Effective Literacy #5

ReadWorks’(https://www.readworks.org) mission is to commit to solving America’s reading comprehension crisis and student achievement gap. It is a nonprofit organization that provides teachers with a library of curated nonfiction and literacy articles, along with reading comprehension and vocabulary supports, formative assessments, teacher guidance, and so much more for free. Readworks is based on proven cognitive science research.

There are thousands of reading passages accompanied by an audio option in both fiction and non-fiction for K-12. Teachers can create different classes or groups within each class. For example, typical students will be assigned grade level reading passages, while ESL students are assigned to passages that they will be able to understand. After each passage, students answer scaffolded comprehension questions. Students can take notes at their own pace with the ability to pause while reading or listening to the passage. While the students are answering the questions, teachers are able to keep track of their progress. If a students’ score is too low, the teacher has the option to have the student reread the passage and answer the comprehension questions again.

Another feature the site has to offer is the availability of the Article-A-Day, designed to be utilized weekly. This is a 10-minute daily routine which is a great way for students to develop background knowledge and cognitive stamina. Teachers will be able to filter the collection for ESL students.

Teachers can differentiate reading passages for a range of learners with eBooks, almost 100, with human voice narration available, StepReads, and audio that the site also has to offer. The newest feature that is offered is StepReads.  StepReads has articles that are a less complex version of an original article. StepRead 2 has also been created to offer an even lesser complex version of the original. After each article, vocabulary and definitions are provided along with examples of how words are used.

A survey style inventory called, “reading mindset snapshot,” is designed to track the topics of interest as well as how students feel about reading. A great tool to have to keep track of what your students like to read, if they do and to have similar books in your class library to encourage further reading.

I use Readworks in my classroom for intervention purposes as well as to cover other subject areas. Readworks provides a weekly report which is emailed to you to show your classes’ progression. They offer webinars with detailed explanations of each feature that you would be able to refer to anytime you need clarification. It is a great site that offers so much more that I am still getting acquainted with.