Tackling Texts
How to use digital texts to meet students where they are
Kami- Annotating Digital texts. With this "freemium" site, teachers can upload PDFs or other text flies for students to access. Students have a tool bar that allows them to highlight, strikethrough, and insert shapes on the text. Comment boxes, voice notes, text boxes, and drawing tools also allow for students to annotate the text and demonstration their understanding. Teachers can assign questions for students to respond to in the text as well. This synchs with GoogleDrive, and just like a GoogleDoc, multiple students can view and collaborate on the document simultaneously. A lot can be done with just the free version, but for only $99/year a teacher plus 150 student accounts can be created. (Joe)
ReadWorks- Leveled Texts. This is a free website that allows you to select between different levels of difficultly of non-fiction texts for different subjects. You can import classes and assign readings and questions to students, save them as PDFs, or print off copies. There are usually two levels of difficulty to select from, but since the core content remains the same, the questions paired with the text will remain the same. (Joe)
CommonLit- Leveled Texts & Annotations. Free informational text that can be read aloud, highlighted, paired with comprehension questions. This is a totally FREE website! Teachers can assign questions and passages to students, track their progress, and select readings from multiple subjects from grades 3-12. When searching for informational texts, you can narrow your search by lexile level, themes, subjects, and CommonCore reading standards. (Joe)
Smithsonian Tween Tribune- A free resource for teachers and students! Teachers can create classes, assign readings, and score questions in this platform. Thousands of articles are available on multiple subjects, and each article has four different Lexile Levels so that all your students can access the content! Each article comes with a quiz and has a discussion board to further engage students. (Joe)
DocsTeach- Free website that hosts over 10,000 primary and secondary sources in a range of mediums (maps, photographs, speeches, letters, etc.) in U.S. history. These documents can be used to create your own activities with their lesson editor, or you can browse through already-created assessments. (Lisa)
A website that helps the teacher differentiate reading for all of their students. Teachers can search for a variety of articles for students to read and then create questions, post comments, explain meaning and even include video clips from the Internet to enhance understanding. When an assignment is created, students can collaborate, comment on other students' work, and ask questions to the teacher. Students are alerted when the teacher gives them feedback. In addition, the website allows students a place to enhance research on a project. The website is Google suite friendly giving students an easier way to write their research papers. (Lisa)
This website has social studies units, lessons, activities, videos, and articles on multiple reading levels. The lessons begin with vocabulary skills and spiral through various activities for students to complete. What is especially useful are the videos that help students to better understand the lesson. There is a processing activity at the end of every lesson for students to apply what they have learned. (Lisa)
Encyclopedia Britannica- Free and paid versions available for teachers and students. This tried and true encyclopedia is all peer reviewed and a better option for students than Wikipedia in terms of readability and reliability. In the paid version (which most schools already pay for) three levels of reading difficultly are provided which students can toggle through as they need to. (Joe)
Strategies, Graphic Organizers, and tips for differentiation in the classroom
Social Studies literacy skills for students. How to analyze discipline specific texts such as maps, political cartoons, graphs, and primary sources in addition to basic literacy skills such as looking for bias, making inferences, and determining cause and effect. Each skill set is in free PDFs that can be given to students to practice directly with or saved for student reference later on. (Joe)
Bubbl is a tool that allows users to create interactive and comprehensive mind maps. It can be used to organize, summarize, and/or assess conceptual learning. Students can collaborate with one another or work independently. They can register for a free account or sign up for a premium one ($4.91/month) by going to bubbl.us. (Yvonna)
This is a collection prepared by the Midwest Regional Association of Middle Level Educators of graphic organizers, strategies, tips, and easy to implement procedures to assist teachers with differentiating lessons to meet the needs of their students. These are simple, require little or no materials, and can be quickly modified to suit the needs of your students in your classroom! (Joe)