rules would restrict who falls into various categories - asylum protects people who face persecution for their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a social group - and make it easier for immigration judges to reject asylum requests out of hand.

The White House has complained for years that these migrants are trying to escape from poverty-stricken countries in Central America and are using fake or exaggerated claims to game an overly generous U.S. asylum system.

President Trump has repeatedly called asylum a "scam." At an event with Border Patrol agents in El Centro, Calif., last year, he said: "Our system is full. We're not taking them anymore, OK? Can't do it."

U.S. asylum law traces its roots to World War II. But administration officials argue that asylum-seekers arriving at the southern border are fundamentally different from the refugees fleeing persecution during and after the war. And the administration has worked for years to chip away at asylum protections.

Now it has effectively closed the border to asylum-seekers.

Just as the pandemic was taking off in March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an order that closed the border to migrants and other travelers without valid travel documents, citing "the danger to the public health" posed by holding such travelers in crowded detention facilities near the border.
Asylum-seekers not getting "credible fear" interviews
The same day, the Department of Homeland Security closed the border to all "non-essential" travelers - including migrants coming to seek asylum.

Immigration lawyers say what's happening to those migrants at the border is unprecedented.

"They have been basically pushed away from the United States with no process whatsoever," said Tania Guerrero, an immigration lawyer with the Catholic Legal Immigration Network who is based in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.

"The first question to always answer is, what happened to me?" Guerrero said. "They have no idea what happened. Everyone explains it to be extremely fast and that they're not able to express their fears."

That's a big deal because it means they don't have an opportunity to seek asylum. In the past, migrants were able to make their case to asylum officers. If they were found to have a "credible fear" of persecution in their home country, they would have been allowed to make their case in U.S. immigration court.

Now immigrant advocates say many asylum-seekers are not getting these credible fear interviews, the first step in the process.

A spokesman with Customs and Border Protection told NPR that's handled on a case-by-case basis but declined to explain how it determines who gets to the interview stage while the border is closed because of the pandemic.

The Salvadoran woman who arrived at the border in late March said she never got a chance to ask for asylum or an interview.

She said she left El Salvador with her daughter to escape an abusive ex-partner, the girl's father, who had threatened to kill her. That was in late February.

When the woman and her daughter reached Texas, she said Border Patrol agents quickly returned them to the international bridge between El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez. She said officials didn't explain anything to her; they just told her to leave.

"So I started to cry and left the bridge," she said. "Some Mexican officials asked what was going on. ... I told them I didn't have anywhere to go. I didn't know what to do."

The woman and her daughter wound up at a shelter run by the Mexican government where other asylum-seekers have been waiting for their U.S. court dates under another administration program known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, or Remain in Mexico.

Another asylum-seeker, from Guatemala, wound up at the same shelter in Ciudad Juárez, along with her two young daughters. She also asked us not to use her name out of concern for her safety.
Physicians and public health experts skeptical
The shelter has been on lockdown since March - but eventually, the coronavirus still got in. A dozen migrants tested positive in an outbreak.

The Guatemalan woman and her daughters had crossed the border between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez in early April when they encountered immigration officials. It was around 3 a.m. when officials dropped her on the international bridge.

"They grabbed us and told us that they were gonna take us back to Mexico," she recalled in Spanish. "They said that they weren't letting anyone into the U.S. and we didn't have any other option."

The shutdown of nonessential travel at the southern border has broad bipartisan support from Americans who desperately want to stop the spread of COVID-19, according to an NPR/Ipsos poll released this week.

But physicians and public health experts are skeptical. They point out that commerce continues, with truckers, students and others still crossing the border every day - and that those people are just as likely to spread the coronavirus as migrants.

Dozens of public health experts at hospitals and medical schools sent an open letter to the CDC this year, saying in part that "the nation's public health laws should not be used as a pretext for overriding humanitarian laws and treaties that provide life-saving protections to refugees seeking asylum and unaccompanied children."

Still, the administration is standing behind the policy. The CDC has extended its public health order. And the Border Patrol says the policy is working in this pandemic.

"It is a good tool that the U.S. government is using to mitigate the spread," said Border Patrol agent Rafael Garza in an interview with Texas Public Radio.

He downplayed the concerns of public health experts. "Whether it's six experts or six Border Patrol agents, I mean, who you gonna trust?" Garza asked.

Since that interview, confirmed cases of the coronavirus have skyrocketed in Texas - especially in the Rio Grande Valley.

Now the Trump administration is trying to make permanent changes to the asylum system.

Last month, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security proposed a rule that would disqualify migrants from asylum if officials determined they could spread an infectious disease. In a letter dated Thursday, public health experts said the rule would scapegoat asylum-seekers by labeling them as national security threats.
"Rules would end asylum as we know it"
In June, the departments announced other sweeping regulations that would make deep changes to the way asylum claims are reviewed. That has prompted widespread concern - even among government officials who are the first to interview asylum-seekers to determine if their claims are credible.

"These rules would end asylum as we know it," said Michael Knowles, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1924 in the Washington, D.C., area and a special representative for the union, which includes hundreds of asylum officers nationwide.

U.S. law requires a careful case-by-case assessment of each asylum claim, Knowles says. If an asylum-seeker is determined to have a well-founded fear of persecution, the person can't be returned to a country where the individual's life or freedom would be in jeopardy.

