Tech Exploratorium

By: Emily Benz

Foundations in Learning Technology and Design
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 What is CommonLit?

CommonLit is a
digital library that
provides students
and teachers a wide
variety of literacy
resources.
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 Accessing CommonLit
1.Go to https://www.commonlit.org

2. Create a free teacher account!

Students,
and families
can create
free accounts
too!
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 Creating a Class

1. Select My Classes
so the drop
2. From the drop
down menu
down menu select
appears.
manage classes 3. From the Manage classes page,
select create a new class
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 Creating a Class
You can
manually If you or your
create a district uses
new class. Google
Classroom or
Drawback: Clever, it can
This import your
students
requires
automatically!
students to
enroll in the
class.
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 Adding Students To Your Class***

1. Select add students from your Manage

Classes page.
2. Student can log enroll in 2 ways
a. Students who are new to CommonLit,
first need to create an account.
b. Students can enter the code and find
your class.
***This only needs to be done if you do not import
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from Google Classroom or Clever***

 Student Features
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 Teacher Features

Teachers are able to see detailed

Each assignment report of the number of
receives an attempts it took each student to
assignment report. answer the question correctly.
(picture to the left). Teachers
Teachers are giving
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also receive a detailed report of

an overview of the the assessment questions.
assignment. (picture above)
 Capabilities
● