Today I went to a training. It was good - part 3 with the instructor. She has been teaching us about Common Core ELA and Writing, a great resource since we have no actual CC curriculum going into full time CCSS next year. Today she shared something that really sparked my attention and made me excited to turn on my computer and explore.
This website is brand new to me, but it's going to be a great resource. It has articles that directly relate to how students will be expected to pick apart the text. Each of the articles also has different Lexile levels and a quiz based on those specific levels. Basically kids can access with their specific reading level and then have a comprehension quiz based on what they read. There is also a way to put in a class roster, and get a report of grades for each kid. I love that there is a search button to find numerous articles based on a topic. It's FREE!
Like I said, right now there isn't CCSS ELA curriculum that the district is looking at - we learned that piece of information at our last staff meeting. Right now the plan is to keep our text and switch it to being CCSS correlated. At the last staff meeting it was shared about the Basal Alignment Project through Edmodo. Basically there is a group to join (code: F4Q6NM) that has a folder of all aligned lessons that are free resources. Not all my OCR stories are on there, but the group is adding more lessons every day. They take the different texts and basically have created a CCSS lesson plan that will work those standards, giving tier 2 and 3 vocabulary, deeper comprehension questions, etc. We're supposed to throw out the teacher's edition and use these plans instead for ELA.
I also bought this resource by Forkin4th this past fall and have used it in my ELA workshop this year. It's great and has the nonfiction articles & comprehension. I recently sent it off to be copied full class for next year to add more nonfiction into our days. I was reminded about it today in the training when we were discussing the need for numerous articles about the same subjects. Many of the homework sheets have more than one article to help with comparing/contrasting between articles. LOVE it!
I hope these resources help you! Linking up with Holly and Tried it Tuesday!
Where did you find the articles you were refering to on the NEWSELA site? Was it under Kids?
ReplyDeleteDiane - Yes, click Kids - then choose an article. On the right side there is a Lexile Level and the Quiz button. To run reports you have to sign up for a free account. There is also a way to save them to your account so you can find them later.
ReplyDeleteI recently learned about NEWSELA from Michele, but I haven't had time to really "play" with it. Thanks for the reminder! Maybe while I'm on break I can organize a great lesson!
ReplyDeleteJoanne
Head Over Heels For Teaching
Hi, thank you so much for sharing Newsela. I teach adult education and rely on having leveled readings to teach all the different levels in my classroom. This will be a wonderful resource!
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