"These rules would stand all of that on its head," Knowles said. "The impact would be dire, dire consequences for hundreds of thousands of people who are seeking the protection of the U.S."

A Justice Department news release said the 161-page rule would allow authorities to "more effectively separate baseless claims from meritorious ones" and would clarify when an application is "frivolous."

Once the final rules are announced, immigrant advocates say, they plan to sue to block them, as they have challenged many of the Trump administration's previous efforts to limit asylum.

For now, those lawyers are also focused on trying to fight rapid expulsions at the southern border. They're especially concerned about unaccompanied children who are being turned away.
Administration has built a "shadow immigration system"
In normal times, children who cross the border alone would get special consideration under the law. They're supposed to be handed over quickly to the Department of Health and Human Services, which operates a system of shelters where the children stay until they're placed with relatives or a sponsor.

But immigrant advocates say that's not happening. Instead, immigration officials have been putting up the children in hotels near the border until they can put the children on planes back to their home countries.

The administration has built a "shadow immigration system," said the ACLU's Gelernt, "that bypasses all of the protections Congress has painstakingly enacted for asylum-seekers and children over the past 40 years."

The ACLU and immigrant advocates in Texas have tried to challenge this practice in court but have found themselves instead in a cat-and-mouse game with the administration. Every time they file a lawsuit on behalf of an unaccompanied child, the advocates say, the administration hands the child over to HHS, making the legal challenge moot.

"This is completely unlawful, completely unprecedented," Gelernt said. "And that's why we believe the administration is unwilling to have it tested in court."
Texas Public Radio reporter Reynaldo Leaños Jr. contributed to this story.

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Ending 'Asylum As We Know It': Using Pandemic To Expel Migrants, Children At Border

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When a Salvadoran woman grabbed her 4-year-old daughter and fled their home country in February, the coronavirus wasn't yet a global pandemic. By the time they reached the U.S.-Mexico border a month later, that had changed. She crossed the Rio Grande, planning to ask for asylum.

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Resources from OWL at Purdue for students making the transition

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These OWL resources will help ESL students in second language writing. This section includes resources on writing across the curriculum, writing in the disciplines, and it contains links to OWL workshops and exercises useful for ESL students. This section also includes links to ESL resources on the Internet.

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Engagement & Community

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Project-Based Learning (PBL)

Researchers and educators share how to successfully transfer project-based learning to virtual second- through fifth-grade science classrooms.

The national virtual educational response to COVID-19 has given us the opportunity to revisit what is really important for learning science and reconsider how to best engage students. We found ourselves asking again: What do we care most about? We care about social collaboration, immersing students in investigations of science phenomena, developing artifacts that demonstrate rigorous learning, and then presenting those artifacts for community use.

The Multiple Literacies in Project-Based Learning (ML-PBL) team is made up of researchers, curriculum developers, and teachers. We decided in March, when the first safer-at-home orders were issued, that we would not pivot away from the essential ingredients of science learning. We carefully reconfigured our face-to-face PBL units for grades K-5. These are some of the lessons learned from this collaborative endeavor, from four classrooms, second through fifth grade.

Lesson 1: Students can still build collaboratively.

Students need to work together, handling materials themselves, to be active participants-not observers. Working together during investigations and sharing thinking is an essential part of building a community of learners. Students learn from each other as the teacher facilitates the sensemaking.

Many teachers and researchers think that the projects should be built at home and then shared during virtual time. We disagree-the learning and social motivation are so important that we encourage building during online time.

In Stacey Hodkiewicz's third-grade classroom, the project involved searching for materials around the home and then manipulating them to create a toy. While online, Shondra made a margarine lid into a flying toy, with fins to stabilize it. She described how unbalanced forces applied. Another student used a carton as a boat, with a makeshift cardboard sail. She blew on the boat to use a force to propel it forward, receiving feedback in the chat and verbally from her peers. Because the planning and design stage involved selecting and changing recycled materials, students were engaged physically, creatively, and intellectually.

Lesson 2: Use real-world examples to keep students engaged with science.
Courtesy of Emily Adah Miller / Multiple Literacies in Project-Based Learning
Project-based learning takes place in the real world and helps students see science all around them. One of the essential features of PBL is that students ask scientific questions based on experiencing phenomena firsthand in real time.

We encouraged students to participate together in shared science experiments and observations. In past years, students would focus on the same event, such as the entire class observing a squirrel outside. This mutual focus enabled students to build ideas together. Now, virtually, the same togetherness can be achieved through mutually occurring events and by streaming a teacher demonstration for all students.

Billie Freeland teaches science to multiple elementary grades. When students were learning about shadows, Billie asked her fourth-grade students to go outside for 10 minutes to observe their shadows in order to generate questions. Students brought their tablets. Some students used the iPad camera while on Zoom to show their shadows, allowing Billie to take a screenshot, and some students photographed their shadows and placed them on Google Slides.

Lesson 3: Gestures and nonverbal cues support communication.

We may not be aware of how important nonverbal communication is for students who are participating in sensemaking or collaborating around an artifact in PBL during face-to-face learning. Students rely on cues from the teacher and their peers-proximity, smiles, nods, eye contact, and gestures-to take risks, and they use the same prompts to gauge their own emerging understanding. For example, a student continues sharing a science idea when they notice the students next to them nodding and turning toward them.

