Text is Not a Four Letter Word
Tools to help you understand text.
Below are short (and some more than short) descriptions of many of the sites listed above. The handout that Carol Holzberg shared during the MassCUE 2015 conference held on Oct. 21, 2015 is also linked to in the Symbaloo above.
Actively Learn (http://activelylearn.com/) is designed to motivate students to deepen their reading skills. It provides a built-in dictionary (which includes text-to-speech to assist students in hearing the word/definition spoken), the ability to add notes and highlights, as well as teacher embedded notes, questions (which must be answered before the student can continue reading the article), peer comments viewable after student posts their response, and more.
As a teacher this site allows you to create reading assignments that can come from their catalog, or you can add your own material (Internet article, PDF, Google Doc). Once you have selected your article, you may embed questions, notes, and videos. If you select a document that someone else had added you will be able to edit the existing edits.
You can search for existing articles by title, author, publisher; by subject which includes ELA, Current Events, Science, Social Studies (and many other categories); by grade levels; and by page count and lexile level.
Read Works In reviewing Actively Learn I noticed that teachers uploaded material from ReadWorks (http://www.readworks.org/). This site provides support for fiction and informational text, and now supports students from K – 12. The description below comes from their website:
ReadWorks provides research-based units, lessons, and authentic, leveled non-fiction and literary passages directly to educators online, for free, to be shared broadly.
The ReadWorks curriculum is aligned to the Common Core State Standards and the standards of all 50 states. Most importantly, ReadWorks is faithful to the most effective research-proven instructional practices in reading comprehension.
WordSift (http://wordsift.com/) helps students visualize text. Cut and paste text into WordSift and it will identify important words that are in the text, essentially creating a word cloud. But this is different from most word clouds. Why? Because you can have the program highlight science words, social studies words, language art words, math word, academic words and more. You may also select a word by clicking on it and the Visual Thesaurus will show you the selected word in the center and relate it to other words. There are images from Google that may help students understand the word as well as sentences from the text that show the word used in sentences. This tool was designed for English Language Learners, but may benefit all students.
Readability (https://readability.com/addons)
Readability removes the clutter that often surrounds websites, providing less distraction to the reader. It is a free app and is available for most platforms. You may choose to read it now, read it later, or send to a Kindle.
Rewordify (http://rewordify.com/) “helps you read more, understand difficult English faster, and learn words in new ways.” You can cut and paste text in or you can simply submit a web address (URL) and you will see a simplified version of the information.
One great feature of this tool is that words that are changed are highlighted in yellow. This is called Smart Highlighting and it will show the original word, helping students learn new vocabulary.
Wonderopolis (http://wonderopolis.org/) is “a place where natural curiosity and imagination lead to exploration and discovery in learners of all age.” Each day Wonderopolis poses a question, and provides a range of resources to help students explore the question, hopefully leading students to ask new questions. The content found on the site is multidisciplinary and aligned to Common Core State Standards.
Tween Tribune (http://tweentribune.com/) is published from the Smithsonian.
Quoting from the website:
Twice-daily AP news articles
Unite for Literacy (http://uniteforliteracy.com/) is a great website for emerging readers and ELL. They provide free books that are read in English, and up to an additional 29 languages, by native readers. At the end of each book there are some suggestions for families.
Actively Learn (http://activelylearn.com/) is designed to motivate students to deepen their reading skills. It provides a built-in dictionary (which includes text-to-speech to assist students in hearing the word/definition spoken), the ability to add notes and highlights, as well as teacher embedded notes, questions (which must be answered before the student can continue reading the article), peer comments viewable after student posts their response, and more.
As a teacher this site allows you to create reading assignments that can come from their catalog, or you can add your own material (Internet article, PDF, Google Doc). Once you have selected your article, you may embed questions, notes, and videos. If you select a document that someone else had added you will be able to edit the existing edits.
You can search for existing articles by title, author, publisher; by subject which includes ELA, Current Events, Science, Social Studies (and many other categories); by grade levels; and by page count and lexile level.
Read Works In reviewing Actively Learn I noticed that teachers uploaded material from ReadWorks (http://www.readworks.org/). This site provides support for fiction and informational text, and now supports students from K – 12. The description below comes from their website:
ReadWorks provides research-based units, lessons, and authentic, leveled non-fiction and literary passages directly to educators online, for free, to be shared broadly.
The ReadWorks curriculum is aligned to the Common Core State Standards and the standards of all 50 states. Most importantly, ReadWorks is faithful to the most effective research-proven instructional practices in reading comprehension.
WordSift (http://wordsift.com/) helps students visualize text. Cut and paste text into WordSift and it will identify important words that are in the text, essentially creating a word cloud. But this is different from most word clouds. Why? Because you can have the program highlight science words, social studies words, language art words, math word, academic words and more. You may also select a word by clicking on it and the Visual Thesaurus will show you the selected word in the center and relate it to other words. There are images from Google that may help students understand the word as well as sentences from the text that show the word used in sentences. This tool was designed for English Language Learners, but may benefit all students.
Readability (https://readability.com/addons)
Readability removes the clutter that often surrounds websites, providing less distraction to the reader. It is a free app and is available for most platforms. You may choose to read it now, read it later, or send to a Kindle.
Rewordify (http://rewordify.com/) “helps you read more, understand difficult English faster, and learn words in new ways.” You can cut and paste text in or you can simply submit a web address (URL) and you will see a simplified version of the information.
One great feature of this tool is that words that are changed are highlighted in yellow. This is called Smart Highlighting and it will show the original word, helping students learn new vocabulary.
Wonderopolis (http://wonderopolis.org/) is “a place where natural curiosity and imagination lead to exploration and discovery in learners of all age.” Each day Wonderopolis poses a question, and provides a range of resources to help students explore the question, hopefully leading students to ask new questions. The content found on the site is multidisciplinary and aligned to Common Core State Standards.
Tween Tribune (http://tweentribune.com/) is published from the Smithsonian.
Quoting from the website:
Twice-daily AP news articles
- Lexile® leveled for K-12
- Self-scoring quizzes customized by Lexile® level
- Critical thinking questions
- Student commenting
- Espanol AP articles
- Weekly lesson plans
- Weekly video
- Weekend "Monday Morning Ready" newsletter as prep for the week ahead
Unite for Literacy (http://uniteforliteracy.com/) is a great website for emerging readers and ELL. They provide free books that are read in English, and up to an additional 29 languages, by native readers. At the end of each book there are some suggestions for families.