Three Lit Literary Resources
Don't you love it when your resources are lit? Lit in this instance means, "when something is turned up or popping." I know this because I am hip to the teen talk, not because I consulted Urban Dictionary. Okay. I consulted Urban Dictionary. No matter. Here are some lit literary resources that I love, love, love.
Word Generation Units from the Strategic Research Education Partnership (SERP)
A brainchild of Harvard University and Boston Public Schools, these units teach critical vocabulary through essential and interesting questions. All content is high quality and free. By creating an account you may access teacher resources as well as student downloads. WordGen Weekly has multiple series of 24-week cross-curricular materials that teach key middle school vocabulary through high-interest questions. Questions are engaging, such as: "Should drugs be legalized?" or "Should secret wiretapping be legal?" SERP also has Social Studies, Science, and Elementary resources which are impressive. Are you still reading this? Don't. Go to their website. Get goosebumps. Then, email all of your teacher friends. It is that good.
Common Lit is hardly common. This resource is especially useful in classrooms with limited technology access because all texts are available in PDF form. The site has fiction and non-fiction texts, text sets, the ability to filter by grade and standard, and a magic hamster. Okay, there is no magic hamster, but you can use online text-to-speech tools and their high quality questions. This is like a magic hamster, but without the glitter and inevitable tiny mammal mess. If you like what you see in Common Lit, register. It is free and the additional resources are well worth your email disclosure.
I almost did not include Newsela here because it is so pervasive. However, if you don't know it, you should. The power of Newsela is in having a single text/topic that students access at varied Lexile levels. After selecting an article Newsela gives users access to the text at multiple reading levels. This allows you to proceed with discussions and questions while differentiating for reading ability. It is quite remarkable and powerful. There is a pro account with bonus features, but the basic account remains remarkable.