Review by Andrea Meyers, Common Sense Education | Updated March 2018
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StudySync

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Superb ELA resource has comprehensive coverage, tons of supports

Subjects & skills
Subjects
  • English Language Arts
  • English Language Learning
Skills
  • Communication & Collaboration
  • Critical Thinking
Grades This grade range is a recommendation by Common Sense Education and not the developer/publisher.
6–12
Common Sense says (See details)
Teachers say (6 Reviews)
Price:  Free to Try A one-year subscription is $16.47 per student. The student reading and writing companion bundles cost $111.24 and are available per grade level as a 6-year subscription.
Platforms:  Website

Take a look inside

11 images
Teachers can search through 1,600+ texts and filter by Lexile, grade, tags, special features, genres, and date.
Text pages provide a wealth of info and help teachers quickly add to assignments and view units linked to the text.
The teacher dashboard links to the four primary areas of the program. The interface is clean and easy to navigate.
Teachers can add texts to create their own lessons.
Blasts challenge students to write short responses to daily prompts about current events or high-level thinking questions on important ideas.
Core Units provide grade-level program guides, scope and sequence, and pacing guides for ELA and EL.
Grammar skills practice is embedded in the Core Units, in addition to key reading skills and academic vocabulary.
High-quality videos model Collaborative Conversations about texts and writing prompts.
The student dashboard organizes assignments and due dates, a binder of all work, and the text library.
Students work through each step of an assignment, and all written responses in Think and Write are saved in an online portfolio.
From the Assignments List, teachers can create, edit, preview, and duplicate assignments, as well as track student progress.

Pros: A complete core literacy program for secondary schools. The high-quality multimedia is engaging and models productive discussions.

Cons: Texts are predominantly excerpts; doesn't offer a way to add standards for states that do not participate in Common Core.

Bottom Line: StudySync offers a complete core literacy program for secondary schools, making it easy to recommend, especially for teachers new to digital platforms.

How Can I Teach with This Tool?

StudySync can become your core literacy program or supplement ELA/EL programs your school already uses. Use the SyncStart video units to introduce the program to your students. Follow the Core ELA instructional paths or select individual high-caliber text studies for your class. Engage students in a variety of written responses to the readings, including short response Thinks, one or two paragraph Prompts, and Extended Writing Projects. Challenge students to create daily Blasts -- short, concise responses to relevant questions based on current events and big ideas -- and then have your students do peer reviews using the rubrics.

For schools that have their own literature studies program, you can create texts and units from scratch. Use the Assignments section to monitor all of the learning activities. Assign tasks to individuals, small groups, or the entire class. Use the assignment reports to track student progress. Choose from dozens of built-in rubrics to assess student writing and skills activities, or create your own custom rubrics. If your school has shared devices or very few, use the available printables for students to read and complete assignments.

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Standards:

StudySync is a comprehensive core literacy program for grades 6-12, all based on the Common Core State Standards and research into best practices for reading and writing instruction. It offers over 1,600 literary and informational texts with learning activities supported by high-quality multimedia and instructional resources. Most of the texts are excerpts, though some are full-length. The program is designed for secondary classrooms, but some of the texts have lower Lexile levels and can be used to support instructional differentiation. Literary texts range from Beowulf and Shakespeare to Newbery Medal winners and poetry, and informational texts include a wide range of biographies, autobiographies, letters, journals, persuasive writings, historical documents, speeches, and journalism. There's also a growing bank of Spanish texts. EL teachers can use them to scaffold learning, and teachers in bilingual programs can use both English and Spanish versions of texts to supplement instruction. And using the the text and unit creator, teachers can add texts to the library and create units with the new and existing texts. Schools that use G Suite for Education will be able to integrate with StudySync, so students can compose in Google Docs and submit to StudySync seamlessly.

