CommonLit
CommonLit
CommonLit ensures that all students, especially those at Title I schools, will be able to graduate with the reading, writing, communication, and problem-solving skills they need to succeed in college and beyond. It is a non-profit organization of educational technology for the purpose.
CommonLit believes in providing educators with all resources to prepare their students for success and encourage classroom best practices. That’s why the CommonLit literacy model builds on over 2,000 free, high-quality reading passages from grades 3 to 12, with coordinated mid-term ratings, growth-focused data, and expert-led. It is complemented by the training of teachers.
Through these resources and services, CommonLit’s behavioral theory is that the CommonLit literacy model builds teachers’ ability to use best practices in education. Browse our library today to find out why teachers around the world are using CommonLit.
Overview
CommonLit provides educators with a free online collection of reading materials in line with CommonCore. Teachers can use CommonLit to find textbooks for students in grades 4-12. All content is available online for free.
Goal
CommonLit, a non-profit organization, provides educators with a free online collection of reading materials in line with CommonCore. CommonLit hopes to help struggling students develop ready-to-read skills at college.
Approach
When visiting the CommonLit website, teachers first select a theme such as “America” or “Identity” to narrow down their choices, then select discussion questions related to the selected theme, and then 4-12. You can specify a reading level in the range of. Today, CommonLit offers teacher poetry, news articles, short stories and more. All of these can be downloaded directly from the website without logging in. In addition to the text itself, each downloaded document contains discussion questions and follow-up reading material. suggestion.
The CommonLit reading collection consists of reading materials that teachers have marked as particularly favorite and discussed with their students. CommonLit will acquire the required copyright and provide the text for free after the teacher identifies these types of text.
Implementation
CommonLit is built for both mobile and desktop web browsers.
Price
All CommonLit readings are available free of charge.
Who uses it
Launched in 2014, CommonLit has more than 1000 teachers using reading material.
CommonLit Review
What is CommonLit?
CommonLit is a free digital library of leveled texts such as news articles, poetry, short stories and historical documents. Collection can be filtered by grade, Lexile level, theme, genre, literary device, and even Common CoreState Standards. Or use over 50 carefully selected text sets organized by historical times and literary movements. Each passage contains an introduction with basic background information and a footnote with vocabulary.
The text has a variety of accessibility and learning tools. There is a text reading button that reads the passage aloud. Translations of over 13 languages including Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, Russian and Vietnamese. And a markup / annotation tool for active reading. The teacher can later review the student’s notes to measure the student’s comprehension. Next to the text is a series of questions. Guides, ratings, and discussions. Evaluation questions range from multiple-choice to short answers, and discussion questions are aimed at leveraging students’ critical thinking skills. Many of the passages and text sets also have a question section in the guide (which can be enabled when the teacher assigns the text). Students need to answer these questions in order to make progress. In addition to these questions, the text provides additional resources such as homeschooling suggestions and related media.
Students and teachers can sign up for a free account. Recent changes to the site support integration with Google Classroom and Clever, making it even easier to upload student information. The teacher’s account includes an easy-to-navigate teacher dashboard to create multiple classes, assign reading passages to students, score answers to questions, and class-wide or individual students. You can track the progress of. Student data is collected and displayed in colorful and easy-to-understand visuals using charts, tables and graphs. At the bottom of the teacher’s dashboard is a list of students who need more challenges and may still need to be fixed.
How can I teach with this tool?
CommonLit is a wealth of literary resources that educators can use to create lessons focused on their students’ reading needs. Use robust search and filter tools to explore texts on topics such as America, Education, Family and Friendship, Prejudice and Discrimination, Resilience and Growth. Or search by genre or literary device. Looking for a specific degree or Lexile level passage? Use that filter. Need to combine it with future texts or rewarding texts? Click the Linked Text tab. Insufficient teachers can go to the text set filter and choose from 50 options organized by time and literary movements to read news articles, articles, speeches, poems, short stories, and more. You can find different texts for the level. Ready to use.
