5 Alternatives to Newsela

Newsela has been an AWESOME resource over the years.  It was free, but has moved to a paid subscription model.  (I know, business is business.)  ReadWorks has also been a generous location to find texts, but I found that the writing style of the articles was simple and not rich.  

I strongly believe that "rigorous texts" doesn't mean "harder texts".  Rigorous texts support deeper level thinking.  Pulling from a variety of sources helps that happen.  

Here are 5 sites that I found where there are an abundance of resources by an abundant amount of authors.  Happy reading!

1.  Tween Tribune (and Tween Tribune Junior) From Smithsonian Institute FREE  

You will find leveled non-fiction texts at Tween Tribune. You can create a class and assign articles.  

2.  Wonderopolis FREE

I've used Wonderopolis in my classroom as a search engine for my kiddos during research projects, but I hadn't thought of using it to find articles for topics we are all studying together.

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3.  Reading Vine FREE

At the Reading Vine, you can choose articles and books and download them as PDFs.  There are questions attached that you can use as well.  There are primary sources available here as well.  

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4. CommonLit FREE
Tons of texts: high quality and leveled

5. Scribd $8.99/month

I stumbled upon this site when I was looking for a Beauty and the Beast script last Spring.  The wonderful thing about this site is it has books in PDF forms.  For example, you can print or embed Green Eggs and Ham.  It has a huge library.  Texts are NOT leveled.  I'm going to try it for a bit to see if it is worth the $, but I am thinking it is.   There are chapter books, articles, magazines, and audiobooks.  What I need to figure out is if/how my kiddos can access them.