During virtual lessons, we realized that students needed to practice and draw on their nonverbal communication. Stacey Hodkiewicz used a charades-style game for students to act out concepts in physics. She used a virtual name spinner to randomly select concepts, then asked the chosen student to show the science idea using gestures and objects. Then, after the other students tried the gesture, she had a volunteer explain how the action fit the science idea.

Lesson 4: Encourage students to show their learning in different ways.

In online PBL, students can draw models to show what they understand about how a phenomenon works. When students do all the creating themselves, instead of using previously created models, they make more elaborate models and understand the ideas better.

For simpler models, we found that students were able to show their thinking using virtual tools like Jamboard; but with models that required more sensemaking, drawn models with pencil and paper worked better. To focus on sensemaking, students can draw during the virtual time together, talking as they draw.

In Mary Modaff's third-grade class, students used toy rockets and cars delivered to their homes to learn about physics. They created virtual models that showed the forces involved in starting and stopping motion using an animation tool (such as Seesaw or Doodly) and explained their models to each other. Then the teacher mixed up the medium, having students comment about revising the models in chats and on virtual stickies using Jamboard.

In Alice Severson's fifth-grade class, students held up their completed models about energy transfer at the same time, and then the teacher pinned three of the models, one by one, to compare them. These models were complex, so the students used whiteboards and drew them by hand.

We found that keeping the projects firmly grounded in the real world is challenging in virtual environments but makes PBL science the most engaging part of our students' screen-filled school day. While none of us know how long we'll be online, we do know that we're recognizing what we care most about for learning: keeping students motivated by doing science!

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Project-Based Learning (PBL) Researchers and educators share how to successfully transfer project-based learning to virtual second- through fifth-grade science classrooms. The national virtual educational response to COVID-19 has given us the opportunity to revisit what is really important for learning science and reconsider how to best engage students.

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Amanda Gorman

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When Amanda Gorman, a 22-year-old poet from Los Angeles, took to the stage on Wednesday, it was immediately clear why the new president had chosen her as his inaugural poet.

Gorman echoed, in dynamic and propulsive verse, the same themes that Biden has returned to again and again and that he wove throughout his inaugural address: unity, healing, grief and hope, the painful history of American experience and the redemptive power of American ideals.

Where Biden said, "We must end this uncivil war," Gorman declared, "We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another."

And where Biden called for an American story of "love and healing" and "greatness and goodness," Gorman saw strength in pain: "Even as we grieved, we grew," she said.

Gorman opened by acknowledging the reasons why hope can be challenging. "Where can we find light in this never-ending shade?" she asked.

But she continued: "And yet, the dawn is ours before we knew it. Somehow we do it. Somehow we weathered and witnessed a nation that isn't broken but simply unfinished."

She acknowledged the power of her own presence on the stage in "a country and a time where a skinny black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president, only to find herself reciting for one."

Like Obama inaugural poet Richard Blanco, who invoked the grand sweep of American geography in a call for unity in "One Today," Gorman dedicated a portion to "every corner called our country" from the South to the Midwest. She ended with an invitation to "step out of the shade."

"The new dawn blooms as we free it," she said. "For there is always light, if only we are brave enough to see it - if only we are brave enough to be it."

Gorman was following in the footsteps of poets like Blanco, Robert Frost and Maya Angelou as she composed the poem "The Hill We Climb" for the inauguration.

She also took her cues from orators like Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr. - people who knew a thing or two about calling for hope and unity in times of despair and division.

Gorman told NPR she dug into the works of those speakers (and Winston Churchill, too) to study up on ways "rhetoric has been used for good." Over the past few weeks, she composed a poem that acknowledges the previous president's incitement of violence, but turns toward hope.

"The Hill We Climb" reads, in part:

We've seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it,

Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy.

And this effort very nearly succeeded.

But while democracy can be periodically delayed,

It can never be permanently defeated.

In this truth, in this faith, we trust.

For while we have our eyes on the future,

history has its eyes on us.

Gorman, like Biden, had a speech impediment as a child. (Biden had a stutter; Gorman had difficulty pronouncing certain sounds.) She told NPR's Steve Inskeep that her speech impediment was one reason she was drawn to poetry at a young age.

"Having an arena in which I could express my thoughts freely was just so liberating that I fell head over heels, you know, when I was barely a toddler," she said.

For Gorman, a former National Youth Poet Laureate, her struggle to speak provided a connection not only to the incoming president, but also to previous inaugural poets, too.

"Maya Angelou was mute growing up as a child and she grew up to deliver the inaugural poem for President Bill Clinton," she says. "So I think there is a real history of orators who have had to struggle with a type of imposed voicelessness, you know, having that stage in the inauguration."

Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and John F. Kennedy were the only presidents in the past who chose to have poems read at their inaugurations. You can read all the previous poems here.

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'Not Broken But Simply Unfinished': Poet Amanda Gorman Calls For A Better America

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When Amanda Gorman, a 22-year-old poet from Los Angeles, took to the stage on Wednesday, it was immediately clear why the new president had chosen her as his inaugural poet.

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Chapter 7 to support your Dimensions post & online

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Future Class Resources

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1) Understanding Disability & UDL
2) Language Issues
3) Immigration Issues/ Border Security
4) Ukraine continues to fight off Russia
5) Another Topic your choice

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Who is your thought leader, diversity icon?

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‘Schoolhouse Rock!’ at 50: Those Are Magic Numbers

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Schoolhouse Rock’s Effectiveness

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‘Schoolhouse Rock!’ at 50: Those Are Magic Numbers

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The educational snippets are the ultimate font of Gen X nostalgia. But what is it we’re nostalgic for?

