What is Newsela ?

Newsela is an online news-as-literacy platform that features high-interest articles on everything from current events to myths and legends and from literature to science. Content is updated daily, with stories from a wide range of sources (from the Associated Press to Scientific American to the Washington Post) in English and also often in Spanish. 

Topics run the gamut from pop culture to roller derby and Minecraft, and they touch on subjects that encourage cross-curricular reading, such as DNA testing, global women's rights, living conditions in Syria, and travel to Mars. Newsela offers Text Sets, which offer thematically curated texts as well as lesson plans and activities that can give students a more holistic picture of a topic. These rotate regularly, including timely content like a set of texts for COVID19. 

All articles are available in five Lexile levels, ranging (roughly) from third to 12th grade. Each leveled text features a quiz tailored to that particular article plus a writing prompt that asks students to write and respond to what they've read. 

You can assign articles to individual students  as well as small groups, using the quizzes to track progress and make further suggestions. Whole-class work has just as much potential; you can select articles for targeted instruction on specific reading standards while modeling good annotation and close-reading strategies for your students.  Check more from Common Sense Media’s Full Review of Newsela here. 

New to Newsela? Check out their Remote Teaching Toolkit. 

Newsela + Google Classroom

Newsela easily integrates with your Google Classroom. 

To sync your Google Classroom with Newsela: 

1. Log in with your OUSD Google Account. 

2. Select I’m an Educator (if this is your first time signing in). 

3. Go to your Classes page by clicking your name in the upper right hand corner. Select Settings → Classes → Sync with Google. 

4. Select the classes you want to import, choose a grade level and subject for each. Then click Sync Selected Classes. 

5. To Confirm that your students are in your class, go to your students page. Under each class name, you’ll see a list of students in the class. 

6. Your Google Classes will be automatically synced every time you log in. 

Check out Newsela’s support content for integrating Google Classroom here (includes videos and articles).

Newsela + Google Classroom Quick Start Guide 

Newsela is providing Recorded Webinars for Teachers. Check out this one for Newsela + Google Classroom (30:10) 

How do I add students to my Newsela Class without a Google Classroom?

Add Students via Class Codes or Class Links 

• Go to Students by clicking your name in the upper right-hand corner, clicking on Settings  and selecting the Students tab. 

• Find the class you’d like to add students to and click Add Students

• There are two options: 

  • Class Link: There are three dots to the far right of your class under the More column. Click this icon and then select 'Add Students'. This will bring up the invite link to your class. Copy the URL and share it with your students. Once students click on the URL, Newsela will guide them to sign in or create an account, and then take them to the class.

  • Class Code: Students sign in to newsela.com. They will click their name in the upper right-hand corner. Under the classes section of their account page, have students enter the Class Code and click "Add a Class."

• You can also give your students these instructions: How to join your teacher’s class.  

• To confirm that your students have joined your class, go to your Students. Under each class name, you’ll see a list of students who have joined your class.

Additional help content on this topic can be found here. 

Add Students via Clever 

• In Newsela, go to your Classes page by clicking your name in the upper right-hand corner and selecting the Classes tab from the settings menu.  

• Click Sync with Clever.

• Select the classes you want to import, choose a grade level and subject for each, then click Import Selected Classes.

• You may need to wait for the sync to complete.

• To confirm that your students are in your class, go to your Students page. Under each class name, you’ll see a list of students in the class. The student roster in Newsela should correspond to the student roster in Google Classroom

Imported students will see your class on their settings page.

Additional help content on this topic can be found here. 

Can I add a co-teacher to my Newsela Class?

Yes! Adding a co-teacher allows you and another teacher to assign articles and monitor students’ activity. As a co-teacher, you will be able to take the following actions:

• view your co-teachers assignments

• see your shared students' annotations, write responses, and quiz scores

• create assignments to a shared group of students

• Both teachers must be associated with the same school on Newsela.

Add a Co-Teacher via Google Classroom 

1. In Google Classroom, add your co-teacher. The co-teacher will need to accept an e-mail invitation from Google Classroom.

2. On Newsela, have your co-teacher also import the Google Classroom on their Classes tab. Both teachers need to have imported the Google Classroom.

Note: Both teachers must select the same Google grade level when importing to Newsela. If one teacher removes the class on Newsela, it will also be removed from the co-teacher's Newsela account.

Add a Co-Teacher via Clever 

Co-teachers in a Clever classroom on Newsela must be added in Clever.

For more information on how to sync a co-teacher to a Clever classroom in Newsela, you can refer to Clever's Support Center: https://support.clever.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000988748-How-do-I-sync-co-teachers

Add a Co-Teacher to Classes with Class Codes 

1. Navigate to your Classes tab by clicking your name in the upper right-hand corner and selecting the Classes tab from the settings menu.

2. Select a class and click the envelope icon.

3. Enter the name or email address of the teacher you'd like to invite. (You can only invite teachers who have Newsela accounts at your school. If the teacher is not appearing when you search, they may need to create a Newsela account or change their school.)  

4. Check off the co-teacher's name and click Invite.

Note: Once you add a co-teacher, you cannot remove the co-teacher. 

More help content on this topic can be found here. 

Assigning Newsela Articles in Google Classroom 

You can attach Newsela articles to assignments, materials and the discussion board in Google Classroom. 

1. Find the article you want to assign. 

2. Create an assignment in Newsela by clicking the assign button and then following the prompts. 

3. Click share at the top of the page. 

4. Choose Google Classroom from the dropdown menu 

5. This will open Google Classroom in a new tab. On this page, choose the class you want to assign the article to. Make sure you click GO in the bottom right corner of the page.

6. This will take you to the regular assignment creation page in Google Classroom. Once you click assign, the assignment will appear in the Classwork tab of any Classrooms you assigned it to. 

More Help Content on this topic from Newsela can be found Here. 

How can I assess student work using Newsela?

Article Page 

The article page lets you see a list of students who have completed an article that has been assigned, and those who have not yet viewed the assigned article. Under each student’s name you will see a row for each reading level at which they completed the work. You can click a row to review work, including viewing annotations and reading time. 

Additional Help Content on this topic can be found here.

Binder Assignments Tab 

The Assignments Review Page will let you review a summary of class activity for the assignment and information about each students’ work. 

Additional Help Content on this topic can be found here.

Binder Reading Summary Tab 

In the Reading Summary tab in the Binder, you can see a summary of all student activity on Newsela, review students' performance on reading skills, and navigate to a Reading Summary for each student. 

Additional Help Content on this topic can be found here.

Binder Power Words Tab 

Some articles have power words for students to learn and review. You can review student work on Power Words as a group or individually.

Additional Help Content on this topic can be found here.

Reading Skills 

Each level of every Newsela article has its own 4-question quiz connected to two reading skills. With a Newsela subscription, you can filter by reading skill to find articles that have a quiz that assesses the standard(s) you selected.

When you have a Newsela PRO, Newsela ELA, or Newsela Essential subscription, you can use the Binder to understand your students' levels of success on the 8 national reading informational texts skills.

Additional Help Content on this topic can be found here.

Activity Feed 

To see the activity stream, hover over Binder at the top of the page and select Activity Feed from the drop-down menu. This will bring up the recent work completed by students in your class. Selecting an activity from this list will direct you to the assignment page for the assignment or the independent work completed by the student.