ILA Newsletter Weekly Project: Effective Literacy Website #1 Exploration by Andrea Espinal

 

           Newsela.com is a literacy website and an education platform that provides reading materials for students in grade levels Kindergarten through 12^th grade. The reading materials vary by subject and could be used for ELA, social studies, science, and social and emotional lessons (SEL). The leveled cross-curricular content is standards based aligned allowing teachers to focus on their priority standards for the school year. With that said, teachers can use these materials for engagement and enrichment during classroom lessons.

            Before I further discuss the great things about this platform, I can say that a downside to using this is that there are two account versions to using this website. While the free account version comes with only the basic features and access to materials, the paid users have access to some great tools that are beneficial to the classroom. Additionally, assignment and reporting capabilities are available to paid users. Quizzes that are in line with standards for a given subject are theirs to give out in order to help students learn the material and develop their skills. Teachers can also receive thorough performance reports and follow the growth of their students in real time.

            While teaching 5^th grade, I’ve seen that majority of our stories that we use are nonfiction. I absolutely appreciate that Newela.com has a plethora of nonfiction text to choose. Majority of reading materials and resources are from big name publishers such as History, The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, PBS NewsHour, Scientific American, Smithsonian, and World History Encyclopedia. Other materials may be fictional stories as well. In the nonfiction content, there is a collection of news articles, essays, reference text, and primary sources. In addition, integrated inside the text is a reading comprehension quiz that encourages fundamental reading skills that align with a particular standard.

            Overall, Newsela.com is a great website because of the resources it contains. The content is very well organized as the site is easy to navigate through. Making an account is fairly easy for both teacher and students. The website has been revamped and has a highly polished appearance.