Holy Textual Evidence Batman!!!!!

So, I'm supposed to be ending my non eventful, non productive, very relaxing vacation tomorrow but winter storm Hercules is on its way and I got the call that I won't have school till Monday.  I might actually catch up with my grading after all!
Since I actually have some time, I wanted to introduce you to a great new website that was introduced to me by a member of my team.  The website is Newsela and it is amazing!!!  I am a huge fan of current events in the classroom and this website not only has AMAZING current event stories, but the articles are Common Core aligned!!!

The website has a huge number of articles to offer as you can see by the menu.  Any article that as an anchor and a number next to it, is actually accompanied by a quiz that meets the CCSS.

This article specifically works on the author's point of view and purpose.  As a teacher you can sign up and assign various articles and lexile levels to your students.

Each article, regardless of whether it has a quiz or not, has multiple versions organized by lexile score.

The quizzes that come with specific articles are also organized by reading level.  My brightest kids are so challenged by these questions because it really focuses on the shift in the CCSS.  I'm getting amazing data out of these quizzes!!!

When you sign up as a teacher, you have the ability to link students as they sign up and thus create a class and a gradebook.  One of my ELA teachers is doing this and loving it.  I'm having difficulty finding the time and access to our computers to launch this so I've decided to go the paper route.

The site offers an awesome print version that has been really successful for me.  I give this out at the beginning of the week and I print and distribute two different versions: 7th and 4th grade.  It's perfect for skills based work and really gives me amazing data on the areas of need for my kiddos.

As a perk, the site just started posting articles with a Pro and Con stance which I find perfect to use for collection of textual evidence and argument writing.  Such gooey CCSS goodness!!!

If you use this, come back and tell me what you think and how you are using it in your classroom.