Bell Ringers and Sponge Activity

I recently found a wonderful website that students can read about the news and then take a very short quiz.  Quiz results are even sent to the teacher so that he or she knows which articles their students are reading.  The site is maintained by the Smithsonian , which was founded in 1846 by using the funds left by James Smithsonian for the purpose of "the increase and diffusion of knowledge". More information can be found at  Smithsonian Institution .

The website is TweenTribune and has articles for teens on many different subjects.  Recent articles included why we vote on Tuesdays, the real Smokey the Bear, The Cubs win the World Series, and about pandas in the United States. Quizzes are short, around 3 questions and both the teacher and students can see their results.  Teachers need to register in order to utilize the website for quizzes but there is no cost at this time.  Articles can be read without logging into the website.  Each article is written in four different Lexile levels so you can differentiated the lesson for every student allowing them read the same subject material  and discuss it in class.  The articles are also written in Spanish so that students who are more fluent in Spanish  can read the article in their native language. If a student understands an article better their participation in the classroom discussion will be more enhanced.   According to their website there is also an iphone and ipad app for this TweenTribune. The teacher's login has many resources, lesson plans broken down by grade level taught, and a grade-book that keeps track of your students quiz scores.

I have also found that over the years many of my students dislike reading nonfiction and/or do not do well on standardize testing on nonfiction reading. These articles are short and appear to be somewhat interesting.  The students that I have shown the articles to have had some discussion about the content and what their own opinion is on the articles.  This would also be a great way to discuss option vs fact when the class is discussing one of the articles.