The PD team here at Teq frequently advises educators to explore Newsela. In case you haven’t heard, Newsela (accessed via website or app) is a wonderful resource teachers can utilize to develop students’ literacy skills across all subject areas.  Teachers have the ability to alter the lexile level of articles based on students’ individual reading needs, allowing for differentiated instruction opportunities.  Covering current events and revealing students’ level of comprehension with corresponding assessments makes Newsela an effective tool when introducing relevant topics.

Newsela has successfully explored perhaps the most popular current event topic: The Presidential Election of 2016.  To help students gain a better understanding of what happened with the election, Newsela has composed content that is appropriate for students of all levels, despite the intense nature of the recent events. Content provided by Newsela allows teachers to explore this pertinent material with little reluctance. Viewpoints and descriptions of the candidates and what happened is carried out tastefully and without bias; this can help students gain a holistic understanding of current events, issues, and viewpoints. They have an opportunity to develop their own opinions and perspectives as they learn more about our country’s democratic government.

In an effort to make politics more engaging, teachers may want to consider using Newsela as a linked resource within a SMART amp workspace to conduct student debates.  SMART amp is another fantastic teaching tool that can be used by teachers to design and tailor activities with the ability to include images, text, Notebook files and more to explore a concept in a variety of ways.  Pairing Newsela with SMART amp will give teachers an opportunity to carry out a variety of tasks to meet the individual needs of all students within the classroom.  Check out Teq’s Online PD session that focuses on Creating SMART amp in the Social Studies classroom to find out more!

For More Resources…

For more information about Newsela, SMART amp, and ideas for exploring the election, check out these sources!

• https://newsela.com/about/
• https://lexile.com/about-lexile/lexile-overview/
• http://www.inc.com/kevin-j-ryan/how-education-startup-newsela-covers-election-for-young-students.html
• https://education.smarttech.com/products/smart-amp

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