Curriculet

Editor's Note: Curriculet was purchased by Waterford Institute in December 2016. Some of the information in this review may no longer apply.

Curriculet is an easy-to-navigate e-reading platform that lets teachers assign a variety of fiction, nonfiction, and news texts to their students. What's more, teachers can embed a variety of "checkpoints," or assessment items for students, within texts. Curriculet's library includes a selection of more than 600 free, public-domain literature, searchable by categories such as grade level and genre. There's also a wide selection of more current texts available; thousands of titles can be rented for 60 to 90 days at prices ranging from $0.75 to $3.49 per teacher, per student. Curriculet also features daily articles from USA Today that include standards-aligned quiz questions leveled for elementary, middle school, and high school readers. This news feature is free to try for 45 days and then costs $4.99 per student, per year after the trial period. In addition to the wide range of fiction and nonfiction texts available, teachers can upload their own texts to the library in a variety of formats, including PDF files, Word documents, Google Docs, or websites. 

After selecting or uploading texts, teachers can get to work adding a variety of checkpoints to help guide students' reading. Checkpoint options include multiple-choice or short-answer questions, annotations, or hyperlinks; these can be aligned to various ELA Common Core State Standards. Grouped together, the collected checkpoints for a text are called "Curriculets." The library includes a number of texts that come with ready-made Curriculets; teachers can use these as is, edit them, or even create their own from scratch. All Curriculets are customizable and shareable. Within the texts, students attend to checkpoints as they read, getting instant feedback on the multiple-choice questions. In fact, students can't proceed to the next page of text without completing each checkpoint. Using the e-reader's tools, students can search a text, adjust the font size, make annotations, and look up definitions of unknown words. For teachers, the platform offers a quick way to grade short-answer questions and access detailed data reports for each student.

Overall, Curriculet is a great platform for fostering high-quality, high-impact ELA instruction. Most importantly, this type of tool can help teachers model active reading skills for their students. Carefully crafted checkpoints within texts have the potential to alter kids' reading experience in a positive way, calling attention to key text features and helping students develop close reading skills. The in-text assessments offer students instant feedback on their comprehension of a text, and teachers can use their students' results to get valuable feedback on progress and ongoing performance.

There are several great e-reading platforms out there, and Curriculet stands out for its ease of use for teachers. Any teacher can sign up for free, and it's easy to upload your own texts or annotate existing texts from the library. The fact that teachers can group texts by class or by assignment is especially helpful. With the tool, teachers can easily encourage students to engage with fiction, nonfiction, and news stories side by side, and they can invite reflection and commentary on how these texts relate and why that matters. There's also the option to use the built-in checkpoints and assessments, and anyone can add and customize their own content. As teachers create their own Curriculets, they can share them with others, both locally or within their extended personal-learning network.

More social features (such as the ability for students to interact with each other) or options for better personalization (such as recommended reads based on personal interests or reading level) could help boost engagement and learning potential. Plus, some elements of the site can get pricey; those per-student, per-year subscriptions can add up. Also, it's worth mentioning that some students will prefer reading some YA titles simply for pleasure and might not always like the types of in-text assessments found here. With that said, Curriculet remains a powerful tool; teachers can use it effectively -- even for free, and with their own uploaded texts -- to make a serious impact on their students' close reading skills.