The breadth and depth of StudySync competes with ELA/EL textbook programs, making this an easier transition for teachers used to nondigital approaches to literacy. Through the text studies, students build their close reading and comprehensions skills, in addition to identifying context clues, story elements, and textual evidence. These text studies incorporate grammar skills practice via handouts for study and practice. Students also hone their writing skills with multiple types of responses to the readings and the Blast prompts. The Core ELA/EL units last 45 days each, with four units for each grade level, and provide a guided instructional path for teachers to follow, complete with all the necessary instructional resources. In addition to the text studies, each unit has an extended writing project that focuses on a specific type of writing, such as narrative, literary analysis, informative writing, or argumentative writing. Students also complete a research project for each unit, which culminates in oral and multimedia presentations and written responses to the presentations. The full-text units study full-length novels and plays with comparison texts. Each unit includes teacher and student reading guides with vocabulary lists, key passages, notes from StudySync TV, and close reads. Some of these units include PDF and epub copies of the text, though others do not. 

StudySyncTV takes learning further. The videos use diverse groups of teens to dramatize Collaborative Conversations, which helps students learn how to hold discussions about the readings. The student actors use technology in the videos, often referring back to and reading aloud from the text to illustrate a point. Their interactions are respectful and open to other points of view, and they make connections to their own background knowledge. Though the videos are scripted, the student actors try to make the interactions as realistic as possible, and the videos will likely hold students' interest. StudySyncTV can serve as a model and springboard for your own class conversations and help your students learn how to verbally engage in critical thinking.

Overall Rating
Engagement Is the product stimulating, entertaining, and engrossing? Will kids want to return?

A great selection of texts, stellar video content, and opportunities for collaboration engage students, connecting them with great literature and ideas.

Pedagogy Is learning content seamlessly baked-in, and do kids build conceptual understanding? Is the product adaptable and empowering? Will skills transfer?

Research-based lessons and activities embrace higher-order thinking skills through independent study and collaborative learning.

Support Does the product take into account learners of varying abilities, skill levels, and learning styles? Does it address both struggling and advanced students?

Audio and video supplements nicely support the lessons, and multimedia tools and resources aid students, groups, communities, and assignments. Teacher support materials, printables, and video professional development are built in.

Common Sense Reviewer
Andrea Meyers Technology Assistant and graduate student in instructional technology
About our ratings and privacy evaluation.

Key Standards Supported

Reading Informational Text

  • RI.6.1

    Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

  • RI.6.10

    By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 6–8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

  • RI.7.1

    Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

  • RI.7.10

    By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 6–8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

  • RI.8.1

    Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

  • RI.8.10

    By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the grades 6–8 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

  • RI.9-10.1

    Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

  • RI.9-10.10

    By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 9–10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

  • RI.11-12.1

    Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

  • RI.11-12.10

    By the end of grade 11, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 11–CCR text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

Reading Literature

  • RL.6.6

    Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.

  • RL.6.2

    Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.

  • RL.6.10

    By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 6–8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

  • RL.7.6

    Analyze how an author develops and contrasts the points of view of different characters or narrators in a text.

  • RL.7.2

    Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.

  • RL.7.10

    By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 6–8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

  • RL.8.6

    nalyze how differences in the points of view of the characters and the audience or reader (e.g., created through the use of dramatic irony) create such effects as suspense or humor.

  • RL.8.2

    Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text.

  • RL.8.10

    By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the high end of grades 6–8 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

  • RL.9-10.6

    Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature.

  • RL.9-10.2

    Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

  • RL.9-10.10

    By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 9–10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

  • RL.11-12.6

    Analyze a case in which grasping a point of view requires distinguishing what is directly stated in a text from what is really meant (e.g., satire, sarcasm, irony, or understatement).

  • RL.11-12.2

    Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.

  • RL.11-12.10

    By the end of grade 11, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 11–CCR text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

Writing

  • W.6.1

    Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.

  • W.7.1

    Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.

  • W.8.1

    Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.

  • W.9-10.1

    Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

  • W.11-12.1

    Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

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Teacher Reviews

(See all 6 reviews) (6 reviews) Write a review
Featured review by
Kate H. , Classroom teacher
Classroom teacher
Excellent platform to support transformed teaching that puts powerful learning in the hands of students.
I LOVE using StudySync in my classroom because it challenges the students, yet engages them in learning using modes that are increasingly pervasive in modern culture. It helps me to truly differentiate my instruction and spend time with individual students who really need more assistance, but then also allow those who want to push forward more the opportunity to do that, too. It does not not much time to set up and get started, but, like any robust curricular support there are so many great resources within this one platform that it does take some time to learn exactly how to tailor the specific facets of the resource to the needs of each class of students.
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