Having the “same” text written for different levels of English comprehension can be a life-saver for a multi-level class of English Language Learners or for a teacher with a mainstream class that includes some students that are facing other challenges. They can be an important tool for differentiation.
But where do you get these different versions other than creating them yourself?
Here are a few sources, and I hope that readers will suggest more:
Newsela provides several “levels” of the same newspaper articles, along with accompanying online quizzes, that students can read and take. For a small fee, Teachers can create a virtual classroom, assign articles and monitor student progress. However, students can read the articles for free without having to pay anything.
News In Levels offers similar resources, but without the ability to track student progress online. The site is free.
For The Teachers has similar leveled articles available for download. It, too, is free.
Text Compactor lets you paste text into it and then automatically shares different versions with fewer words. It seemed to work pretty well when I tried it.
Rewordify is like a super-sophisticated Text Compactor on steroids. You can read my previous post about it: “Rewordify” Is One Of The Most Unique Sites Out There For English L...
Reader Laurie suggests Embedded Reading, which has these kinds of similar “leveled” texts in English, as well as in other languages.
I learned about CommonLit from the amazing educator Suzie Boss at her recent Edutopia post. It’s a neat site that doesn’t actually provide the “same” text written for different “levels.” What it does do, however, is provide leveled readings – with prompts — on the same theme. It’s pretty neat. (They’ve just added many new features – see “CommonLit” Now Lets Teachers Create Free Virtual Classrooms)
Books That Grow has a library of texts that have each been edited to be made accessible to different reading levels. And it has some other unique features — teachers can create virtual classrooms to assign and/or monitor what students what are reading and students can click on words that are new to them to see definitions and hear how they are pronounced. They are also planning on adding comprehension questions. The texts can be read on any device.
Thanks to reader Vincy Murgillo for letting me know about the Smithsonian’s Tween Tribune. It provides daily news stories, with the same one edited several times for different reading levels. The stories also have self-scoring quizzes and provide decent “critical thinking” questions that students can respond to in the comments. On top of that, teachers can create virtual classrooms to monitor it all, as well as moderating student comments. And it’s all available for free!
You have to pay for it, but Birdbrain Science and History have similar resources (they’ve changed their name to RocketLit).
Newsela, which is on this list, has now begun to provide Spanish translations of some articles, including providing them at different reading levels. Here is their blog post announcing the feature, and here’s a link to their Spanish-language text sets.
The British Council Has Excellent Leveled Reading Resources
“TIME/Edge” Could Be Useful For Students Over The Summer
Kids Discover has several levels for social studies instruction – for a price that does not seem to be unreasonable.
“Simplish” Automatically Simplifies And/Or Summarizes Text
“ReadWorks” Now Provides “Same” Texts At Different Level
Scholastic has a small number of audio-supported same text at different levels (they also have a few more here). In addition, their Storyworks program has many more, though it costs about $8 per student to use.
Thanks to Christina Cabal’s blog (which is on the The Top Blogs and Resource Sites For Teachers Of English Language L... list), I’ve learned about a new site called Learn With News. It provides articles about current events, which each one having three versions at different lexile levels. They also provide questions for each article. However, they are not interactive online, so you would need to either print them out or project them. The site also says they will soon be adding audio support for the text.
“Freckle” Provides Hundreds Of Articles In “5 or more different rea...
“News-O-Matic” Is Definitely A Site I Would Consider Using With Stu...
“TIME FOR KIDS” NOW OFFERS MATERIALS IN MULTIPLE LANGUAGES, SAME AR...
Graded listening is a radio program from the British Council that is provided in three “lexile” levels.
Transforming the Resources You Have into Accessible Formats for All... is an excellent post by Carmen Nguyen.
Brittanica Kids has all of its articles written in three different levels: Kids, Students, Scholars. There is a cost involved, but a lot of their resources are available for free. For example, I found this article on The Compromise of 1850 that I’ll be using in my ELL U.S. History class. They also have a small collection of free “read aloud” books for new readers. I’m not sure what the restrictions are about what’s free and what’s for subscribers only.
The OER Project Offers The Same Social Studies Texts In Different L...
I think a lot of teachers will find this post from TESOL useful: Create Your Own Leveled Readers.
The Juice offers daily news articles at four different levels. You have to pay for it, though it’s not astronomical.
Now add:
Most of the sites on that list use their own texts, though Rewordify has been most teacher’s “go-to” site to differentiate texts of their own choosing.
Now, there’s another easy tool to use: ChatGPT will differentiate any text you paste into it.
All I did was type in this prompt, followed by the text I wanted it to use:
Make three versions of this text so it is accessible to different reading levels – one for a first grader, another for a fifth grader, another for a tenth grader:
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