Newsela: An innovative way to build reading comprehension with nonfiction that's always relevant: daily news

Over my past 2 years here at DCDS, I have had conversations with some of you about Newsela:  a online library of current event articles.  Newsela became an instant favorite of mine when I was introduced to it many years ago at a training I attended.  The goal of Newsela is to improve reading comprehension in students 2nd through 12th grade using current events.   Newsela offers over 1,000 articles which are pulled from over forty different media publications (sources include papers like the Chicago Tribune, LA Times, Washington Post and the Associated Press).  One great feature of this site is that the articles can be adjusted to 5 different Lexile levels (reading levels), allowing all students to share in the same content regardless of their reading ability (or set the article to be in Spanish).  In addition, most articles have a comprehension quiz. to test the students comprehension.

Here are 5 easy ways to to use Newsela in the classroom (click the links to learn more):

1. Getting to Know Your Students
2. Creating Newsies
3. Predictions from Pictures
4. Compare and Contrast
5. Uncovering Unknown Words

Summer time bonus:  I also recently received an email regarding a reading club hosted this summer by Newsela called Camp Newsela.   Students can join Reading Clubs tailored to their interests. A team of educators at Newsela will host seven different classes and assign two articles per week for 10 weeks beginning on Monday, June 13 and ending Friday, August 19.  Click this link to learn more about Camp Newsela.

Newsela Website:  https://newsela.com/
Newsela Learning and Support:  http://support.newsela.com/hc/en-us