As class sizes grow and the complexity of standards
increase, the need for differentiation rises, and the time to be able to do it
drops. So, I always try to find resources to help adapt the same materials for
different reading levels so that all students can be successful with the same
content.
Here are 9 of my favorite websites and tools for
simplifying texts. I will highlight some pros and cons of each as I’ve
encountered in my own classroom.
1. Rewordify
Rewordify will simplify complex vocabulary to make a
difficult text easily to understand. You can customize the amount that is simplified
and the way it looks – As an English teacher, I like the side-by-side text
option. There are also various pre-made activities cloze reading etc using the
original vocabulary that might help with supporting vocabulary development. Why
this is at the top of the list – you choose the text to simplify
Offers a selection of fiction and non-fiction texts at
various reading levels that can be sent out to students on any device. Why I
like this one – my district went BYOD so there is a lot of technology
available, and it includes many of the texts in a secondary ELA curriculum, it
is not just elementary.
All of the 4 following are very similar and allow for
teachers to access a variety of non-fiction and news articles in a variety of
levels. Each has slightly different functionality and I have ranked them in
order of my favorites.
3. News in Levels –
not only has the different levels but has videos to match the levels and
questions after that encourage students to write and speak.
4. Newsela – has the many nice
features, like quizzes afterwards, but there is a fee for creating the virtual
classrooms and tracking student progress
5. For The Teachers – I used
to print these out as anchor activities, for extension and further independent
practice with skills.
The next 2 create summaries of text on webpages, or that you
can copy and paste.
7. Text Compactor –
copy and paste, works pretty well sometimes summaries are not perfect
8. TLDR
– works with websites, works pretty well sometimes summaries are not perfect
9. Finally, there is a feature in Read&Write,
it increases white space, and reduces the number of sentences. Works pretty
well, but as all of these tools, it is not perfect
I've added this to my collection of Technology Tools for English language learners
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