You can find many websites on the Internet that boast of helping students with learning English. It can be overwhelming sometimes to determine which website suits your needs and the exact services being offered. In this post, we will discuss a few of our favorite websites that your child can use to improve his or her English reading and writing skills.
CK-12
CK-12 offers a variety of subjects in STEM: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Their content is meant for middle and high school classes. The company focuses on making the learning experience digitized rather than just solely relying on digital textbooks. Basically, a textbook is transformed into a multimedia experience. CK-12 makes use of tools such as videos, simulations, and online classes to engage learners.
CK-12 is useful for students, teachers, and parents. Teachers can add lessons to the site, helping the website continuously grow. Flexbooks are a feature on the website that combine texts with videos, simulations, and other activities. This allows students to really make the text their own. Teachers can also edit the texts and add notes according to what their classes may need. Additionally, teachers can build their own Flexbooks or edit the ones that have already been created.
When looking specifically at English language arts, CK-12 has subdivided this subject into spelling and writing. When it comes to spelling, they give learners an overview of the spelling topics to study. After that, students can create online assignments to practice what they studied. You can download the spelling lessons as PDFs to study anywhere, even without a laptop. And you can add the lessons to your CK-12 library or Flexbooks after you create an account. As for the writing part, you have access to three full books: composition writing, journalism, and the Glyfada Method.
You do not need to register to access the Flexbooks, but being a registered student enables learners to use StudyHELP. Here, students can post questions they might have concerning the content. They can also form study groups, connect with other students, and join a class that was created by their teachers. You can organize the CK-12 content according to your own liking in your dashboard.
Registered teachers have access to tools that can help them use Flexbooks. They can edit Flexbooks by adding their own content. In the dashboard, teachers can follow up on their students’ progress and find out which concepts need more attention for specific students. With the groups function, teachers can create groups of students. In these groups, teachers can share Flexbooks, give assignments, as well as track individual and group performance. Teachers can come up with their own lesson plans by using written texts and other materials provided on the website.
CommonLit
CommonLit’s main focus is to provide teachers with the right reading resources for their students. They offer an online library with a host of different texts. These articles are organized into different fiction and non-fiction categories. With the search option, you can limit your searches by grade level, genre, or theme. Even better, CommonLit’s reading content is aligned with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), a set of standards that state what a student should know at the end of each grade.
Within CommonLit, there is a section for parents and guardians. Parents have full access to the online library and can choose texts for their children to read. The articles come with assignments that children can complete to assess their comprehension of the material. Parents are also able to track their child’s progress using the assignment report.
When teachers sign in, they gain access to a dashboard. They can see the assignments they have given to their classes, completed assignments, and add new assignments. Teachers are also able to follow up on students’ progress individually or as a class.
When students log in to CommonLit, they can see the assignments they have to do, as well as their grades and any feedback from their teacher. As they read texts, they can play audio recordings of each article, use the dictionary feature, highlight specific points, and translate unfamiliar words. While reading, assignments will pop up on the side of the texts. These questions range from selecting multiple choice answers, citing evidence, summarizing, explaining the text in their own words, and many more.
ReadWorks
Similar to CommonLit, ReadWorks provides texts for students and teachers. However, they do have some distinguishing features like Article-a-Day and paired texts. Article-a-Day helps create a daily reading routine for students. The articles take between 10-15 minutes to read. By reading daily, students improve their vocabulary skills. After reading the article, they can write down or share with their class what the text was about. With paired texts, different perspectives are given on the same topic. This encourages students to analyze and compare the texts based on the specific point of view.
Teachers can use the available texts to create lessons for their classes. When logging in, they can create classes and assignments. When students read texts, they are asked to answer multiple choice comprehension questions about the texts. Teachers will not have to grade these multiple choice questions since it is already automatically graded by ReadWorks. Teachers will, however, have to grade students’ responses to short answer questions. They will also have access to data that shows their students’ progress.
When students log in, they are able to work on their assignments online or offline. While reading, they can highlight and annotate. They can also listen to assignments with audio and see how they scored on their assignments.
Quill
Quill specializes in helping students become better writers. In doing so, they have created various tools available on their website that students can access when logging in.
Quill Connect
The first tool is Quill Connect. This tool teaches students how to write well-constructed sentences. Every assignment comes with a few examples at first to show what to do. After that, it is up to students to apply what they have learned. For example, they’ll see two separate sentences and have to rewrite them into one sentence.
The student receives feedback immediately after typing the new sentence. If students continue to use this tool, they should be able to construct more sophisticated sentences after a while.
Quill Lessons
Quill lessons are especially useful for teachers. They provide full lesson plans, including slides that teachers can use while presenting spelling and grammar topics. The lessons are interactive, so students can use their laptops or tablets to fill in their answers online for the class to see. The lessons come with discussion topics and activities for students to practice on their own for additional reinforcement. Also, teachers can change and edit the lessons according to their needs.
Quill Diagnostics
This tool is perfect for teachers to see how their students are performing and which grammar aspects need more attention. Teachers assign a diagnostic to students with a set number of questions. Once students have filled in their answers, teachers can then see how they scored as a class and individually. Then, Quill makes a personalized learning plan based on where students need help the most, which includes activities that Quill recommends in order to boost grades. You can also find out if there are some gaps that require attention for your whole class.
Quill Proofreader
Here, students read texts that are riddled with mistakes. As they read, they have to try and notice the mistakes, then edit where necessary. Quill already shows the number of mistakes that are hidden in the text. After editing the text, students get to see what was edited correctly and what was left unnoticed. This tool helps students identify common grammar errors and teaches them to use correct punctuation.
Quill Grammar
Students learn grammar by completing assignments that involve rewriting sentences. Quill shows them a sentence that has an error or leaves a choice for the students, then students have to reconstruct what they are given into a smooth sentence.
If you’re new to the website, Quill offers you the option to try out an assignment from each category so that you have an idea of what it looks like without having to create an account. What also stands out is that students have to rewrite the whole sentence instead of just clicking on the right answer. This allows the students to learn actively while they pay attention to spelling, punctuation, and grammar.
NewsELA
NewsELA turns news articles into content that can be used in the classroom. For every article that is published on their website, there are various reading levels that teachers can choose from. This makes it accessible for students from third grade through twelfth grade. The articles come with assessments for students to make sure they stay engaged while reading. It also shows teachers how students are performing. NewsELA can be used for different subjects. As for English language arts, besides the adapted news articles, they also offer fiction and poetry texts.
The fact that real world articles are being used as a reading source for students ensures that they expand their worldviews.
The website can be used for free; however, teachers get the most out of it when they sign up for a Pro subscription, which gives teachers access to a dashboard where they can track individual and class results. They can also see the progress made in meeting the CCSS. Furthermore, they have access to additional tools that help them customize lessons and assignments.
Takeaway
The website you may want to use to assist with your child’s learning depends on your needs. CommonLit, ReadWorks, and NewsELA are helpful for improving English reading skills. Each has its own specific features, but they all generally provide texts and reading comprehension assignments. To improve writing, try CK-12 and Quill. On all these websites, parents and teachers can create an account for free. For NewsELA, a teacher must set up a class for the student in order to join.
As for teachers, the majority of the websites we discussed come with the same features to track your students’ progress and create lesson plans. In conclusion, make use of the free resources that are available online when studying English. It might take a bit of time to figure out how each website works or which one you prefer for your students, but you will benefit tremendously from the ones available.
