š Newsela Enhancement releases
We've been busy! Here's a sneak peek at the newest features and improvements:
Upgraded Look to Newsela K-2 Read Aloud Text
We added enhancements to the collections in ELA and Social Studies
'K-2 Read Aloud' tag to easily identify this content type
Pre-collapsed Assignment builder to signal front-of-class intent
Larger texts and images to support student viewing
Export & Print Newsela Writing Assignments
Teachers can generate an exportable PDF of all student responses, including a scoring summary, for a single assignment!
Changed Usage report > Engagement Highlights > Articles viewed
Before: The report counted repeated views of the same article, by the same student, as NEW article views
Update: One student viewing one article counts once, even if that student opens the same article multiple times or reads it at multiple levels.
Why weāre making this change
So 'Articles viewed' better reflects the instructional value of students engaging with distinct articles.
So the metric is easier to interpret and better aligned to the question: How many articles did students engage with?
Students - View Progress and Activity Reports
The interface of the student's "my progress" tab in Newsela received a face-lift, with some added data points - to align with the design of the reports on the teacher side.
We added an overview dashboard with a My progress and My Activity reports to match.
Standards Set Selection
Admins/Teachers can now save their preferred, full set of standards in search. Then, once saved, teachers can access this saved set from the lesson planner.
šContent Updates
Newsela content is updated on a regular basis. During this time period the following content updates were introduced:
ELA
Growth mindset vs fixed mindset (Video)
New Orleans and the History of Jazz (Article)
Kindness is Contagious (Text Set)
Social Studies
Social Studies Skills: Construct Arguments (Text Set)
Science
Space Systems: All About Eclipses (Article)
Science in the News: Record Breaking Summer Heat (Instructional Set)
How long does it take to form a habit? (Article)