Once the teacher finds the passage, you can download the PDF or assign it to a student (group or individual) to set a time frame for completion. All passages feature rating and discussion questions. Teachers can also enable guided reading mode so that students can answer comprehension questions as they read. The annotation feature allows students to mark parts of the text and add comments and questions. Teachers can ask students to use this tool to view annotations later.
Is it good to learn?
CommonLit gives students with different reading levels and language skills access to reading comprehension. Great for English learners and hard-working readers. Each passage (printed in PDF format or accessible online) contains footnotes that contain essential vocabulary and important background information for the child to understand when reading the passage. A series of questions, along with the ability to annotate and comment on reading, check students’ comprehension, challenge dialogue with the text, and encourage them to think critically about what they are reading and their world. The overall experience is perfectly aligned with the needs of the teacher’s curriculum and what students need to grow as a reader. The only thing missing is the ability to adjust the reading level of each text. However, teachers can assign different texts to each student so that they can work at an appropriately rewarding level.
You can further expand your learning by using the suggested pair of texts, related media, and helpful suggestions to attract parents and extend your learning at home.
Useful features of CommonLit
Once you’ve selected your text, you can take full advantage of it with all the robust features that CommonLit offers.
Readability features
On this site, you can choose the font size and paragraph number for easier navigation.
Footnotes and glossaries
The numbers embedded in the text are associated with pop-ups that define key vocabulary terms and provide background information for students with unfamiliar concepts.
Overview
Each text is introduced by a short summary that provides a little information about the author and the text, and then suggests areas for students to focus on while reading.
Text-dependent questions
Each text contains a set of text-dependent questions and discussion questions (upper right).
Linked text
For each text, there is also a section where CommonLit staff manually select other texts in the library to create the appropriate combination. The rationale behind each link is carefully explained. The two texts may be linked to a common theme, or they may be linked because they use similar literary equipment.
Related media
In this section, video and audio clips have been carefully selected to give students a better understanding of the ideas in the text. With the addition of this section, CommonLit has provided everything needed to provide students with a complete multimedia experience across generations and genres.
Guide for parents
CommonLit provides a parental guide for each text so that teachers can share what their students are reading with their parents. The guide also suggests ways parents can support learning at home.
New: Student account and progress registration
This month, CommonLit introduced the latest features. This feature allows teachers to use their account to create lessons and track student progress with text-based questions.
8 Ways to Use Commonlit in Middle School and High School
Commonlit.org is a free digital tool that allows 5th to 12th grade students to read and write. Commonlit has a free library of thousands of interesting lessons in line with standards. Teachers can easily monitor student progress and develop literacy skills using available analytical tools. The best part … in addition to being free of course, it can be used in all subject areas! Here are eight ways to use Commonlit in the classroom:
1. Try this week’s article.
Encourage students to choose and read their articles based on the specific topic they are studying in the class. Commonlit can be filtered by over 20 themes, so a theme can be one of the requirements for students to choose.
2. Introducing the STEM topic.
Use Commonlit to introduce you to rigorous STEM topics that encourage students to think critically. Even if students are having a hard time reading grade-level textbooks, Commonlit can be a great help.
3. Assign lessons based on student needs.
For example, a struggling reader can be assigned text using the guided reading mode. In this mode, you need to answer the question correctly before reading the text. More advanced students can skip to discussion and rating questions.
4. Try Commonlit to introduce social topics.
For example, let’s say you’re teaching an African-American hero. Different texts are available for each grade. Examples include “The Story of Aida B. Jones,” “How Jackie Robinson Changed Baseball,” and “Letter from Balmingham Prison.”
5. Use Commonlit to complement the novel you read in class.
There is also a tab called “Book Pair” where the article is already linked to additional text related to the novel. However, if you don’t see a link to a particular novel, you can easily find recognizable text by searching for a particular theme or key idea.
6. Introduce the learning unit or text using the Video
Options in Related Media.
Using video clips is a great way to attract students to get more interested in the material. It also helps to build background knowledge about the subject of research. It’s also a great way to build a text-to-media connection and gain a better understanding of your content.
7. Support English learners.
Not only can you choose the entire text from English or Spanish, but you can also choose words and phrases to translate between 13 different languages.
