Newsela is an adaptive technology that can be useful in any K-12
social-studies classroom. Essentially, Newsela is a website that compiles news
articles from a variety of sources, such as the Washington Post and USA Today,
and re-writes those articles at a several of different reading levels. Newsela describes their product,
writing,
“We publish high-interest news and nonfiction articles daily at five
levels of complexity for grades 2-12 using a proprietary, rapid text-leveling
process. By combining relevant and interesting nonfiction content with
standards-aligned assessments, Newsela gives educators the primary solution to
dramatically improve students’ literacy skills for the 21st century.”
While Newsela is a powerful piece of technology that can be applied in
many ways, its most commonly used in a social-studies setting to allow students
who read at different levels to all access the same content without being
limited by one’s own reading skill level. Mahoney and Hall (2018) explain
Newsela, writing, “Reading ability levels on Newsela provide students with
reading difficulties the same reading articles with the same content
information to enable each student unique differentiation” (p. 301). Because
all students will be able to read virtually the same article at their own
reading levels, no student will be excluded from the learning process and every
student will be able to participate in any resulting discussion or project
based on the reading.
Teachers can assign Newsela articles in several different ways. Most
simply, teachers can assign an article to students and allow each student to
choose for herself at what reading level she wishes to read the article.
Another option would be for the teacher to “control the article level their
students see. [Thus] students will only be able to access the article at that
level” (found at Newsela.com). This option is most
effective when accompanied with the assessments offered by Newsela. If desired,
teachers can assign small assessments, in the form of quizzes, that students
are to complete after reading the assigned article. These assessments “[probe]
the following areas: what the text says; central ideas; people, events, and
ideas; word meaning and choice; text structure; point of view or purpose;
multimedia; or arguments and claims” (Garrison, 2016). Perhaps Newsela’s most
exciting feature is that “after a student has taken eight to ten quizzes, the
site adjusts the articles to that student’s appropriate reading level—a
continuous process based on pupil performance” (Garrison, 2016). So, after the
teacher sets the reading level for the entire class, Newsela will adjust the
level for individual students based on the assessment results of each student,
allowing every student to access the articles at their appropriate level.
Finally, each question on Newsela’s assessment feature is broken into a category
that, “[is] aligned to the first eight Common Core Anchor Standards for
Reading” (Garrison, 2016). Thus, teachers can easily match assignments on
Newsela to national standards.
It is important to know that Newsela offers both a free version and a
pro version for which school districts can choose to pay. The primary
difference between the two versions has to do with access to assessment
results. Garrison (2016) explains the difference between the two versions,
writing “[In the free version,] Teachers are able to view classroom-level data,
including the number of students who have completed an assignment and the class
average on a quiz, but cannot review individual student data or writing
responses unless they subscribe to Newsela PRO.” She goes on to explain that
the biggest advantage of the pro version is that, “it allows teachers to go
beyond classroom-level data to view individual student progress and to track
student progress against the CCSS” (Garrison, 2016). This feature of the pro
version certainly enhances Newsela, but the cost of this product tends to be
around $6000 per school, so teachers and administrators must decide if this
addition warrants the additional expense (Garrison, 2016). Even if a teacher
does not have access to the pro version, there are countless ways any
social-studies teacher could use Newsela.
Below is an
example of a possible lesson plan utilizing Newsela.
Lesson Title: News and
Reliability
Grade Level: This assignment
can be adjusted for any social-studies class grade 5-12.
Standards: This assignment
can incorporate a number of standards depending on the grade in which it is
utilized.
Lesson Outcomes:
●
Students will understand how false news reports
affect society
●
Students will be able to explain the difference
between a reliable news source and one that is unreliable.
●
Students will be able to research news reports
and analyze their validity.
Initial Homework
assignment:
Part I- Assign the article entitled, “False Reports about the Migrant Caravan are Spreading on
Social Media”
*Assign the article at the appropriate reading level for the
grade you are teaching
Part II- Students should take the assessment provided by Newsela
Day 1: Discussion
Students should be given 15 minutes to answer the following questions
in notebooks before coming together and discussing these questions as a whole
class.
1. What does the article explain about the role of social media
companies in limiting the spread of misleading news? Have they limited false
information? Is that a goal of the companies?
2. Do you think social media companies have a duty to restrict false
news reports? Or do you believe that would be an unfair restriction of free
speech? Explain your thoughts.
If you are
teaching a higher-level class (at the high school level), you could also ask
this more complicated question that requires connecting politics, technology
and society:
3. What are the possible societal repercussions if the leaders of our
government seem to support false news reports?
Days 2: Media
Document Analysis Introduction
1. Begin class with a brief explanation of some basic questions one
must ask when analyzing a document for validity:
○
Is the source of
the document (the writer, publisher, or website) reputable and unbiased?
■
Do you recognize the producer of the document?
Does the source tend to have a political bias?
○
Is there wording
in the document that seems possibly fraudulent?
■
Do statements seem outlandish? If so, research
what other sources are saying about the topic. If there are conflicting
accounts, then one document must be inaccurate.
*** Note- Even if
the wording of the article is not outlandish, the source could still be misleading
●
Might the author
of the document have an agenda?
■
Eg- If the
author is the president of a tobacco company writing about the docile nature of
cigarettes, one should conduct research to see if the author’s statements are
valid.
2. Pick any news article from
Newsela and, as a class, analyze it for accuracy based on this framework.
3. Choose a news report that may be less valid and, as a class,
analyze that source as well.
4. Finish class with a reflection
●
What were some useful strategies for analyzing
sources? How can one go about proving that one document is reliable while
another is not?
Days 3: Group
Media Document Analysis
Place students in groups of 3 and ask them to look up news reports
from 3 different sources and analyze them for validity. Encourage students to
use the guiding questions presented in the previous lesson to direct each
analysis. Students should research a wide array of reports from different
sources. If students believe a source to be inaccurate, they should provide
evidence showing that it is false.
*Note- Allow students to use Newsela for this assignment, but
encourage them to look beyond Newsela for at least one source (if not all
three).
Day 4:
Presentation of Findings
Groups will present their findings to the class and students will be
encouraged to ask questions and comment on the findings of others.
Finally, students should be asked to reflect for 10 minutes about the
process of analyzing new documents.
References
Garrison,
S. (2016). Why are 6.1 million students using Newsela? Thomas B. Fordham Institute. Retrieved from https://edexcellence.net/articles/why-are-61-million-students-using-newsela
Harwell, D., Romm, T., and
Timberg, C.. (2018, October 29). False narratives about caravan, pipe bombs
have spread on social media. The
Washington Post. Ed. Newsela Staff. Retrieved at https://newsela.com/read/midterms-migrant-caravan-misinformation/id/47155/
Mahoney, Jamie, & Hall,
Carol. (2017). Using Technology to Differentiate and Accommodate Students with
Disabilities. E-Learning and Digital
Media, 14(5), p.291-303.
Newsela.com
Image Credits
As migrant caravan travels
north, misinformation spreads far and wide. (2018, October 29). The Washington Post. Ed. Newsela Staff.
Retrieved at https://newsela.com/read/midterms-migrant-caravan-misinformation/id/47159/
The Community Foundation of
Harrisonburg-Rockingham. (2016, July 6). Retrieved from http://www.tcfhr.org/letter-washington-post/newspaper-clipart-vector-clip-art-online-royalty-free-design/
Newsela.com
Comments
Post a Comment