Friday, December 13, 2013

Nonfiction Text Resource: Newsela.com

What is NEWSELA.COM?

News ELA is an innovative tool to help students build close reading skills and critical thinking skills through relevant nonfiction text. Each News ELA article is written at multiple levels of text complexity, and each student has the ability to adjust the text to a Lexile level that is most appropriate for his or her reading ability. Lexile levels range from the 2nd-3rd grade “stretch” Lexile band (420-820L) to the 11th grade-College and Career Readiness or CCR “stretch” Lexile band (1185-1385L).


How does this tool support individualized instruction and differentiation for students reading at various Lexile levels within a class?

Each News ELA article includes five versions, each written at a different Lexile.  In the screenshot below, the article "Getting Kids to Go to School So That They'll Do Well in Class" is available in five different Lexile levels: 550L (Grade 3), 700L (Grade 4), 940L (Grade 7), 1180L (Grade 8), and MAX (Grade 12). This provides differentiation for individual students; however, the entire class is still reading about the same topic.



Do the articles align with the Common Core State Standards?

While all articles have Lexile differentiation, some articles are specifically aligned to anchor standards. Each article aligned to one or more anchor standards are signified with an anchor icon followed by the anchor standard number. The article in the screenshot above is aligned to anchor standard 2: central idea (determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas).


Currently, articles in News ELA align to one or more of the following anchor standards:
  • Anchor Standard 1: What the Text Says
    • Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
  • Anchor Standard 2: Central Ideas
    • Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.
  • Anchor Standard 3: People, Events, and Ideas
    • Analyze how and why individuals, events, or ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.
  • Anchor Standard 4: Word Meaning and Choice
    • Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.
  • Anchor Standard 6: Point of View and Purpose
    • Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.
  • Anchor Standard 7: Multimedia
    • Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.


In addition, all articles aligned to anchor standards have accompanying quizzes aligned to the Common Core State Standards. The quizzes are leveled to align with the Lexile level; therefore, the rigor level of the quiz increases with the text complexity and Lexile level, further differentiating the article to individual students.

How can a teacher signup for NEWSELA.COM?

Currently, newsela.com is a free instructional tool. Teachers can sign in with their Google account. Once a teacher is signed in, the teacher can create one or more classes. Each class will be assigned a five letter class code that the teacher will be able to share with students so that students can enroll in the teacher’s class without registering for a separate account.


Teachers can then build class Binders, which means they can assign individual articles to students. When students log in, they will have a list of articles and accompanying quizzes that they will need to complete. Once students read and take the quiz, the data is easily accessible to the teacher by individual students or by article.


Quick Search Tip:

Teachers can search articles by topic or by anchor standards by using the following link : http://newsela.com/articles/?anchor=2.  Simply replace the number “2” with any of the anchor standard numbers.  

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