English Language Arts
Digital Literacy Resources
The Digital Books Resources List offers multiple free online and app-based ebooks and literacy materials that can be accessed by teachers and students. Some of the resources include audiobooks and/or supplemental curriculum materials.
The FLAS Balanced Literacy Framework was updated in 2021 to incorporate Reciprocal Teaching as a key component of the Reading portion of the literacy block.
Interesting Articles and Posts
Making Independent Reading a Priority
By Rita Platt
An interesting perspective on how prioritizing independent reading can help increase students' reading comprehension and literacy skills.
25 Maps That Explain the English Language
By Libby Nelson
Some great fun with the history of the English language explained through infographics.
Can Creative Writing Be Taught to You?
By Sophfronia Scott
An interesting reflection from an author as she accepts a position as a writer in an MFA program.
What Motivates A Student's Interest in Reading and Writing
From MindShift
This article is an excerpt from the book “Building a Community of Self-Motivated Learners: Strategies to Help Students Thrive in School and Beyond,” by Larry Ferlazzo. This excerpt is from the chapter entitled “I Still Want to Know: How Can You Get Students More Interested in Reading and Writing?”
Key Points:
Autonomy
Competence
Relatedness
Interesting and Valuable for Future Goals
Social Media Connections Worth Following
Twitter Hashtags
#elachat
#engchat
#litchat
Multi-Level Texts for Differentiation K-12
Digital.Readworks.org offers a FREE high-quality library of nonfiction and literary articles, carefully curated to support reading comprehension for K-12 students including Audio texts, Paired Texts, pre-made lessons, assessment features, and student login access
Newsela.com offers a wide variety of current events articles for students on topics including science, math, social studies, ELA, etc. Individual articles can be accessed in multiple lexile levels ranging from a low of 430 up to 1120, and recent additions include Newsela Espanol, with articles and quizzes in both Spanish and English, and Newsela Elementary for our youngest readers. A basic account is free to teachers.
CommonLit offers free reading passages, accompanying lessons, and progress tracking tools for grades 5-12. CommonLit includes both fiction and nonfiction articles for various grade levels and across multiple disciplines and includes text-dependent questions to hold students accountable for high-level reading and writing.
TweenTribune.com is sponsored by the Smithsonian and provides a wealth of non-fiction articles with multiple reading levels available for each article. Use the tabs to select a grade-band indicating likely areas of interest: grades K-4(TTJunior), grades 5-6 (TweenTribune 5/6), grades 7-8 (TweenTribune 7/8), and grades 9-12 (TeenTribune) and as well as Spanish (TTEspanol). Then scroll through the available articles and select the desired lexile level.