AdLit News Headlines

Having a teen who gets angry easily can make you feel like you have to tiptoe around issues to avoid conflict—but that’s not a healthy way of relating to one another. Read for tips on how to ward off and diffuse teen anger.

Online sales of Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel “Maus” are skyrocketing, and multiple bookstores are giving away free copies to students after a Tennessee school district banned it.

For the next few days in the DeKalb, GA students and staff will have talks about racial disparities and celebrate the accomplishments of Black community members. It’s part of the annual Black Lives Matter “week of action.”

Some of these might already be on your radar as overtly friendship stories, while some of these books are less obvious with their friendship themes — but still worth picking up! They cover everything from the painful process of making new friends, navigating complicated friend groups and dynamics, being lonely and discovering a new friend, friendship break ups, and friendships that evolve into something more! 

A Tennessee school board’s decision to remove the graphic novel Maus from the curriculum has sparked international condemnation. But the incident has its roots in the state’s efforts to improve school curricula—and controversies like this one shouldn’t be allowed to prevent that.

Listen as Secretary Cardona lays out his priorities for the coming year. He notes that striving to keep schools open is no longer enough; expanding tutoring and mental health counseling must happen as we focus on closing achievement gaps that have worsened during the coronavirus pandemic.

Have your students been enchanted by Disney’s story of a Colombian girl who discovers her family’s magic is starting to fail and she must figure out how to save the Family Madrigal and bring magic back to their casa? If so, they might also be captivated by these four read-alikes.

For many new teachers, classroom management can be one of the biggest obstacles to achieving success. These visual and audio cues can help middle and high school teachers quickly get students back on track.

As students, teachers and parents across the U.S. seek to find some sense of normalcy or stability two years into a global pandemic, the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs investigates how they are doing so in “Our New Normal: How Teens Are Redefining School Life.”

Secretary Miguel Cardona also challenged schools to offer intensive tutoring to help students catch up.

Bringing access and opportunity to the classroom and beyond, read more about Forbes 10th annual list of 30 under 30 up-and-coming superstars in Education.

Emphasizing relationships with students and teacher self-care, along with showing love are some pieces of advice from veterans.

Top books, video, and audiobooks for children and young adults announced at ALA’s LibLearnX virtual conference. 

One in five young adults being treated for alcohol or drug use may have undiagnosed traits characteristic of autism-spectrum disorder, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital report.

Newark Public Schools Superintendent Roger León recently said “students are exhibiting behaviors unlike ever before,” which he said called for increased mental health support.

Scaffolding such as visual guides and templates can make it easier for ELLs to grasp material in courses with complicated vocabulary.

Harvard language expert explores how the brain tries to make sense of those pesky missing tiles in popular word puzzle.

Writing has a healing power. Listen as author Dave Eggers discusses how fiction can serve as a window into multiple realities—to imagine different futures or understand our own past. 

Overhaul comes amid mounting challenges to the relevance of standardized testing in college admissions.

Higuera’s story of a 12-year-old Mexican American girl who uses memories of her family’s stories and a copy of Yuyi Morales’ Dreamers to try to save others from a dystopian society turned out to be a pretty good one. Higuera is still “a deer in the headlights” over her 2022 Newbery Medal, truly stunned by the recognition of her novel. 

Oregon leaders have been trying for years to raise the state’s high school graduation rate, which has consistently ranked among the lowest in the nation. Yet, students at Rex Putnam High School in Milwaukie, OR school have boasted high graduation rates since before the pandemic and continue to shine in 2021 despite COVID challenges. 

Saying students have returned from nearly a year of virtual learning more hooked to their cell phones than ever, high school principals are trying to find solutions to getting teens to focus on their teacher. Chicopee High School is considering hiring a California-based company called Yondr that provides schools with special pouches for phones that are then locked with a high-powered magnet. Students keep their phones with them and at the end of the day they are unlocked with the same device.

90 years after its closure, a former New York Times printing plant now provides space for a new generation of journalists.

Amazon Prime ensemble series “As We See It” debuts Friday. The show follows a trio of young people on the autism spectrum as they negotiate daily life. As Albert Rutecki, who plays one of the three main characters, states, “I see it mainly as a coming-of-age or coming-to-adulthood of several 20-something characters. It has three main characters who are on the spectrum, but I think it could definitely be relatable to a lot of people more than just those who are autistic.” 

An Indiana school wants middle schoolers to start considering career choices now, but is the timing right?

As we reflect on the King holiday and national day of service, we asked some readers to share their thoughts on King’s early perspective on education and if education in 2022 is fulfilling its purpose. 

Digital tools such as Google Classroom and Canvas are still used during in-person school; tracking online assignments is a chore, and many parents wish schools would go back to pencil and paper

If you happen to get into a conversation about American history with Prasidha Padmanabhan, you will have to keep reminding yourself of this: She is only 16. Prasidha has not only spent the last few years learning about the historic and too-often unseen roles of women, and in particular women of color, but also has worked to make sure students in one of the country’s largest school systems have a chance to learn about them.

New Mexico lawmakers may soon weigh permitting 16-year-olds to vote in local elections. 

Los Angeles Times High School Insider is a community of young readers, thinkers and storytellers. This week Jenny Tran from Fountain Valley High School discusses the trekking through the endless, beautiful world of books at your own pace after you work around the obstacles that come with reading more.

Are you interested in wonderful middle grade novels with neurodivergent characters? Lucky for you, we’ve rounded up eight.

