Skip to main content

Newslea Alternatives

As many have found out we are no longer paying for Newsela. When we first purchased this subscription Newsela was a great resource for leveling nonfiction content. Over the past few years they have transitioned into more of an assessment tool. While the assessment tool is great, it made it not covered by CSF, Common School Fund, one of my primary funds for budgets. The purpose of this Blog post is to highlight some other tools and websites that offer similar articles. If you have a website not mentioned, please add it in the comments or contact me directly!

 1) Dogo News- ELA, Science and Social Studies articles for kids. While there is a paid version that has the assigning, listening and quiz options I haven't found an article that I haven't been able to access. Categories on the top ribbon include Current Events, Science, Social Studies, World, Environment, Fun, Video and Sports. You can filter top stories by Week, Month and Year. You can share the article to Google Classroom and if students use the article for an assignment there is a citation for each article in APA, Chicago and MLA.

2)ReadWorks- This resource is FREE. I could do an entire post just about this one, just wait there may be one in the future! This is a FREE K-12 resource of articles for most topics. Reading passages feature question sets, StepReads (differentiation), vocabulary support and activities, audio and eBooks. You can add classes from Google Classroom and monitor their progress from the website. There is are also some great PD for using the resource with students. I haven't actually used this one first hand but I know that we have staff that have. Talk to me and I will get you in touch with others who have used it for best tips and tricks.

3)Common Lit-This resource has free accounts for students and teachers. This website features a Digital Lesson Library that you can search by standard, levels both grade and Lexile and other valuable filters. There are annotation tools included for students. You can set up Classrooms from your Google Classrooms, assign readings, assess questions and more all for FREE. If you have used this tool, please let the group know by adding a comment or message me directly.

4)TweenTribune- Created and curated by the Smithsonian there are 4 main categories for this website. There is Junior Grade K-4, TweenTribune 5-6 and 7-8 and TeenTribune for grades 10-12. All articles have multiple versions with different Lexile levels. This is a FREE resource. You set up your own classes in this resource, but there is a wealth of information in the Teacher Resources including Lesson Plans and great articles including Monday Morning Ready which has an article with questions and suggested lesson plans to help you get the week started on the right foot! My favorite article from these is The stories behind "Toy Story's" beloved characters. The ciritical thinking question is a great conversation starter for students of most ages!

Again, if you have another great resource to share or if you use one of these please let me know and you can expound further on them in your own blog post! (hint A-Z approved!)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

As a child of the 80's and 90's I absolutely LOVED this game! I remember fighting my brother over who got to play this on our PC growing up. Checking out Almanacs from the library just so that I could try to solve the questions that were given. Watching the game show on PBS: Man, that song was really catchy! Then on one of our many snow/cold days Roland and I discovered that Netflix had released their own animated version to answer the question: Who really is Carmen Sandiego? Then, it just got better! If you saw the latest Google for Education Newsletter, XVIII, March 2019 you may have seen what I saw: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Google have created an interactive quiz that takes your students across the globe to find clues and solve the mystery of the Crown Jewels caper:  Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?   Melding the world of Google Earth and the classic game we remember (it's even pixelated like we remember!) Students get to interview different peopl...

Youtube Chanel to Follow: Epic Reads!

I follow a lot of different forms of media in blogs, social media, and YouTube. This post is about a super valuable YouTube Channel called Epic Reads ! Now, I know that it is not a technology post, however I am using Technology to keep up to date with current book trends and this is one of those ways! I like it because it talks about adult book and teen book trends and the vlogger (video blogger) is not too annoying, I can handle her talking, in fact if I was in a classroom I would use the December 2017 Book Haul (at around the 1:30 mark) to talk about trigger books and how books can have themes that really grip the reader. Some other channels that I follow are: Google for Education -I have spammed you before about this one, however I feel like highlighting again the EDU in 90 sessions. They only take about a minute and a half of your time to look at features of the G Suite! Origin of Everything -This is a relatively new one. It is PBS branching out into YouTube land. They...

Guest Post-Tara Runaas with IXL and its use in your classroom

Many teachers a re using IXL in their classrooms, however, what are you doing with the results of what your students are doing?  Did you know that there is a way to drill down and see what your students level is within each domain? Did you know that you can look on your account to see what your students are working on at the moment?  Do you know what the Smartscore really is? Do you know that you can ability group your students and assign certain skills? If this intrigues you, please reach out to me as I’m very willing to share this information with you.  Below is an outline of a meeting I held at the elementary level. I would love to come visit and show you what this program can really do! Continuous Diagnostic What is it? What does it do? How do the students get there? Choose ELA/Math or both What to do with the information when you have it. Real-time Analytics Shows who is logged in Shows if they are actively learning Shows what sk...