I have to admit, last year my colleague and I tried assigning our students current events for Social Studies, and although I liked the idea of students knowing what was happening in the world around them, I just knew that some articles were too hard for them to completely comprehend, especially students who were lower in their reading levels. But with limited resources, what could I really do?
Now, I have NewsELA as an awesome resource! As long as my students have an idea of their Lexile scores, they can read a news article that is actually written for them to understand. What I love about NewsELA, is that these articles are written in different levels, therefore, the students who are reading at a higher level will read the same information, but in a more challenging text, which allows them to get the same information as the others, but it won't be "boring" for them to read.
The idea of having to take a quiz at the end to assess their comprehension is also amazing, something students are unable to do with a regular news article. And, teachers can track student progress.
Without this course, I'm not too sure if I ever would've come across this site. Although there has been much work to do, I believe I've come to gain much knowledge to the vast amount of effective resources for the classroom. I look forward to the next assignment and learning how much we can include Google Earth into our lessons.
Great reflection on NewsELA. I think its a great idea that they are assessed after they've read. This is something that I should also do after an article discussion and reflection write-up. Thanks for the idea!
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