Week 2: Need Some ELA Support? CommonLit has your back!
What is CommonLit?
CommonLit is a free site dedicated to literature. It has thousands of texts, reading lessons, and assignments that help enhance classroom experiences. CommonLit helps educators build core programs. Educators can get free access by providing the name of their school. I got free access through my years as a tutor.
Features of CommonLit
CommonLit has a wide array of features!
The first is its Text Library, which has thousands of free texts written by published authors. These texts are a mix of fiction and nonfiction. You can select your grade level, and the texts are organized by different categories, everything from Social-Emotional stories to Civil Rights. These texts are organized by grade and genre so teachers always know what they're looking for. Each of these texts have a teacher overview that explains how this could be incorporated into classroom lessons. Each text also has guiding and assessment questions and a discussion option, so teachers can assign these texts to their students and test their reading comprehension. Each text also comes with paired texts and related media, to further expand the lesson.
The Text Library also has great accessibility features so all students can enjoy the site and succeed! There's an option to have the text read aloud to students, a tool that lets students annotate the text and take notes, and an option to translate the text into another language.
All of the texts can be downloaded as PDFs and assigned to students. There are also answer keys for each text and teachers can assign these to students through CommonLit's virtual classroom, and can preview the texts to see their student's POV.
The next feature is the Target Lesson. Target Lessons are ready-to-use mini lessons that focus on a specific unit. These can help educators hone in on certain topics, and has all the resources piled together to make the process effortless. Each Target Lesson consists of five parts: a warm up, a video that introduces the goal of the lesson, a review to test the student's current proficiency within the skill, a reading assignment with questions, and final assessment. Throughout each part, there are short answer and multiple choice questions that make the student stop and think about the topic.
This feature is very accessible for teachers because they have the option to digitally assign these lessons to students, or to assign them in person. They can download all the materials as PDFs or can download them as a customizable PowerPoint. There are options for educators with all different learning styles, for all different types of educational settings. CommonLit is super accommodating and flexible.
The final, most complex, feature is the 360 Curriculum. This is the most hand on, pre-made feature that is best for educators who are working outside the common core. Each unit is expected to take 5-7 or 6-9 weeks for students to complete, and they are essentially multiple target lessons rolled into one cohesive unit. In these units, students receive reading comprehension assignments, quizzes, essay writing exercises, vocabulary assignments, grammar lessons, and other important aspects of ELA education. There are videos throughout and multimedia options that mix up the unit. These features allow an educator to assign their students weekly assignments that cover an entire unit of ELA education. Throughout, there are professional development and unit assessment opportunities that further equip educators with important skills that help them evaluate their student's progress.
Age Recommendation
CommonLit is a site designed for students in grades 3-12
The Text Library and Target Lessons are recommended for students in grades 3-12.
The 360 Curriculum involves more complex, higher learning, so that feature is reserved for grades 6-12.
Accessibility
Students need limited technological experience to comfortably use CommonLit. I know this because I've assigned my tutoring clients work through CommonLit before, and have helped them with CommonLit assignments given to them by their teachers. Everything is clearly labeled, and hard to understand words are often bolded, so students can click to reveal their definitions. The read-aloud and translation features are excellent for students of all abilities and from all backgrounds. Also, the assignments and readings are organized by lexile, so students can make sure they align with student's reading levels.
Library/classroom use
This site would be a great addition to a school library or classroom because it can help teachers hone specific skills and create targeted lessons. If the teachers are working on a specific unit, for example, identifying point of view, CommonLit can help them gather readings and lessons based on point of view to support their students. These can be homework assignments or other classroom resources that will help the students further hone their skills and practice the unit in school and on their own time. These make great homework assignments because as the student is reading, the site will give them reading comprehension questions, so it’s a great way for teachers to assess a student’s progress. Also, the target lessons usually have a short answer writing component, which is another way that teachers can see where their students are succeeding and where they might need improvement. For example, if most students are excelling with the comprehension questions but struggling with the writing, then they can tailor classroom lessons to have more of an emphasis on writing.
It can also be good to assign students these assignments while they are in the school library because it can help them discover their reading level and reading interests. When I used this with students, I often tried to tailor the texts to their interests to get them engaged and excited about reading. For example, as a tutor I had a 5th grade student who liked reading but hated reading comprehension. She was very into fantasy, so I started assigning her fantastical texts with comprehension questions so her school assignments, which were often more realistic fiction or nonfiction, became more palatable.
Overview
CommonLit saved me as a tutor. I relied on it, since parents often wanted me to create a curriculum for their children, and I am not a certified teacher. I'd meet with these kids every week. Most of the time, they had assignments, sometimes they had nothing and I had to wing it. On days like those, I used CommonLit and found lessons that focused on the skills they were learning so I could match my lesson to the ones they were learning in school as closely as possible!
I give it two thumbs up and recommend it to any educator who is looking to hone in on ELA skills, or get their students more excited about reading :)
Examples
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