Though Mr. Welsch's girls are only in the 2nd Grade, a few of them have Lexile reading levels that range from 750L to 1210L. In order to teach to these students, at their level, Mr. Welsch has begun using this great reading tool called newsELA. With newsELA, students have access to real, timely news articles. As students progress through an article, they can change the reading level up or down to make it more challenging. The main idea of the story itself does not change: rather, the words that make up the content shift up or down based on the Lexile level that is chosen.
After reading news stories on newsELA, students are able to take assessments on what they've learned through reading the article. The assessments require critical thinking, and allow students to scroll back through the text, as needed, in order to correctly answer the questions. Once an assessment has been completed, students are able to see their results immediately. If students incorrectly answer any of the questions, then the program allows them to view the explanations for the correct answers.
NewsELA is a great tool to use in any 2nd thru 12th grade classroom as it provides immediate feedback for both the teacher and the student, while also giving students the flexibility to choose their desired reading level.