Newsela

 

Newsela is a website meant for the classroom. It provides news articles to students on topics that they care about it. This can include current events on sports, social issues, politics, etc. They also span across subject areas like social studies, health and science. This works to engage students with different interests. Newsela works to increase literacy and literacy is important to all content areas. However, as a future English teacher, it is especially important to me. I would personally use the resources on this site to do an article of the week. This would help students build literacy, background knowledge, and vocabulary. It also keeps them up to date with current events and world problems which I think is incredibly important. Lastly, I would utilize the annotation tool to encourage active reading. I would then be able to assess the kids with the assessment data for teachers on the site. 

Overall, this site is aligned with common core standards like the one requiring non-fiction reading. It also provides comprehension questions for the students that are common core aligned. It's great for differentiation because kids can read articles at the reading level suitable for them and this helps them improve their literacy. This is definitely a tool I would utilize in my own classroom!