Parents & Families - Cultural Resources - Information for Newcomers to the United States

Links to Resources for Parents and Families

Bridging Refugee Youth and Children’s Services (BRYCS)
An information hub covering topics and issues surrounding the resettlement of people who have had to flee their homes and countries.

Link to Colorin' Colorado - How Schools Can Partner with Afghan Refugee Families

The name "Colorín Colorado" comes from a playful phrase that is often said at the end of stories in Spanish-speaking countries: "¡Y Colorín Colorado, este cuento se ha acabado!" or "¡Y Colorín Colorado, este cuento se ha terminado!" (Colorín Colorado, the story has ended!) There's no equivalent in English, but the phrase is similar to "The End" or "...and they lived happily ever after," or "That's all, folks!"

English language learners are a diverse group of students, with different language, academic, and social-emotional needs. Students who speak the same language or have similar levels of language proficiency may need very different kinds of support to succeed in the classroom. Learn more about the growing ELL population around the country from these materials, as well as some of the special populations that have unique needs. Example links from this website are listed below.

How Schools Can Partner with Afghan Refugee Families
Resources provide recommendations on how schools can effectively partner with families who will be arriving from Afghanistan in the coming months. It also shares lessons learned from schools already partnering with this community.

Link to More Resources to Help Assist Newcomer Parents and Families

Teaching English Language Learners
Across the country, teachers and other educators share the exciting but sometimes difficult challenge of teaching English, literacy skills, and academic content to a growing number of English language learners (ELLs). This is a rich section filled with strategies, ideas, recommendations, resources, videos, and news from the ELL field.
List of OER for Adult Education ELL - OER Commons
Open education resources covering topics such as:
-- Beginner ESL for Adult Learners
-- Adult ELL Phonics
-- Reading Basics for ELL
-- Health Problems for ELL
and more.
Welcoming Afghan Families: Lessons Learned from Austin ISD
Learn how one school district is currently partnering with the Afghan community and preparing to welcome the additional Afghan families who will be arriving in their schools in coming months.
Wisconsin: ELL Resources
The most common five languages spoken by ELLs in Wisconsin are Spanish, Hmong, Chinese, Arabic, and Somali. (U.S. Dept. of Education, National Center for Education Statistics). Wisconsin was the lead state of WIDA (World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment) when it was created in 2003. WIDA is a consortium of states dedicated to the design and implementation of high standards and equitable educational opportunities for English language learners which offers states programming for identifying and annually assessing the English language development of its English learners.