Read with ReadWorks! - Effective Literacy Website Review #1

ReadWorks is a comprehensive reading system that offers a variety of resources for literacy. The components of ReadWorks are driven by scientific research and created to provide practical solutions for classroom reading instruction and assessment. Educators can sign up for a free account to search for instructionally appropriate reading passages. In addition, teachers can create digital classes that help monitor reading skills. Students also have access to other resources and features that support their literacy learning.

At this time, ReadWorks has 4560 passages for instructional use. These passages include comprehension question sets and vocabulary. Educators can print the passages or have students access the passages through digital class assignments. Students are able to annotate text and answer questions online. Data is automatically collected so both teachers and students can monitor progress. The great thing about the passages is that many of them include information from other content areas, including social studies, science, health, and even life skills. This means students not only build their reading skills, but also gain knowledge in other disciplinary areas. The website makes it quite easy to find appropriate passages as there are tabs to help you find text for grade level, type of text, lexile level, and other kinds of supports (more on this soon).

As mentioned earlier, ReadWorks is meant to give teachers a practical solution for literacy instruction and assessment. It features an option to create a digital classroom that focuses on building reading skills. Because technology is becoming more and more a necessary part of education, this type of web based instruction allows for students to learn beyond the traditional classroom environment. It helps  teachers to collect and view data in a more convenient and accessible way. Students can also utilize features such as audio narration, highlighting, adjustable text size, guided reading strip, and split screen view. These options provide supports when needed.

Lastly, ReadWorks offers several other great components with its program. A daily routine called “Article a Day” encourages students to read and discuss information as a group or class. This type of activity builds background knowledge, vocabulary, and reading stamina. Students can also read paired texts that allow for compare and contrast learning. Another type of support ReadWorks offers is “StepReads,” a collection of less complex versions of original passages, which helps struggling readers access content and vocabulary. E-books are also available, as well as a collection targeted for English language learners. Teachers can also access created lesson plans and units for trade books that are used for classroom instruction.

Overall, ReadWorks is great literacy website that can be used as a powerful learning tool. The amount of reading resources and supports it offers makes it one to include on a teacher’s list of websites to explore and try out. As a teacher myself, I plan on using this website to find grade appropriate text for my students, and possibly testing out the digital classroom feature.  

Watch the video about Article a Day.