Effective Literacy Website #7

ReadWorks is a non-profit organization whose mission is to solve the nation’s reading comprehension crisis by providing teachers with tools and support they need to improve the academic achievement of their students.  This website provides research-based units, lessons, and authentic, leveled non-fiction and literacy passages to teachers online, for free, to share with colleagues.  All curriculum material found on Read Works is aligned to the Common Core State Standards and all the standards of all 50 U.S. states.  In addition, the Fountas & Pinnele and Lexile reading level is provided so educators have the ability to match readers of all ages with books, articles, and other leveled reading resources.

Although very basic in its set-up and design, this tool offers an abundant amount of resource dedicated to improving literacy and reading comprehension.  There are four categorical areas that teachers can select from the homepage.  The four categories are skills and strategy units, comprehension units, novel study units, and reading passages.  In the Skills and Strategy group, teachers can access the following concepts of comprehension: author’s purpose, cause and effect, character, classify and categorize, compare and contrast, drawing conclusions, explicit information, fact and opinion, figurative language, genre, main idea,  plot, point of view, predicting, pronoun reference, sequence, setting, theme, vocabulary in context, and voice.  In each category, the definition of the concept, when the concept should be introduced, objective of each lesson, and books and reading passages that will be used.  All books are easily downloadable and free of charge.  To gain full access to materials, users are to set up an account. 

The second feature of this website is the comprehension units.  Here you will find research based units to facilitate close reading, precise questioning based on evidence in the text, and focused discussion to enable comprehension of the entire text.  According to the website, read-aloud and paired text lessons embody the most effective research-proven instructional practice to support student comprehension.  Units are carefully selected books with authentic reading passages that allow students to critically think and engage in the numerous learning activities.  In addition, this website features an alignment tool for educators to see how each lesson is aligned with the Common Core State Standards.  When teachers click on the reading passages, they are taken to its lesson plan which includes a learning goal, the duration at which the activity will last, necessary materials, procedures that includes teacher modeling and questioning, guided practice and discussion, and independent practice.  As an educator, I thought that the layout of the lesson plan was very creative in that the headers of the plan had an “I DO-teacher modeling, WE DO-guided practice, and YOU DO-independent practice.

The third feature of the website is Novel Study Units.  These units afford students the opportunity to engage with and read higher level texts.  Multiple comprehension concepts are taught in a single unit and all units include a pacing guide, 5-7 lessons, student packet, and a unit assessment.  Like the other features, the levels of text are provided via Fountas and Pinnel and Lexile.  The last feature of the website which carries an enormous collection of material is the Reading Passages.  ReadWorks provides over eighteen hundred kindergarten through eighth grade non-fiction and literary reading passages, each with a research-based question set to support student comprehension.  Because of the vast amount of resources this feature has to offer, a keyword, grade level, Lexile min/max time, topic domain, and skill/strategy search tool is made available to easily navigate and find resources needed.

Overall, I am amazed that this site exists that I never knew about.  After having navigated and examined the resources it has to offer, I’m so grateful to have come across a site that provides resources that will assist me as I integrate the Common Core Standards into my lessons.  It offers many resources that both elementary and secondary teachers can use to improve the quality of instruction and promote literacy in the classroom.  I look forward to sharing this website with my colleagues. 

Information Source:  http://www.readworks.org/

Image Source: http://d3ivba60z6gp80.cloudfront.net/img/readworksFolder.jpg