By Alicia Rescigno, Education Coordination Director, Know My World
When I owned my own tutoring company, I sometimes needed my students to engage in some great reading material. I needed them to choose articles of interest and test their understanding of what they’ve read. It was tough to find articles that not only fit their reading level but also sparked their interest. Just recently, I was introduced to Newsela: a great website for parents, teachers, and tutors (like myself) to find articles on many relevant and interesting topics. I just wish I was still tutoring so I could share what this website has to offer!
Newsela is a free website that you can connect to with your Google account or sign-up using your email address. You need to let Newsela know if you are a parent, teacher or student but signing up is free. Once you have an account, you have access to hundreds of articles on different topics ranging from art and culture, to current events, science and even math! Kristen, a teacher in New York says “Newsela has GREAT current event articles based on reading level/grade”.
All you need to do is search a topic of interest in Newsela’s search engine and find articles that pertain to the age, reading level and grade for your student. After choosing an article, you can begin reading right away (no downloading necessary). As you read, you will also find what Newsela calls power words. These words are highlighted in bold and you can click on them to hear the correct pronunciation and see the definition. Once you have read the entire article, Newsela provides a quiz to test you on the definitions of the power words. You can also access other free activities associated with the articles including writing prompts and a four question multiple choice quiz. Jenny, another teacher in New York says “we frequently use Newsela in our classroom.”
Newsela also allows you to sign-up as a pro subscriber to gain access to more great features of the website. However, if you are looking for simple, yet effective ways to get your student to read on any topic at their reading and age level, Newsela’s free service is a great option!
