ReadWorks’ 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment