NEWSELA: A Free Personal Assistant for Teachers

Imagine that you have a personal assistant who loves to…

…comb through the news every day to find short, high-interest articles for middle school and high school students,

…rewrite those articles on several different reading levels,

…grade evidence-based quizzes, and

…design open-ended discussion and response questions.

Enter NEWSELA.

NEWSELA is an online news source that publishes daily articles to help students in grades 5-12 read closely and think critically.

I call NEWSELA my personal assistant who generously volunteers her time to gather articles for me and adapt them to the reading levels of my students.

Here is an annotated screenshot of a Washington Post article that was rewritten on 5 different lexile levels by the NEWSELA staff:

Access leveled articles and quizzes for this example HERE.

If you teach in a Common Core state, this site will be your new best friend.

Not only does NEWSELA makes it easy for an entire class to read the same content on one of five different lexile levels, but the Common Core-aligned quizzes serve as instant formative assessments.

Want to know which anchor standards are addressed? Just look above each of the four quiz questions to find out.

Need writing prompt ideas or print-friendly versions of leveled articles? NEWSELA has you covered.

One of my favorite ways to use NEWSELA articles is show students how reporters use word nuances to stir readers’ emotions and to persuade them to embrace specific points of view. 

Here is a screencast of one of my lessons, using the above Deflategate article:

Recommendation: Watch in full-screen mode.
Access leveled Shades of Meaning exercises HERE.

Until next time…stay committed…teach with passion…and inspire students with who you are.

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