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Brittney Griner’s Impact Is Clear as W.N.B.A. Fans Await Word From Russia

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Brittney Griner’s Impact Is Clear as W.N.B.A. Fans Await Word From Russia

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Griner, one of the world’s best basketball players, was detained in Russia on what customs officials described as drug charges. Fans are worried.

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A friendly introduction

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Utah Down Syndrome Foundation proudly presents “Down syndrome 101”, an easy-to-follow video explaining the basics of Down syndrome. This educational video i...

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Introductory video

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1. Home

2. Our Impact

3. About Universal Design for Learning

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn.

UDL at a Glance

Find out how the UDL framework guides the design of instructional goals, assessments, methods, and materials that can be customized and adjusted to meet individual needs.

UDL to Change the World

CAST created the Universal Design for Learning framework, and it remains one of our core levers of change to help make learning inclusive and transformative for everyone.

Universal Design for Learning Guidelines

The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning. These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.

Visit the UDL Guidelines

Engagement

For purposeful, motivated learners, stimulate interest and motivation for learning.

Explore Engagement

Representation

For resourceful, knowledgeable learners, present information and content in different ways.

Explore Representation

Action & Expression

For strategic, goal-directed learners, differentiate the ways that students can express what they know.

Explore Action & Expression

Top of Page

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Home Our Impact About Universal Design for Learning Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. Find out how the UDL framework guides the design of instructional goals, assessments, methods, and materials that can be customized and adjusted to meet individual needs.

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People fleeing the war in Ukraine are arriving at the southern U.S. border and asking for asylum - but those efforts are being complicated by pandemic-era rules limiting entry into the country.

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Ukrainians are seeking asylum in the U.S. but pandemic limits are in the way

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People fleeing the war in Ukraine are arriving at the southern U.S. border and asking for asylum - but those efforts are being complicated by pandemic-era rules limiting entry into the country.

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Lera Boroditsky: How language shapes the way we think

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TED talk connects words, concepts & research

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There are about 7,000 languages spoken around the world -- and they all have different sounds, vocabularies and structures. But do they shape the way we think? Cognitive scientist Lera Boroditsky shares examples of language -- from an Aboriginal community in Australia that uses cardinal directions instead of left and right to the multiple words for blue in Russian -- that suggest the answer is a resounding yes. “The beauty of linguistic diversity is that it reveals to us just how ingenious and how flexible the human mind is,” Boroditsky says. “Human minds have invented not one cognitive universe, but 7,000.”

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2 Drawbacks to English as gatekeeper

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Patricia Ryan is a longtime English teacher who asks a provocative question: Is the world's focus on English preventing the spread of great ideas in other languages? In other words: What if Einstein had to pass the TOEFL? It's a passionate defense of translating and sharing ideas.

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States and Districts with the Highest No.& Share of English Language Learners

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While English Language Learner (ELL) students are spread throughout the United States, their density, or the share they represent of total public school enrollment, varies greatly by state. Western states have the largest shares of ELL students in the nation. This fact sheet, drawing upon data from the U.S. Department of Education, examines the states and districts with the highest shares and populations of ELL students and offers a detailed breakdown of some key statistics.

California had the highest concentration of ELLs in the United States, and nearly one-third of the country's districts with the largest ELL populations were found in California. At the local level, 25 school districts accounted for nearly one-quarter (23 percent) of all ELL students in K-12 public schools in 2011-2012. The Los Angeles Unified School District had the largest ELL population, with 152,592 students, closely followed by New York City with 142,572 students.
Download the underlying data here

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Ariel G. Ruiz Soto, Sarah Hooker, Jeanne Batalova 

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States and Districts with the Highest Number and Share of English Language Learners

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While English Language Learner (ELL) students are spread throughout the United States, their density, or the share they represent of total public school enrollment, varies greatly by state. This fact sheet, drawing upon data from the U.S. Department of Education, examines the states and districts with the highest shares and populations of ELL students and offers a detailed breakdown of some key statistics.

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What is the most useful second language in business?

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What is the most useful second language in business?

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English is truly a global language, a common ground in a lingual minefield. It is often a pre requisite for employment globally and its usefulness in both a business and social environment is unrivalled.
A second language is always helpful in life and can be crucial in business. But next to English what is the second most valuable language to learn? What could help progress a career or what language would be the most useful to learn?

Is it worth specifying in a niche language like German if you are interested in let's say... engineering? Or would a path of a far more flexible 'auxiliary' language (A language used to communicate between speakers of two different native languages) like Spanish be more fruitful?

Traditionally European vocabularies have dominated global speech. English, French and Spanish are widely regarded as the three most important auxiliary languages due to their widespread nature.
Spanish
The second most widely spoken native language in the world; Like French and English, Spanish, from a small base, has its colonial roots to credit for its expansion. Holding particular presence in the Americas, Spanish is regarded as the most commonly understood language in the western hemisphere; Surpassing English due to its almost unrivalled use in South America.

It has been cited by linguists as a 'growth language' do to the financial progression and population increase in Spanish speaking countries, as well it's English speaking neighbours- Predominantly the USA which has roughly a 1 in 4 Hispanic birth rate.

Opportunities-The sheer amount of Spanish speakers with no second language means jobs in translation from Spanish in South America are still sort after. South America's unofficial position as food production capital of the west means employment in management and sales of agriculture produce is also in high demand.

