TOP PICKS | 35 TOOLS
ELA Tools Aligned to Common Core Standards
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HOMER Learn & Grow
Early learners follow an individualized path of skills and interests to gain literacy skills and more
Bottom line: Top-notch phonics program effectively balances and guides students, but isn't as strong in non-literacy-related topics.
Lexia Core5 Reading
Interactive reading program promotes targeted, individualized growth
Bottom line: A good blended reading platform that offers students some choices, and teachers, actionable data and useful offline resources.
Literator
Handy app helps structure and track reading conferences
Bottom line: Once teachers are all set up and organized, this can be a useful tool for conferencing and tracking student progress.
ReadWriteThink
Excellent free resource for all things reading and writing
Bottom line: A language arts teacher's dream; lesson plans, professional development, and all-around quality support.
Lalilo
K–2 literacy program offers comprehensive, adaptive activities
Bottom line: An easy-to-recommend tool thanks to its broad coverage of key skills and nice balance of student-driven and teacher-differentiated learning.
Literably
Simple and useful reading fluency assessment tool frees up teacher time
Bottom line: Some districts may find this to be a cost-effective, time-saving option for reading records.
LearnZillion
Quality Common Core-aligned lessons with great modeling for teachers
Bottom line: An innovative way to enhance lessons and tailor learning for individual needs.
Flocabulary
Delightful hip-hop-based platform teaches vocab across content areas
Bottom line: Flocabulary has the goods: It's savvy enough to keep students focused, and teachers will love the platform’s allowance for flexibility and creativity.
Freckle
Standards-aligned, adaptive, core subject materials with lots of support
Bottom line: It's rich with content-aligned assessments, worksheets, and progress analytics, so mindful teachers will find it a valuable resource to promote skills mastery through practice.
ReadTheory
Useful if not exciting adaptive tool for assessing reading ability
Bottom line: It's very utilitarian, but what it does it does well: getting students test-ready by effectively assessing and tracking reading ability.
ReadWorks
Differentiate reading instruction with high-quality texts and lessons
Bottom line: The quality and scope of texts, lesson plans, assessments, and supports on this platform can help facilitate online or offline targeted reading instruction in nearly any home or classroom.
VocabularySpellingCity
Subscription-based, student-facing app fine for independent practice
Bottom line: A potentially more engaging -- although uneven -- option for your students, if you've got a Premium membership.
826 Digital
Popular after-school program shares its resources with teachers
Bottom line: This is a worth-bookmarking resource thanks to relatable writing lessons and motivating examples of actual student writing.
LightSail
Powerful, flexible reading tool measures meaningful literacy gains
Bottom line: A powerful literacy platform for developing and empowering readers, with useful customization features for both teachers and students.
Quill
Let students do the writing to make grammar lessons more meaningful
Bottom line: This tool offers excellent opportunities for grammar and writing practice, well-tailored to students' abilities and needs.
News-O-Matic EDU
Daily news stories and supplements keep elementary schoolers current
Bottom line: This highly useful current events platform can be a daily fixture of elementary school classrooms.
TeachingBooks.net
Comprehensive site collects resources on authors and books in one place
Bottom line: This rich database of literary resources can extend learning experiences with books and their authors.
Biblionasium
Site for reviewing and sharing books makes reading a social adventure
Bottom line: This safe, simple social network lets kids share their reading success with friends, creating healthy competition and confidence.
Grammaropolis.com
Catchy parts-of-speech instruction, from hook to assessment
Bottom line: The fun songs will stick, and so will kids' knowledge about the parts of speech.
Newsela
Great stories, just-right leveled reading; now mostly by subscription
Bottom line: Up-to-date, high-interest articles will meet students right at their level, and help teachers bolster students' nonfiction reading skills.
CommonLit
Feature-rich literacy resource offers superb support for readers
Bottom line: Access a hefty collection of reliable, ready-to-print, leveled passages that allow you to tailor lessons, assign online reading, and track progress.
ThinkCERCA
Well-structured lessons encourage deep analysis, thoughtful writing
Bottom line: This is a ready-to-go, research-backed resource that focuses intently on CCSS-aligned and AP-level critical reading and writing skills.
Writable
Stellar program scaffolds the writing process with peer review and feedback
Bottom line: This is an intelligently structured tool for teaching writing and review that focuses on process as much as product.
Readorium
Science and reading come together in aging but effective platform
Bottom line: There's not much out there that focuses specifically on reading science texts, so if your students can get past the dated design, this could be a handy tool to turn to.
Actively Learn
Empowering reader keeps kids actively, independently engaged
Bottom line: Far beyond the average e-reader, this tool helps students connect and stay engaged while teachers easily measure progress.
iTooch 6th Grade Language Arts
Quality lessons, challenging quizzes help kids learn core concepts
Bottom line: This solid companion to the ELA classroom offers brief lessons and quizzes to reinforce key concepts and skills.
Quandary
Slick ethics game teaches students to make tough decisions
Bottom line: This versatile game that can teach ethics, argumentation, and civics is light on interactivity but will come alive through discussion.
Read to Lead
Realistic games provide career-based practice for ELA and SEL skills
Bottom line: A great middle school choice for integrating literacy skills with real-life scenarios and careers.
Amplify Reading 6-8
Supplemental reading program puts sci-fi twist on core ELA concepts
Bottom line: This is a creative, thoughtfully built program that, while a bit contrived, could slot well into many classrooms with some scaffolding.
Listenwise
Bring real-world stories from public radio into the classroom
Bottom line: A fantastic resource that brings both historical and current event public radio stories into the classroom.
StudySync
Superb ELA resource features engaging activities, stellar support
Bottom line: An exceptional, ever-growing resource for helping your students become close readers, careful writers, and critical thinkers.
Wordflex Touch Dictionary
Amazing interactive visual dictionary makes exploring words exciting
Bottom line: Dynamic, highly visual presentation makes learning new words exciting.
The Learning Network
Process current events through engaging NYT-style lens
Bottom line: From a trusted news organization with its finger on the pulse of the world, this free resource can be a reliable source of activities and ideas for current event discussions.
Youth Voices
Vibrant online community hosts authentic student writing
Bottom line: Supported student writing, collaboration, and communication make this a healthy space for kids to express themselves.
Shakespeare In Bits: Macbeth iPad Edition
Multimedia shines in this elegant remix of an old classic
Bottom line: Engaging and supporting kids throughout, it breaks down Shakespearean language and brings the play to life.