IRA Newsletter Project: Effective Literacy Website #3

            The website https://www.commonlit.org/ (Common Lit) is a free literacy website which provides access to tools that help implement an effective literacy program in the classroom, school, or district. The website provides a digital library which is free for teachers. In addition, it also provides formative insights for administrators and interim assessments for districts. It is truly a one size fits all literacy website. The website is easy to navigate and serves all grade levels from K-12.

The website has an online library. It is then divided into different tabs and the user can browse through it using the search button. Common Lit allows the user to browse by book, genre, grade level, literacy device, text set, theme, and a special feature which is Spanish texts. I like how the website makes searching very easy. Elementary teachers can easily place the grade level they would want resources in. While secondary education teachers, can search in their various disciplines.

            Common Lit is a website that has ample resources to choose from. By searching the library, a lesson can be chosen on a specific topic and there are quality passages to choose from. For example, U.S. History teachers can type in slavery and a passage on “Life on a Slave Plantation” will show up. The website includes the grade level difficulty of the passage. It also shows the Lexile level. The page is then divided into different tabs. The tabs include text, paired text, related media, teacher guide, and parent guide.

            The website also includes a lot of special features that can make literacy more fun and easier for students. The font size can be changed from small to large which can accommodate students who are near or far sighted. One of my favorite features is the passage read aloud and annotation. The text can be annotated on to translate words or passages that students may not understand. There are also activities that go along with the passage. The website provides guiding questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. I recommend teachers to try this literacy website. It is truly very versatile and makes reading more enjoyable. In addition, teachers can choose from different reading resources without having to pay for it.