Geoffrey Wood, professor of International business at Warwick University said.
"The South American countries are particularly firm with Spanish as they have had no need to learn other languages. They are surrounded by other Spanish speaking nations and maybe one Portuguese one... It means English is not very widely spoken yet."

French
For many years, a direct contender for the international language crown. Its once sprawling empire has meant French is an official language in 29 countries and spoken by 220 million people.

Africa has the largest population of French speakers in the world, with a mixture of first and second language speaking countries as well as broad understanding across most of the Sahara region.

Opportunity-The sub-Saharan region is particularly blessed with a rich mixture of minerals and is being quickly exploited. Employment in Engineering, geology, security and logistics usually require a basic command of French.
Portuguese
Distributed sporadically across the globe, Portuguese is also rising on the power of an expanding nation. Due to the economic progression of Brazil and resource rich African countries like Angola, Portuguese has begun to grow to prominence once again. It's worth considering for those already holding Spanish language skills, due to its close relation and similar lingual base.
Russian

Owing much of its lingual distribution to its vast geographical size and eventual political domination via the Soviet Union. Russian is a widely understood language of Eastern Europe and central Asia. By landmass it would be by far the most spoken language; however the areas previously under 'Russian influence' are often sparsely populated. It is often used as auxiliary language between Baltic, Balkan, Caucasus and central Asian countries.
Russian
Russian is a language beginning to suffer from the rise of English; the younger generation outside Russia are now learning English instead of the formally state-educated Russian. However with 150 million native speakers it is still an incredibly useful tool in the Slavic world, particularly with those born before 1990 and educated under the Iron Curtain.

Opportunities-Moscow is still an economic power hub and with the rise of many Baltic and Balkan states to the EU jobs are plentiful in translation and traditional 'city jobs'. It's also worth considering the vast oil and gas resources Russia holds for jobs in mining, engineering and refinery.
Chinese
A complex 'language' with variants in dialect and formats that many linguists argue its classification. Mandarin, the most popular format of Chinese has nearly a billion native speakers; it is the most widely spoken first language in the world. However its complex nature and difficult writing style has meant it is almost exclusively spoken within the Chinese mainland or immigrant communities around the world. Secondary language speakers usually have business interests or personal connections with the language. With the rise of Chinese power economists believe that this may change and many people will begin to learn the language to compete in a Chinese run job market.

China is the centre of opportunity. Job sectors vary from architecture to media to sales any anything else the thriving country needs.

Atiyah Wazir-Meadows, editor of the graduate career guide site EuroGraduate said.
"...China is driving global advancement and setting the pace in many thriving sectors, so other countries should be changing their views on languages in order to do business..."

Arabic
Descended from one the oldest languages, 'Modern Standard Arabic' is a standardized form of the widely varied language. Spoken officially in 27 states across North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, dialects and pronunciation vary hugely. Often those who can read and write Arabic have difficulties understanding spoken variations of it.

Opportunities-Those who can speak Arabic, with a European mother tongue, (usually English) could find lucrative employment opportunities in boom states such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Professions in oil, media, engineering and education are widely available for the bi-lingual.
German & Japanese
Two languages not normally grouped together but their nations do share many traits. Japan and Germany are two of the best educated nations in the world and both have a thriving engineering and automotive industry, they are business hubs of their respected continents and both are becoming highly educated in the English language. Those interested in work in this field could find better prospects learning the language, and would have the key to the world's 3rd and 4th largest economies.

Dr Heather Marsden from the University of York comments that former York students, who are now working as translators and interpreters, recently reported that there is currently a European shortage of native English speakers who can translate from German. Although German may be falling in popularity in terms of what UK students choose, it seems that there are job prospects out there.

As English edges towards a global 'lingua franca' many professionals in the language world foresee varying outlooks for language trends. The question was posed whether the rise in English as an 'unofficial second language' could be detrimental to nations with a natural aptitude and educational focus in English?

"Language attrition definitely takes place when individuals move to an environment where they no longer use their native language much. But I haven't heard of attrition taking place within the country where the particular language is spoken as the language of the mass media, government, education etc..."

People still speak Dutch/Swedish/German on the streets and education still takes place in those languages." Dr Heather Marsden
Warwick's Professor Geoffrey Wood also emphasised:

"Languages are resilient, if you look at smaller more obscure language like Hungarian [that] has resisted influence from other nations. They've spread into other countries and can be found in pockets in Ukraine, Romania [and] Serbia...."

What seems to be universally agreed, even with the rise of powerful international languages bringing political and financial change, a second language is almost universally a benefit for those willing to put in the work to learn and reap the rewards.

For more information from language learning specialists visit http://pearsonpte.com/Pages/Home.aspx

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What is the most useful second language in business? - Student Times

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English is truly a global language, a common ground in a lingual minefield. It is often a pre requisite for employment globally and its usefulness in both a business and social environment is unrivalled. A second language is always helpful in life and can be crucial in business.

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Biliteracy as noted  the key organization in the field NABE

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How do you teach for Biliteracy? Considerations When Planning for Biliteracy:

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Online Feedback for many outcome- well done!
Consider SES, Culture, class list

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How we learn languages- An overview

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When I read The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, I remember being fascinated by the "babel fish." These were fish, who when dropped in a person's ear, would provide immediate translation of any language, thriving on sound waves and converting them into comprehensible language.

