For a pair of activities with a bilingual group of kids whose families may or may not have computer access, I created a take-home handout with QR codes for three online resources. QR codes make websites much more accessible to people who use a phone to access the internet. 

In my case, I chose read-aloud videos by Enchanted Circle Theater's Open Mind StoryTime / Miente abierta Tiempo de Cuento. This way, kids can hear the story that we read aloud together to introduce the primary source activity again and again at home if their grownups have a smart phone to scan the QR code and play the story. http://www.enchantedcircletheater.com/teacher-resource/curriculum-library/

I got the idea of hands-on activities to use with kids to connect them with Statue of Liberty primary sources from the Enchanted Circle page, where several read-alouds have paired activities. The kids made their own statues out of aluminum foil after listening to "Her Right Foot," about the Statue of Liberty. They will make books after listening to "Tomas and the Library Lady" in both English and Spanish; in another setting, we might have QR codes to primary source images from the Library of Congress that connect Tomas's migrant family, who travels every year between Texas and Iowa to do farm work, just as the children in this particular program do. 

This is part of a larger unit that discusses the effects disease has on the world by investigating the Black Death, the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918, and COVID-19.

I found this article to be interesting and relevant to our topic. I notices that Gloria Ladson-Billings has been coming up as a reference and wanted to share this article with everyone. Enjoy!

This presentation offers links to numerous research with regard to English language learners.  It is from 2006 (not recent but still relevant) and serves as a good comparison with policies and strategies in todays education environment.  

NYC still gives English language learners two years (and only two) before they take the standardized ELA exams -- and those students still have to take the NYS math exams which rely on language proficiency in order to take the exam.  A conundrum.