Newsela's Back-to-School Updates Bring Supercharged Skill-Building Tools to Teachers

NEW YORK, July 11, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Newsela announced a slate of brand new features enhancing its platform for the 2023-24 school year including AI-powered teacher supports, a new assignment builder, improved grading experiences, and an expanded library of engaging content that supports standards-aligned teaching.

"This year we doubled down on supercharging the tools we put into teachers' hands so they can make the most out of their instructional time while ensuring they can quickly find content tied to their district's curriculum and strategy goals," said Pep Carrera, CEO of Newsela. "Instructional minutes are at a premium and these tools will help teachers manage group assignments, cut down on grading time, and easily search for content that complements the curriculum and skills they're teaching. One of the enhancements we're most proud of is incorporating AI in smart, trusted ways that help teachers generate creative assignments and save time."

Newsela's back-to-school updates bring the full power of cutting-edge technology to the content teachers love and trust, to create a seamless instructional experience that keeps students engaged and learning:

New enhancements to articles, grading, and search will save teachers time and energy.

• New search filters based on reading skills will help teachers search Newsela content to find the right resources based on the exact skill they're teaching.
• Improved grading experiences will keep all student quizzes and write prompts in one place so that reviewing, grading, and requesting revisions on student work can be done in fewer clicks.
• AI-powered supports and write prompt suggestions will appear on every article. These new additions will help teachers brainstorm activities, discussion questions, identify Tier 3 vocabulary that needs scaffolding, summarize key takeaways, and generate additional write prompt ideas. Coming later this summer.

More control and flexibility for teachers with assignment creation, plus a new way for teachers to engage students.

• A new assignment builder includes options to schedule assignments, align assignments with learning objectives, and assign to small groups – without leaving the article page.
• A new activity type – polls – will help hook students at the start of a lesson. Teachers can use polls to activate students' prior knowledge and engage their classes as they're starting a lesson. Users can choose from a Newsela created poll or customize one to fit perfectly with learning objectives. Coming later this summer.

An expanded content library, tied more deeply to standards and districts' existing curriculum, with new novel studies, videos, primary sources, and more.

• Over 150 new novel studies, or curated collections of texts and videos alongside practical instruction guides, ranging from "Much Ado About Nothing" to "In the Time of Butterflies," and 150+ brand new videos have been added. This brings Newsela's Novel and Book Studies collection to a total of over 300 titles.
• Refreshed Curriculum Complements collections with updated content that works alongside and enhances popular core curricular materials making them more relevant, engaging, and accessible to students.
• Revamped middle school Ancient Civilization and World History collections will feature new content, Lesson Sparks, and topic-aligned text sets. Coming later this summer.
• New and improved science collections that now support NGSS and the Claim-Evidence-Reasoning (CER) approach. Students can use the CER approach to work through questions like "Why is it cold during winter and hot during summer?" or "What do plants eat?"

More resources that teachers love.

• Newsela's acquisition of Formative brings together two beloved classroom products to offer more instructional solutions that engage students and accelerate learning.
• The launch of Newsela Lite, our new free experience, provides access to 4 timely articles that have been hand-selected by Newsela staff and access to grading features of Newsela's premium subject products.
• New free and flexible resources to help teachers reach their learning goals during weekly instruction.

For more on what's new to Newsela, visit newsela.com.

About Newsela

Newsela is an education technology company dedicated to meaningful classroom learning for every student. With over 15,000 authentic texts published at five reading levels, teacher scaffolding tools and activities, and flexible formative assessments, Newsela's products provide K-12 teachers with the instructional content they need to support and grow every learner.

Newsela's platform is backed by learning science and purpose-built to drive outcomes and unlock student motivation. Today, over 3.3 million teachers and 40 million students have registered with Newsela for relevant, real-world content that accelerates learning and engages every learner.

For more information about Newsela, visit newsela.com.

Contact: Hilary Lyons, [email protected], ‪(347) 829-7541     

SOURCE Newsela