Effective Literacy Website Exploration #5: Actively Learn by Maricon Reyes

Maricon Reyes

ED638-40 Fall Intersession 2020

Dr. M.Rivera

IRA Newsletter Weekly Project: Effective Literacy Website #5: Actively Learn

            Actively Learn (https://www.activelylearn.com/) is a reading platform for the web with free sign-up for an Educator account.  Additional features such as accessing copyrighted materials like full books, uploading content, differentiating instruction, promoting student collaboration, and assessing student progress, maybe customized through a subscription called Prime and Unlimited. This platform has rich literacy content for grades 4 -12. It focuses on subjects and skills to include English Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, Communication, Collaboration, and Critical Thinking. It also includes current events and news articles. 

       Using this tool, students are actively engaged in reading the text and thinking processes. Variety options are available for students to interact with the text through adjusting, highlighting, annotating, editing, sharing, discussing the text, and collaborating as they read. Teachers may assign text individually or as a class so students can read, annotate, interact with texts at their levels. Also, teachers can tailor the reading selections to meet student needs which is crucial for growth and development. Teachers can personalize reading experiences and provide the student with choices. This is an ideal platform providing assistance to struggling students and given the opportunity to feel successful with their reading. Additionally, teachers may upload text from online articles.

Most texts have detailed, engaging multiple-choice and open-ended questions aligned with Common Core and NGSS that make it easy for students to chunk readings and draw students into the text. Students may add their own questions, ideas, and annotations to initiate class discussion. Teachers will need to provide assistance to students that may have less digital experience in interacting with the text through the demonstration process. Actively Learn has great support features including text-to-text speech, dictionary, translation, metacognition, media, and scaffolding. It also has solid integration with Google Classroom and Canvas, making it accessible through these classroom platforms. Students can also view their progress in reading proficiency and vocabulary reports. Actively Learn platform, if used well, can establish a deep, high-quality communication among teachers and students.

Here is a video and some images to highlight features of Actively Learn:

How to Support Close Reading with Actively Learn

https://www.commonsense.org/education/videos/how-to-support-close-reading-with-actively-learn

Actively Learn lets teachers create and share assignments with a wide range of formats and features.

There's a vast library of content available in ELA, science, and social studies, plus brief articles on news and current events.

Students can view data on stories they've read and assignments they've completed.

                                           

Both free and paid teacher accounts include a grade book feature where teachers can track each student's progress.

The developer's website features a blog and a resource library to help teachers get started.

Texts feature questions and a sidebar with extra info and resources.

                                             

There's a bunch of ways to adjust the accessibility of texts.