Given all the circumstances that faculty across the nation find themselves in due to COVID-19, I have dedicated this newsletter to all-things news.

News that can inform how you tackle teaching language online in these next few months. And, some news that is not related to emergency remote teaching due to the pandemic but rather, just news on language instruction that I hope you find refreshing during this time. 

The Research Writers Interest Group (RW-IG) is newly revised and provides a place for members (teachers and graduate students) who have an interest in academic writing to discuss current issues, post favorite resources, and generally discuss academic writing. 

We CATESOLers are writing materials nearly every day in our capacity as instructors, authors, researchers, designers, programmers, or program administrators. Some of our material is shared solely with students, while other work may be presented at conferences or published in journals or textbooks.

Greetings from CATESOL! So much has changed since the last newsletter. Fortunately CATESOL was on the ball and helped teachers with a coaching week. The videos were recorded and are now available for you to view. Just go to http://www.CATESOL.org and log on to your account. Next click on the Resources tab and Teaching Online. This will take you to a menu of available videos: 

We hope that these will be helpful in moving you and your students online.  In addition, we are in the throes of planning a spring conference sometime in early May. Another event that CATESOL will be organizing is mentoring support for teachers in these unprecedented times.  We are also excited to continue planning our annual conference. Hopefully we will be able to see each other face to face. We are proud to have you as our member. CATESOL is there for you!

The Common Core emphasized nonfiction and the use of “informational” texts in order to prepare students for academics. But there is exciting news: there is evidence showing fiction might do a better job. And the best kind of fiction may be the fiction students select themselves, not “assigned reading.” All this comes from recent research. 

Undocumented immigrants in California will be able to draw on a $125 million benefit fund during the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday. While unauthorized immigrants comprise about a tenth of California’s workforce, Newsom noted that they are generally ineligible for economic lifelines like unemployment insurance or the $2 trillion federal relief fund. That’s despite the fact that many immigrants work in essential industries like health care and agriculture, Newsom said.