Embedded Files
Non-Fiction Text Sources
Non-Fiction Text Sources
- NEWSELA - Sign in with your school district account to assign texts, model highlights and annotations, create custom writing prompts, and create your own "text sets". New features include "power words," as well as additions to the "text sets library".
- Smithsonian Tween Tribune - free, lexile leveled articles
- ReadWorks.org - Search for texts by subject, grade level, lexile, or skills; free
- CommonLit.org - Leveled readings with prompts; aligned with the Common Core, free
- Kelly Gallagher's Article of the Week
- Vale Middle School Articles of the Week
- New York Times - On this day - Articles feature historical events by date
- New York Times - What's going on in this picture?
- New York Times - Using storyboards to inspire close reading
- New York Times - Annual Student Op-Ed Contest
- 5 High Schoolers and Their College Application Essays About Work, Money and Social Class (New York Times, 2018)
- NPR's This I Believe - Essays and curricula for the classroom
- News in Levels - Free articles for English Language Learners, by levels 1, 2, and 3
- For the Teachers - Free, leveled articles for download; instructional strategies
- Digital Public Library of American - Free and easy to access images, articles, primary source documents, and more!
Video as Text
Video as Text
- Op-docs as Text for Close Reading - From The New York Times "The Learning Network"
- How to Use YouTube Video Essays in the Classroom - From Edutopia - Check out their list of video channels.
Tools
Tools
Lexile Analyzer - Free for teachers; Paste in text and determine a text's lexile level
What Works Clearinghouse - A database of tools and practices and their effectiveness ratings based on evidence
Text Compactors - Text compactors allow you to reword an article and access different versions with fewer words, often simplifying the English. Here are a few text compactor tools:
- Text Compactor
- Rewordify - Summarizes or simplifies text and good for longer documents; free
- Simplish - Summarizes text; free for up to 2,500 words
Reading Strategies
Reading Strategies
- Reading Rockets - Strategies featured are research-based practices and apply across grade levels
- ReadWriteThink - From NCTE and the International Literacy Association
- Teaching Channel - Search for skills and teaching strategies to find videos from the trenches, as well as sample lesson plans and articles; free to teachers
- AdLit.org - Adolescent literacy resources
- Effective Instruction for Adolescent Struggling Readers - A practice brief
- Adolescent Literacy Resources: Linking research and practice
Sentence Frames:
- Sentence Frames - A collection of sentence frames organized by reading strategy
- Informational Sentence Frames
Surveys, Ladders, Rubrics, & More
Surveys, Ladders, Rubrics, & More
Here are a few reading surveys to help you gather some data on your students' reading attitudes and habits:
- Penny Kittle's Reading Survey
- Assessing Adolescents' Motivation to Read
- Reading Ladders - Analyzing your reading progress (from Penny Kittle)
- Citing Textual Evidence - Rubric Template
- Quote Burgers - In-text Citations
- Are you S.U.R.E.? - Responding with textual evidence
- I.C.E. - Cite Sources Like a Pro (poster)
Graphic Organizers:
- ReadWriteThink - A collection of graphic organizers for nonfiction text comprehension
- Expository Text Features - A collection of graphic organizers and how to use them from the Florida Research Center
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