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Each of my goals as School Technology Leader revolve around technology integration and helping teachers embed technology in their classrooms. One strategy I've identified in accomplishing this goal is to lead by modeling technology in my library classroom.
In writing lesson plans this past week, I focused my 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade lessons around Newsela - the Web 2.0 tool I recently featured in a tech tips for classroom integration newsletter. What I've learned is that, when you put technology in a student's hands, they will take it, run with it, and more often than not, find that they enjoy doing things and accomplishing skills they might not enjoy nearly as much (or at all) in a more traditional format.
The simple act of putting the technology in their hands is the best springboard to active learning. And Newsela is the perfect example to illustrate that theory.
Newsela and Newsela Elementary are free Web 2.0 tools that presents a current events/news platform with leveled nonfiction reading and assessment quizzes to meet all Common Core ELA reading standards. As a teacher, you simply sign up for a free account (or a free Pro trial) and create your virtual classroom. Since Newsela is geared towards students in grades 3-12, I decided to use it in my elementary library with grades 3-5 as a tool to gauge nonfiction reading skills as well as provide practice honing those skills.
One of the true beauties of Newsela is in it's search capabilities. When you begin searching for articles to assign to your class, you not only have the traditional search parameters (category, keyword, grade level) but you also have the ability to filter those results to only include articles with quizzes attached. Even further, you can choose the Common Core ELA Standard you want the quiz to test! Quizzes are available that focus on what the text says; the central idea; people, events, and ideas; word meaning and choice; text structure; point of view and purpose; multimedia; and arguments and claims.
Basically, you can personalize Newsela to fit the needs of your students so that they gain purposeful practice on skills they need to improve while exploring current events and having meaningful conversation about global issues in the news.
What I found with my classes was that students not only completed the articles I had assigned, but many also used remaining class time to search for more articles that they were interested in reading for pleasure as well as for information. Students also liked being able to instantly see their scores and track their progress in the "Binder" tab. Newsela worked beautifully with each of the three grade levels and proved to be engaging and challenging.
One of the many advantages to classroom teachers is that Newsela is a Web 2.0 tool that can be used from desktops, laptops, iOS and Android devices, or any device with web browsing capabilities.
Once the virtual classroom is set up and articles are assigned, teachers can allow students to access the site on their classroom computers/laptops as time allows. Just assigning one to two articles per week gives students meaningful, engaging, purposeful, and relevant educational activity for extra class time or center time, that is richly embedded in technology and offers reading comprehension practice and assessment as well as a platform for current events conversation and discussion. It's a win/win for students and teachers.
To set-up/use Newsela go to Newsela at https://newsela.com or scan the QR code below:
Click "Sign Me Up" in the top left corner, choose "I'm a Teacher", complete the simple registration, and create your classes in the "Settings" tab on the top menu bar. Newsela generates a "Sign Up Code" which students need in order to create an account and join the class. The sign up code is all they need. Registration DOES NOT require an email account. To make things even easier for my students, I printed a brief sheet of instructions which included the QR code to get to Newsela and the class sign up code and placed a sheet on each table.
After your class is set up, simply use the search options to locate and assign articles. After your students have registered with their specific class code, you are able to see each student and follow their progress, including the articles they have completed and their corresponding scores on those articles. You can also access and review overall class progress.
I found Newsela to be a wonderful tool for incorporating current events, promoting nonfiction reading, and strengthening reading comprehension skills. I hope you'll give it a try!
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