Wouldn't it be just great if learning a new language were that easy (despite the "yuck" factor)? While we do have some technology that provides translation into a variety of languages, it often fails to translate accurately due to the complexity of language. Effective communication requires so much more than just being able to translate vocabulary words - it requires knowledge of intonation, dialect, and intent, and a nuanced understanding of word use, expression, and a language's cultural context. For example, one online translation application I tried translated "Fall Events" as "fall down events" in Spanish because it didn't know that I was referring to events in autumn.

So, without a babel fish or perfect technology, we are left with the old-fashioned way of learning a new language, which requires time, effort, and patience. How much time, effort, and patience depends a lot on the individual who is learning, as well as the learning environment and situation, but language researchers have developed a general outline of language acquisition that helps explain the process that language learners go through to develop skills in a foreign language. In this article, I will provide an overview to the stages of language acquisition, and offer strategies designed to support ELL instruction at different stages of language acquisition.

Stages of Language Acquisition

Researchers define language acquisition into two categories: first-language acquisition and second-language acquisition. First-language acquisition is a universal process regardless of home language. Babies listen to the sounds around them, begin to imitate them, and eventually start producing words. Second-language acquisition assumes knowledge in a first language and encompasses the process an individual goes through as he or she learns the elements of a new language, such as vocabulary, phonological components, grammatical structures, and writing systems.

The Six Stages of Second-Language Acquisition

Pre-production

This is also called "the silent period," when the student takes in the new language but does not speak it. This period often lasts six weeks or longer, depending on the individual.

Early production

The individual begins to speak using short words and sentences, but the emphasis is still on listening and absorbing the new language. There will be many errors in the early production stage.

Speech Emergent

Speech becomes more frequent, words and sentences are longer, but the individual still relies heavily on context clues and familiar topics. Vocabulary continues to increase and errors begin to decrease, especially in common or repeated interactions.

Beginning Fluency

Speech is fairly fluent in social situations with minimal errors. New contexts and academic language are challenging and the individual will struggle to express themselves due to gaps in vocabulary and appropriate phrases.

Intermediate Fluency

Communicating in the second language is fluent, especially in social language situations. The individual is able to speak almost fluently in new situations or in academic areas, but there will be gaps in vocabulary knowledge and some unknown expressions. There are very few errors, and the individual is able to demonstrate higher order thinking skills in the second language such as offering an opinion or analyzing a problem.

Advanced Fluency

The individual communicates fluently in all contexts and can maneuver successfully in new contexts and when exposed to new academic information. At this stage, the individual may still have an accent and use idiomatic expressions incorrectly at times, but the individual is essentially fluent and comfortable communicating in the second language.

How long does it take for a language learner to go through these stages? Just as in any other learning situation, it depends on the individual. One of the major contributors to accelerated second language learning is the strength of first language skills. Language researchers such as Jim Cummins, Catherine Snow, Lily Wong Filmore and Stephen Krashen have studied this topic in a variety of ways for many years. The general consensus is that it takes between five to seven years for an individual to achieve advanced fluency. This generally applies to individuals who have strong first language and literacy skills. If an individual has not fully developed first language and literacy skills, it may take between seven to ten years to reach advanced fluency. It is very important to note that every ELL student comes with his or her own unique language and education background, and this will have an impact on their English learning process.

It is also important to keep in mind that the understood goal for American ELL students is Advanced Fluency, which includes fluency in academic contexts as well as social contexts. Teachers often get frustrated when ELL students appear to be fluent because they have strong social English skills, but then they do not participate well in academic projects and discussions. Teachers who are aware of ELL students' need to develop academic language fluency in English will be much better prepared to assist those students in becoming academically successful. (Learn more about academic language in Colorín Colorado's academic language resource section.)

Instructional Strategies

If you have ELL students in your classroom, it is more than likely there will be students at a variety of stages in the language acquisition process. What can teachers do to differentiate instruction according to language level? Here are some suggestions for appropriate instructional strategies according to stages of language acquisition.

Emphasize listening comprehension by using read-alouds and music.

Use visuals and have students point to pictures or act out vocabulary.

Speak slowly and use shorter words, but use correct English phrasing.

Model "survival" language by saying and showing the meaning. For example, say, "Open your book," and then open a book while the student observes.

Gesture, point and show as much as possible.

More advanced classmates who speak the same language can support new learning through interpretation.

Avoid excessive error correction. Reinforce learning by modeling correct language usage when students make mistakes.

Continue the strategies listed above, but add opportunities for students to produce simple language.

Ask students to point to pictures and say the new word.

Ask yes/no and either/or questions.

Have students work in pairs or small groups to discuss a problem. Have literate students write short sentences or words in graphic organizers.

Model a phrase and have the student repeat it and add modifications. Teacher says, "This book is very interesting." The student repeats it and says, "This book is very boring." Continue with as many modifications as possible.

Avoid excessive error correction. Reinforce learning by modeling correct usage.

Introduce more academic language and skills by using the same techniques listed above, but beginning to use more academic vocabulary.

Introduce new academic vocabulary and model how to use it in a sentence.

Provide visuals and make connections with student's background knowledge as much as possible.

Ask questions that require a short answer and are fairly literal.

Introduce charts and graphs by using easily understood information such as a class survey of food preferences.

Have students re-tell stories or experiences and have another student write them down. The ELL student can bring these narratives home to read and reinforce learning.

