The benefits of introducing the Newsela learning platform in English Language Arts class for 3rd to 12th-grade level readers.

Newsela.com is an online platform that offers numerous articles at different reading levels for students at the elementary to high school grade levels. Due to the COVID 19 pandemic crisis that has impacted how teachers instruct students, the site is offering free access to their resources. Teachers create an account, create a classroom, and have access to lesson plans in English language Arts, Social Studies, Science, and Math. Updates on current news and events are available as well as community resources for students, teachers, parents, administrators, etc.

Newsela articles are published at 5 reading levels. The lowest level is the 3rd-grade reading level and the highest level is the 12th-grade reading level. Students engage in challenging textbase articles that relate to the real world. New text is published every day from teachers around the world. Teachers have access to one reading assignment (or Science, Math, Social Studies—depends on your subject), or a weekly lesson plans for students to participate in. A student checklist is also provided for students to respond to what they have learned from the assignment. Students are given prompts for the entire week Monday-Friday. After completing their reading assignment (or the subject the teacher assigned) there are quiz questions to check for understanding of the material. The student’s quiz results help teachers monitor student progress. Teachers are also able to adjust student’s reading levels. I have created my own classroom and assigned one article for the 9th graders in Spanish and a week assignment with a checklist for students to respond to the prompts such as, what did you learn reading the article on…. (refer to Newsela Resources for the Spanish article and lesson plan for the week) Teachers give students a sign-in code to complete the assignment. Only students from the teacher’s class are given this code.

Newsela Resources:

Newsela Platform Introduction

https://www.thoughtco.com/newsela-informational-texts-all-reading-levels-4112307

Newsela https://www.thoughtco.com/newsela-informational-texts-all-reading-levels-4112307

Spanish Article Assigned

https://newsela.com/assignment/create?header_id=2000020731&return_url=%2Fread%2Fschools-feed-students-coronavirus-spanish%2Fid%2F2001007257%2

Weekly Lesson Plans Assigned:

https://media.newsela.com/article_media/extra/Week_1_HS_Daily_Lessons.pdf 6Y4TKX

Student sign-in code to access assignment from their classroom teacher:

https://newsela.com/quickjoin/#/6Y4TKX

Or enter the code 6Y4TKX.