News on NewsELA:I finally had the opportunity to check out NewsELA, a great resource for classroom teachers to introduce news or reading comprehension, or independent reading, or really a whole assortment of reading, into the classroom.
I had never heard of NewsELA before so I was totally unaware of what a useful site NewsELA is! I really enjoyed toying around with the website. The site allows you to search for news articles on almost any subject. From there, you can modify the articles so that students on any grade level can easily read (or be challenged) and read the same article.
I love that the articles are well-written with students across the board in mind, This tool allows students to be kept up to date on current events as well as improve their reading fluency.
I found this short video about the ins and outs of NewsELA. The video answers questions about how the site works and who really benefits from the site.
I currently work at an early morning program where the students are excited and opinionated about the up-coming election. Their interest in the election is exciting and I wanted to harness their interest into something really palpable as well as backing up their opinion with fact.
The site works in truly phenomenal ways. I was able to find articles about the candidates that I knew my students would be interested in. I also brought in a local newspaper for the students to read and compare. The kids loved reading a real news article at their grade level. The more I fiddled around with the website the more ideas came to me about how to use the site in my future classroom, especially during the election season.
Unfortunately, the drawback of the site is that it is extremely expensive. Right now MSMC has subscribed to NewsELA but will not be renewing the subscription because of the price tag. So really, its a great site, if you can afford.
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