Encouraging student-led exploration and performance can help make Shakespeare’s plays accessible and fun for middle schoolers.

From reimagining the classroom to tearing down imposter syndrome, author, critic and fierce public intellectual bell hooks inspired women of color across generations to create a world in which all are free to reach their potential. In 2003, she wrote, “To me the classroom continues to be a place where paradise can be realized, a place of passion and possibility, a place where spirit matters, where all that we learn and know leads us into greater connection, into greater understanding of life lived in community.” On December 15, bell hooks died after an extended illness but her legacy remains.

As the Newberry Award for “the most distinguished contributions to American literature for children” turns 100, Katherine Paterson stands out as only one of six authors to have received that prestigious medal twice. She discusses her two Newberry award winning novels, Bridge to Terabithia and Jacob Have I Loved.

Help with food and housing belongs in their mission, leaders say, because “anything that gets in the way of learning is in our lane.”

Many students do not realize and are not told that what counts as a passing grade in high school may not be acceptable for schools within the University of California system or at California State University. 

According to a statement published on Schoolyard News, Friday’s protest of in-person learning isn’t aimed at Boston Public Schools, but the state’s Department of Education and Secondary Education. DESE officials said that no matter the situation, remote learning no longer counts toward a district’s minimum required structured learning time. 

Young artists can face lonely paths; they can be misunderstood, ignored or even persecuted. But the urge to create is so powerful, and it can give young people’s lives such richness. Writers capture artists’ journeys in many ways. Two recent books take very different approaches to these journeys but arrive at a similar destination, of love and respect for the power of creation.

Five Rockingham County schools are working together to get kids reading again. They are calling it the ‘Battle of the Books’ competition.

Explaining the criteria for successful learning at the surface, deep, and transfer levels puts students in a better position to meet benchmarks.

New study hints parental mindset about potential for growth yields better outcomes starting from very early age.

The National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature has written a new book, called “Ain’t Burned All the Bright,” targeted at teens that explores what it means to be Black in America right now.

The challenges of parenting a teenager can leave one powerless and alone. Accepting these challenges is the only way to get to the other side

Multiple studies have shown that teenagers need between eight to nine hours of sleep every night to function at their optimum level. Unfortunately, most teenagers fall short of meeting the hours of sleep they require. Many teenagers feel that it’s okay not to get enough sleep. That they can “function” with less sleep. Some believe that they can go through days of less sleep and then catch up on lost sleep by sleeping more at other times. This is a recipe for disaster!

Jason Reynolds will discuss his novels and the art of storytelling as part of the University of Augusta Writing Project Author Series. The event takes place this Saturday at 3 p.m. and is free however participants must register online to participate. Currently, more than 400 people across the country, mostly educators, have registered.

Sharing lessons from what I did wrong can help others avoid a culture of fear and intimidation.

While balance training may not necessarily sound fun to most adolescents, video games typically do. And for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder, video games that improve their balance by teaching them yoga and tai chi poses also improves their posture, reduces the severity of their autism symptoms and influences the structure of their brains.

25 videos, comics, poems, paintings, photos, songs, games and GIFs tell a powerful story.

Joseph Allen, UVA’s Hugh Kelly Professor of Psychology, has turned out more groundbreaking research based on a longitudinal study of nearly 200 participants who were just 13 years old when the study began in 1998.

The latest research finds that the quality of teen’s relationships with their friends is a better predictor of certain long-term outcomes than their relationships with their parents. 

Last year was a great year for YA novels with Latinx protagonists, and 2022 promises to continue this positive trend. Here are seven titles to keep an eye out for this year.

Older students struggling with reading is not a phenomenon new to the pandemic. In 2019, before COVID disrupted schools, scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that only 66 percent of 4th graders and 73 percent of 8th graders were at or above a “basic” level of proficiency in the subject. But the turmoil over the past two years has resurfaced questions about exactly how best to get students up to speed, and it’s directed funding toward academic recovery. 

Teaching literacy to older students who are still learning English is a topic that’s traditionally gotten less attention in research, training, and professional development than its counterpart for younger students. Experts caution that good literacy instruction must be built on what’s already known about best practice for adolescent literacy in general, and be grounded in teachers’ detailed understanding of their students, since the English-learner population is highly diverse.

To policymakers, poet Giovanni Rose would be just a statistic. But like everyone ignored by politicians, he is so much more

Experts say we’ve entered a new age of censorship, marked by what the American Library Association (ALA) called “a dramatic uptick in book challenges and outright removal of books from libraries.”

E.L.L. students are invited to write a 50-word story using our recent vocabulary words. Send yours in by Jan. 31.

Start the new year off right with this incredible collection of books spanning the reading rainbow.

After getting a high school diploma in the spring, most graduates across Massachusetts were heading to public or private college. For other students, however, post-graduation plans meant going straight into the workforce or joining the military. 

Listen as Elijah talks to his former coach and teacher, Andy Harding. The conversation focuses on connections and how those relationships can be impactful for people on their journey of finding resilience. Harding is a social studies teacher and assistant football coach at Tarboro High School. 

Take a look at five categories of YA non-fiction to discover exciting, compelling, and fun reads as well as books that may “simply” be the kinds of books readers turn to for writing a report or learning a new skill.

A feel good story from across the pond. A teenager who made and gave out thousands of Covid-19 “survival packs” for young people during lockdown has been awarded for his goodwill.