Community reviews for Smithsonian: TweenTribune

The best part is that the articles convey virtually the same content at each lexile level, but the language used is either more advanced to challenge accelerated readers or more basic to accommodate readers who need more scaffolding to grasp the content. The articles are sized such that I can assign an article for students to read and still have time to do an activity and discuss what they learned. I am happy with this site and would recommend it to any teacher looking to enhance their classrooms with a dose of assistive technology.

Tween Tribune is a must for ELA classrooms but can be utilized in other content areas as well. Students enjoy the articles, and teachers can always find current events that interest students on a wide variety of topics. With an emphasis on reading in all content areas, this is a great resource for all teachers at all grade levels.

The kids really liked the score keeping - gamification with reading quizzes. I used it as a sub plan activity once a class was really practiced in how to use it. I could check the activity and scores even if I wasn't in the room when it was being used.

I don't like TweenTribune as much as Newsela. One element of it is the overall design aesthetic. It's not appealing to students, and they gravitate towards Newsela far more. Another aspect is the quizzes. I don't like the questions in them as much and find they are not as good as discussion starters for students. That said, this is an effective tool that provides a useful platform for teachers and students.

It is a great non-fiction news site with a wide variety of articles written at differentiated Lexile levels. I can see how it would appeal to younger ages, but for my 4th and 5th graders it is right on target. I love the daily quiz and immediate feedback for students. I appreciate that there is a writing opportunity for students. The site is very teacher friendly and offers several resources, links and tips for teachers. The critical thinking prompts at the end of each article help spark student discussions and journaling opportunities.

I like the articles and the fact that Lexile and grade levels are provided for teachers to assign. I also like the fact that a "classroom" can be created and usernames created for your students. This makes it easy to have students complete certain articles as the articles can be assigned to students so they don't have to search for a specific title. However, the fact that it only allows students to make comments and there is only a daily quiz that has one question, I am looking for a little more substance and interactivity for my students when they are completing assignments, especially independent ones.

This site has a variety of articles to chose from and is appropriate for students from Kinder to 12th grade. This allows me to find articles that will fit my students needs in class no matter what level they are currently reading at. I also like that students can leave comments and as the teacher can choose to allow them to be public or private allowing students to interact with other students from other schools/classes.

I am still learning about this site. Right now I like the conversations that are coming from the articles.

I appreciate having something age appropriate for my students to use during our D.E.A.R. sessions. I actually had my students evaluate the site and the feedback was positive. They appreciated the variety of articles. Later in the school year I may pick one article for the whole class to read and start a threaded discussion on My Big Campus so students can share their thoughts. This would expose them to others perception of the same article.

TweenTribune offers high interest articles for all ages. Some articles are longer than others. This is a great tool to improve students' knowledge of the world around them and develop their reading skills.