8. Search by default.
All Commonlit texts are standardized. If you are teaching a particular standard, you can customize your search by choosing the standard you want to focus on.
New on CommonLit
1. New content – CommonLit 360
CommonLit 360 is a free, comprehensive and year-round English curriculum for grades 6-10. The units and lessons are:
- Advanced: Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening, Grammar, Vocabulary.
- Scaffolding: In line with standards, but with supportive questions for struggling readers.
- Ease of use: Classroom materials with a fully packaged teacher’s guide.
- Digital / Printing: Most classes have printing / digital options for a mixed education approach.
- Very effective: Backed by research, strong test results have been obtained in various schools.
- Permanently Free: CommonLit 360 is always free to use at www.commonlit.org.
2. More flexibility for teachers and resources for students
Read aloud loud
Teachers and students can now listen slower to read both English and Spanish texts. Reading is usually available at three speeds: slow and even slower. To find the speed option, click Read Aloud, then click the Gear menu icon to the right of the Stop and Play buttons.
Preview mode for students
Teachers can now use the student preview mode to preview the assignment from the student’s perspective while viewing the text from the library or unit. Teachers can use this feature when creating assignments to see custom settings such as annotation tasks, guided reading mode blurring, and scoring options. Teachers can also click View Assignments on the dashboard to see the student’s assignments after creating the assignment.
New release score feature
Allow teachers to choose to publish their scores to students without displaying the correct answer to a multiple-choice question so that teachers have more control over the student’s access to multiple-choice answers. became. Even if you choose not to share the correct answer, students will still be able to see the overall score and feedback on the written question. You can access this new feature by clicking Release Score on the Assignment Dashboard.
Data retention
We know that students are constantly switching schedules, especially at the beginning of the semester or year. Sometimes teachers can’t manage their schedule, but they want to manage their data. Teachers can now save and view information about students who have left the classroom. You can also download this data and share it with your students’ new teachers.
Do I need to accidentally remove a student from my class or add it back later this year? You can now add students to your class with just one click.
Lock and send ratings on behalf of students
You talked and we heard. Teachers can “lock” assessments in a diagnostic or assessment series to prevent students from accessing ongoing exams during the period. Educators can now also “force” the evaluation of a diagnostic or evaluation series on behalf of a student from the dashboard.
Improved smart integration
One of the benefits of integrating with Clever is the ease of scheduling. However, there are times when teachers need to make smart data more flexible. To help educators, we’ve added the following features:
- Adding a co-teacher to a class managed by Clever: Previously, the Clever class could only contain co-teachers added by Clever. You can now add co-teachers not listed in Clever to the Clever-managed class. This is especially useful in districts that do not share co-teacher data with Clever, or where only a few teachers choose to use Clever integration with CommonLit.
- Merging smart and unwise student accounts: Did you import a duplicate set of smart student accounts? Is your child logged in to another account with Login with Google or Login with Clever? Then it offers the possibility to merge smart and non-smart student accounts.
- Hide Clever Classes: Did Clever import a course that you don’t use in CommonLit, or a class for the next semester? These clever classes can be hidden anywhere on your site. Go to My Lessons> Manage Classes> Options> Hide Classes to Use.
- Nickname Clever Classes: Are the names of imported Clever classes long and bulky? You can now give your class any name you like. To do this, go to My Lessons> Manage Classes> Options> Class Nicknames. A class information window appears where you can edit the class nickname. Click Update Class to see its nickname throughout the website. Save the original class name in the database to ensure data integrity.
3. Basic package for schools
If you like the pre-evaluation and post-evaluation beta features of CommonLit, you can unlock the new evaluation series pack for SY21-22 at your school or school district.
The CommonLit evaluation series gives 3rd to 12th-grade teachers access to three professional benchmark assessments. Initial evaluation allows educators to collect diagnostic reading data at the beginning of the year. During the year, teachers can make two additional assessments to measure student growth from the beginning to the end of the school year. When a school or school district purchases CommonLit School Essentials PRO, teachers and managers can track student performance against CommonLit benchmark assessments. In addition to access to a complete assessment suite, partner districts have access to expertise development modules and training, custom onboarding support, and school-wide data reports.