7 Alternatives to CommonLit for Engaging Online Literacy Resources

CommonLit

vs.

Newsela

58

CommonLit and Newsela are both online learning platforms that provide access to a variety of content for students. CommonLit provides free, high-quality texts for use in classrooms and beyond, as well as close reading and writing activities. Newsela offers an ever-growing library of news articles tailored to the interests and needs of learners, allowing teachers to assign articles at five different reading levels. Both platforms also allow students to interact with their peers through discussion boards, or collaborate on projects. Furthermore, they both offer comprehensive progress tracking tools so teachers can monitor student performance.

CommonLit

vs.

ReadWorks

60

CommonLit and ReadWorks are both online platforms that provide access to free reading resources for students and educators. Both websites offer extensive libraries of literature, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and plays from a variety of authors. Both platforms also offer differentiated instruction materials such as skills assessments, text-dependent questions, writing prompts, and discussion questions. Furthermore, both sites allow for customization and personalization of the learning experience by allowing teachers to assign relevant content based on students’ interests and abilities. The main difference between CommonLit and ReadWorks lies in the type of content offered on each platform. CommonLit offers both classic works from renowned authors as well as unique content developed by its own team of educators. This includes short stories written with diverse characters, news articles about current events topics, and informational texts related to various subjects. In addition, CommonLit provides tools such as audio recordings of all texts on the platform in order to facilitate literacy development among English Language Learners (ELLs). On the other hand, ReadWorks offers mostly classic works from renowned authors, but does not provide audio recordings or feature its own original content. Overall, both CommonLit and ReadWorks are excellent resources for teachers looking for quality reading materials to use with their students. The main distinction between them is the type of content they offer - CommonLit provides more varied material while ReadWorks focuses mainly on classic works from renowned authors.

CommonLit

vs.

Read Theory

77

CommonLit and Read Theory are both literacy websites that offer resources to help teachers, parents, and students develop their reading and writing skills. CommonLit provides free collections of comprehension-focused literature lessons to K-12 classrooms. Meanwhile, Read Theory offers interactive online reading and writing activities for students in grades 1-12. Both websites have pre-made activities that can be assigned to individual students or groups, allowing them to get personalized practice tailored to their needs. When it comes to features, CommonLit has a library of open source texts, including short stories, poems, news articles, plays and historical documents. These texts are accompanied by assessments such as multiple choice questions, constructed response questions and vocabulary questions. Additionally, CommonLit offers teacher tools such as discussion questions for each text as well as customized tracking and reporting capabilities. Read Theory also provides leveled texts but its main focus is on developing reading comprehension skills through interactive exercises. The website has thousands of passages organized into difficulty levels from 1-14 and each passage is followed by multiple choice questions designed to ensure the student fully understands the material. Additionally, Read Theory has an adaptive placement system that allows students to start at a level appropriate for their abilities and move up or down accordingly based on their performance on quizzes.