In writing activities, provide the student with a fill-in-the blank version of the assignment with the necessary vocabulary listed on the page.

Provide minimal error correction. Focus only on correction that directly interferes with meaning. Reinforce learning by modeling the correct usage.

Have students work in pairs and groups to discuss content.

During instruction, have students do a "Think, pair, share" to give the student an opportunity to process the new language and concept.

Ask questions that require a full response with explanation. If you do not understand the student's explanation, ask for clarification by paraphrasing and asking the student if you heard them correctly.

Ask questions that require inference and justification of the answer.

Ask students if they agree or disagree with a statement and why.

Model more advanced academic language structures such as, "I think," "In my opinion," and "When you compare." Have students repeat the phrases in context.

Re-phrase incorrect statements in correct English, or ask the student if they know another way to say it.

Introduce nuances of language such as when to use more formal English and how to interact in conversations.

Have students make short presentations, providing them with the phrases and language used in presentations ("Today I will be talking about") and giving them opportunities to practice the presentation with partners before getting in front of the class.

Continue to provide visual support and vocabulary development.

Correct errors that interfere with meaning, and pre-identify errors that will be corrected in student writing, such as verb-tense agreement. Only correct the errors agreed upon.

You may want to assist in improving pronunciation by asking a student to repeat key vocabulary and discussing how different languages have different sounds.

Identify key academic vocabulary and phrases and model them. Ask students to produce the language in class activities.

Use graphic organizers and thinking maps and check to make sure the student is filling them in with details. Challenge the student to add more.

Help the student make connections with new vocabulary by instructing him or her in the etymology of words or word families such as, "important, importance, importantly."

Create assessments that give students an opportunity to present in English after they have an opportunity to practice in pairs or small groups.

Introduce more academic skills, such as brainstorming, prioritizing, categorization, summarizing and compare and contrast.

Ask students to identify vocabulary by symbols that show whether the student "knows it really well, kind of knows it, or doesn't know it at all." Help students focus on strategies to get the meaning of new words.

Have a "guessing time" during silent reading where they circle words they don't know and write down their guess of the meaning. Check the results as a class.

Introduce idioms and give examples of how to use them appropriately. For example, "Let's wind up our work." What's another way you could use the phrase "wind up?"

Starting at this level, students need more correction/feedback, even on errors that do not directly affect meaning. They should be developing a more advanced command of syntax, pragmatics, pronunciation, and other elements that do not necessarily affect meaning but do contribute to oral fluency.

It may also be helpful to discuss language goals with the student so you can assist in providing modeling and correction in specified areas.

Students at this level are close to native language fluency and can interact well in a variety of situations. Continue to develop language skills as gaps arise by using the strategies listed above. Although the student may seem completely fluent, he or she still benefit from visual support, building on background knowledge, pre-teaching vocabulary and making connections between content areas.

Offer challenge activities to expand the student's vocabulary knowledge such as identifying antonyms, synonyms and the use of a thesaurus and dictionary.

Demonstrate effective note-taking and provide a template.

Offer error correction on academic work and on oral language. Because students at this stage have achieved near-native fluency, they benefit from support in fine-tuning their oral and written language skills.

Recommendations

Scaffold instruction so students receive comprehensible input and are able to successfully complete tasks at their level. Instructional scaffolding works just like the scaffolding used in building. It holds you at the level needed until you are ready to take it down. Scaffolding includes asking students questions in formats that give them support in answering, such as yes/no questions, one-word identifications, or short answers. It also means providing the context for learning by having visuals or other hands-on items available to support content learning. Also, when practicing a new academic skill such as skimming, scaffolding involves using well-known material so the students aren't struggling with the information while they are trying to learn a new skill. Scaffolding includes whatever it takes to make the instruction meaningful for the student in order to provide a successful learning experience.

Use cognates to help Spanish speakers learn English and derive meaning from content. The Colorín Colorado website has a helpful list of common cognates in Spanish for teachers to reference. Teachers can explicitly point out cognates for Spanish speaking students so they begin to realize that this is a useful way for them to increase their English vocabulary.

Explicit vocabulary instruction is very important in accelerating ELL students' English language development. Textbooks include lists of new vocabulary words based on grade-level content, but ELL students need further vocabulary instruction. There are many words in a text that may affect the ELL student's comprehension of the text that a teacher may assume he or she knows. It is important for teachers to develop ways to help students identify the words they don't know, as well as strategies for getting their meaning. Of course it is also beneficial if teachers reinforce the language structures or common associations of vocabulary. For example, "squeak" is a sound that often goes with "mouse" or "door" and it may be stated as, "squeak, squeaky, squeaks, or squeaked."

Error correction should be done very intentionally and appropriately according to student language ability, as noted earlier in the article. Students who are just beginning to speak English are already nervous about using their new language skills and constant correction will not improve their ability; it will just make them want to withdraw. I inform students in advance of the type of errors I will correct, such as "missing articles" and "third person agreement," and then those are the only errors I check. In my class, I do not correct the errors; I circle the mistakes and return the paper to the student. They are responsible for correcting the errors and returning the paper to receive more points. Most of the time the students can make the corrections themselves when they see the area I've circled, but if they have difficulty, I guide them as they make the correction. In this way, I feel there is a manageable amount of correction information to work with and the student will actually learn from doing the correction.

