Newsela

     Newsela is a website through which teachers can find articles covering any and all possible subjects, written to match different reading levels for different grades. For example, a science teacher looking for an age-appropriate article to teach sixth graders about cells could select the article, “All About Cells.” The selected reading level would roughly match a sixth-grade level, and the article would change both word count and word choice to match. Now if a high school biology teacher wanted to use the same article, the reading level that would match a sophomore in high school could be selected, and the article would both lengthen and have more complex words throughout.
   
     Additionally, teachers can create assignments using Newsela’s, “Create assignment” tool, with questions pre-filled based on the educator’s goal for the lesson. Assignments range from vocabulary identification and definition, to fill-in-the-blank assignments and comprehension questions. While Newsela has a broad array of English articles that cover every educational topic, they have also begun to offer articles in Spanish, through which both foreign language classes and ESL students can bolster their comprehension through a blended language approach.

     

     Newsela also offers teachers a way to connect with one another and see how other educators have implemented different articles into their classrooms. Each article shows how many times it has been assigned to a particular class, offering teachers a way to quickly evaluate the efficacy of an article by seeing how popular it has been among the educational community.

     

     The real boon of Newsela is its adaptability, it is a tool that can be used with early learners and young elementary kids, up through seniors in high school. The website allows teachers to host a class directly, making assignments easy to organize and submissions easy to track, while simultaneously cutting down on the paper used throughout the educational system. By constantly adapting to the overall demands of educators and their students, Newsela is a resource that all teachers should be aware of in their push to increase literacy throughout our schools.