Using Newsela to Differentiate a Classroom

One of the expectations of every classroom teacher is to differentiate the classroom and create lessons that fit to the needs of each student.   Many teachers who incorporate reading into the classroom are probably finding difficulty managing this concept and struggle to get good, quality articles.   I have come across a way:  Newsela 

Newsela is a collection of nonfiction articles that cover an array of topics.  It is free to use, just create an account.  The exciting part about this website is the ease of differentiation.   Every article has options to choose the lexile level of the text.   What does this mean?  You can print the same article but have different versions so the lower reader can read the same information with simpler text.

The site allows you to establish classes so you can store content relevant stories for later use.  These are saved in binders.  What is awesome about this, it also creates reading comprehension questions for each article as well.

I created a student account and a teacher account so I could see how it worked. It was very easy to establish a class and find articles.  There is even a progress check which identifies student needs.

This is definitely a site to look at and play around with.  Every content area can benefit from the articles and it helps pull that nonfiction need into the classroom. 

Snow Day Reading Challenge

Well, we are on day three of being out of school due to cold and snow, so, Mrs. Wells has decided to offer a special Snow Day challenge.

Here are the rules:
1.  Read a book (any book that is your level. It could be from the library at school or your personal collection.)  It can be a book you checked out last week when we were in school as well.
2.  Google or check YouTube for samples of book trailers.   There are some AWESOME ones out there. Book trailers are quick and easy grabbers to a book.  They are like the trailers you see at the movie theater before the actual movie begins.
3.  On your school device, you have a program called MovieMaker.  It is built in.  Play around with it.  It is very easy to use.   Find some pictures, find some video, find some audio.  Look for Creative Commons, like I have mentioned before.   Assemble a movie about the book.  It only needs to be 30 seconds to a minute.   You can do clips and a voice over, you can record yourself talking about the book, whatever you feel is the way to get people excited.
4.  Save the document on your computer and stop in the library when we get back from weather days.  Mrs. Wells will help you transfer it to her.

The library staff will watch the trailers and choose the best one.  The winner will get 2 coffee shoppe coupons. Everyone who submits one gets their name in a drawing for a coffee shoppe coupon.

So... what are you going to read Hamilton?  Mrs. Well is finishing Beautiful Darkness and Insurgent.