Learning another language. If you learn the language(s) your students speak, they will be thrilled to hear you try it with them. I learned how to say "good morning" in Somali and had to practice for an hour before I felt comfortable saying it. When I did I was rewarded with the big grins of students as they entered the room. They were excited to teach me other phrases as well, and we discussed how much English they had learned since they arrived in the country. They were very proud to think of how much progress they'd made.

Seek the experts in your building or district who can offer you guidance on effective instructional strategies for your ELL students. There are many teachers who have taught ELL students in your content area, have taught a certain population of students, or are trained ESL or bilingual teachers who have a lot of advice and support to offer. Don't hesitate to look for support when you are challenged to reach students who are learning English. This can be especially true when you have a "pre-production" or "beginning level" student and you are responsible for grade level content instruction.

Visit the hotlinks section for this article for more information on specific research regarding language acquisition and recommended instructional strategies. You can also search the Colorín Colorado educator information for useful information and resources to assist you in meeting ELL student needs.

ELL teachers encounter students with a variety of backgrounds and abilities, and until the babel fish comes into existence, they will need to have flexibility, creativity and skill in order to help ELL students make meaning from the new language and content they are learning. An understanding of the language acquisition process and levels will help teachers tailor instruction to meet the needs of a diverse group of learners. Students will benefit from everything teachers do to support the development of their language skills while teaching them grade level content. Together teachers and students develop their understanding of each other, the world around them, and the language that connects us all.
The Stages of Second Language Acquisition
This chapter from Classroom Instruction That Works with English Language Learners Facilitator's Guide, by Jane D. Hill and Cynthia L. Björk, offers information on the second language acquisition process and effective ELL instruction. It includes a a simplified chart of language acquisition levels and the kinds of language teachers can use to help students at each level.

Simple description of the stages of language acquisition and recommendations for instructional strategies according to level.
Overview of Second Language Acquisition and Strategies
Downloadable booklet from the Northwest Regional Education Laboratory, "Strategies and Resources for Mainstream Teachers of English Language Learners." Includes useful information on language levels, acquisition and 10 things teachers can do today to help ELL students.
Understanding the "Silent Period" with English Language Learners
This article describes some strategies used by two kindergarten teachers to communicate verbally and nonverbally.

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“One generation plants the trees; another gets the shade.”— Chinese ProverbWhen I read The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, I remember being fascinated by the “babel fish.” These were fish, who when dropped in a person’s ear, would provide immediate translation of any language, thri…

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Center for Applied Linguistics- background info

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Virtually every language in the world has dialects-varieties of the language that are particular to a group of speakers. Dialects vary by region and by social group. Dialect diversity, or language variation, reflects the fact that languages change over time and that people who live in the same area or maintain the same social identity share language norms; in other words, they speak the same dialect.

Although many people believe that the variety of language they and the people around them speak is not a dialect, in reality, everyone speaks a dialect, since dialects are simply varieties of the same language. Many people also believe that there is only one correct form of a language, but in truth, no dialect is superior to another on linguistic grounds. All dialects are systematic language varieties that follow regular patterns of vocabulary choice, grammar, and pronunciation.

However, misconceptions persist regarding the use of different language varieties in the United States, especially in schools. While these issues have been recognized for years, and linguists have been conducting research to develop a better understanding of dialect patterns and attitudes toward U.S.dialects, much work remains to be done to develop dialect awareness and acceptance. To help inform the discussion, the Center for Applied Linguistics has created and collected a variety of resources related to dialects and language diversity.

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Virtually every language in the world has dialects-varieties of the language that are particular to a group of speakers. Dialects vary by region and by social group. Dialect diversity, or language variation, reflects the fact that languages change over time and that people who live in the same area or maintain the same social identity share language norms; in other words, they speak the same dialect.

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UDL guidelines:

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The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning, a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. Learn more about the Universal Design for Learning framework from CAST. The UDL Guidelines can be used by educators, curriculum developers, researchers, parents, and anyone else who wants to implement the UDL framework in a learning environment. These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.

Coming soon! UDL Guidelines 3.0

The UDL Guidelines are a living, dynamic tool that is continuously developed based on new research and feedback from practitioners. In 2020, CAST launched our most recent effort to update the UDL Guidelines, with a specific focus on equity. There has been a strong call from the field-both practitioners and researchers alike-to more fully develop the Guidelines to address critical barriers rooted in biases and systems of oppression. The current update aims to respond to this call and to work toward fulfilling the promise of the Guidelines as a tool to guide the design of learning environments that more fully honor and value every learner.

Since our launch in 2020, we have been committed to a community-driven, inclusive, and transparent updating process. As part of this effort, we are:

Collaborating with an Advisory Board, a UDL Guidelines Collaborative, and a Young Adult Advisory Board to guide our work

Conducting focus groups with a diversity of participants to learn from their perspectives, lived experiences, and feedback

Reviewing the research on the UDL Guidelines research pages to understand the balance of different research fields, methodological approaches, epistemological approaches, and author positionalities

Conducting literature reviews of equity-oriented research that connect to and extend the Guidelines, such as disability studies and critical pedagogy studies

We are excited to share this next iteration of the UDL Guidelines in 2024. If you are interested in receiving our UDL Guidelines 3.0 newsletter to stay updated on our progress and to share your ideas and perspectives, please complete this brief form.

Review the Summary

Explore the Full Draft

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The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning, a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. Learn more about the Universal Design for Learning framework from CAST.