Community reviews for Newsela

I wish that the assessments were a little more extensive. It is good practice for cold reads, so a longer or more comprehensive assessment would be useful. You also have the ability to convert to Spanish, so it would be a great tool for ELL learners, or for those students who take Spanish as a foreign language.

Newsela is a great source of informational text. I wish it were more gamified, so I would have an incentive to use it online (rather than just print the articles) and offered lower Lexiles (so I wouldn't have to print and modify them).

I really like how this product fits the learning need of every child. If you have a mixed group of students whose lexile scores vary, this site is great in helping to make sure that each student reads to their full potential.

I LOVE the newsela site!! I will use it as a component for every standard. I holds the students attention and engages their interest on the subject. The only time consuming aspect of the site is the viewing. The teacher can spend hours searching for the clip that has the information they are wanting to relay.

Like most of the tools I evaluate, it really depends on how you use it in the classroom. I feel this is especially true for NewsELA. I have seen it used very well, and not so well. First and foremost, it is a huge asset to be able to change the Lexile level. However, this decision should be data-driven and a collaborative process between the teacher and student. There should always be discussion between the teacher and the student about the learning process and learning targets for each individual student. If this does not happen on a consistent basis, the differentiation that NewsELA provides is pointless. Secondly, NewsELA should not be a lesson in itself. Too many times I have seen teachers assign an article and check the "I used technology box." NewsELA articles are short, and the current events that are published daily should engage students in a higher level of Bloom's in another part of the lesson. The point of NewsELA is that the differentiated Lexile levels should provide a gateway of comprehension, in which students can each read in a way that is challenging to them. NewsELA grants them comprehension access to take it to the next level. It is relatively easy to find an article that aligns with something you are covering in class. I would encourage teachers to follow individual reading time with Socratic Smackdown (http://www.instituteofplay.org/work/projects/print-play-games-2/socratic-smackdown/) or other discussion forum.

Although the initial classroom set-up can be time consuming, the overall instructional benefits of Newsela are really worth the effort. The availability of high quality, well referenced news articles at different reading levels is an amazing resource. Once your students start using Newsela, it becomes a normal part of the daily routine, like reading the morning paper. Students like the articles, topics, and photographs included with each article. They also like the comprehension quizzes at the end of the articles.

I think this is a great teaching tool to help reach all levels of readers. I like that you can look at all the reading levels of the same article and compare and contrast the different articles.

I think that Newsela is a wonderful product. The best part of it is that it is leveled. Many times when looking for a reading passage for my class, I was faced with the problem of having to find articles that were appropriate for the different reading levels I had AND were about the same issue, so that students could interact after they read the article. With Newsela, that is not a problem anymore. The teacher can choose an article, and there are at least three different lexile levels that the article come in. That way, readers of all different levels can read information and discuss with each other. The comprehension quizzes that come with some of the articles are the icing on the cake....did I mention its free too?! What's not to love about Newsela?!

I like the fact that I can adjust the article to meet the needs of my ELL students. The articles are not very long, so kids don't get overwhelmed usually. I require my students to annotate the text and summarize the main ideas in the margin. The assignment serves as a supplemental, up-to-date reading on a topic we're discussing as well as a way for me to tell how well they are annotating.

I extend the usefulness of this website by having student read an article first, then they take a screen shot of the article and import the screen shot into the Explain Everything app on their iPads. They are required to read the article aloud using the record feature of EE. Then they explain a summary of the article. This extension exercise allows students to work on their oral language development and reading comprehension skills which are critical components of their overall literacy competency.