Newsela (www.newsela.com) is an excellent literacy website available for
educators and students. The content on this site consists of relevant, engaging
articles in varying Lexile levels. Students have the option to select an
article to read based off of interest, or a teacher may assign a mandatory
article for the student to read. All of Newsela’s content is equipped with
comprehension questions and a short writing prompt. However, in order for the
teacher to gain access to student responses and full access to all content is
to sign up for Newsela Pro.
One
of the most important features of the content is that the student is able to
adjust the readability of the majority of articles. For example, the student
may choose a lower/higher Lexile according to his/her needs, and the article
automatically adjusts its readability to fit that Lexile level. This is crucial
in a classroom of varying reading abilities because it is an easy and efficient
scaffolding of the same content.
Newsela also provides primary sources
for research, speeches from influential people, and combines articles to create
themed-units. Another interesting feature is that Newsela also has thought
pieces from students themselves, and highlights news that is important and
relevant to the reader.
The site is very user-friendly, and
teachers are able to create logins for each of their students. It definitely
promotes literacy because the articles are interesting and the student has
control over the readability of the content. The comprehension questions
require the students to read the information carefully but then directs them
to the passage with the correct answer if the student answered incorrectly.
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