Newsela
Analyzing and responding to world events in the 8th grade classroom. The 8th grade teachers’ quest: how do they improve reading skills using leveled content that is aligned to standards and connects instruction to real world experiences? They found it in Newsela! Newsela is an online news-as-literacy platform that features current, high-interest articles on current events in everything from literature to science. Content is updated daily, with stories from a wide range of sources. All articles are Common Core-aligned and available in five Lexile levels. Each leveled text features a quiz tailored to that particular article plus a writing prompt that asks students to write and respond to what they’ve read. Each student will have access to Newsela on their school laptop and this will allow teachers to use the reading and writing features of the program in an unlimited capacity. Newsela has the capability to be incorporate into Google Classroom, which is the learning platform used by 8th grade ELA teachers.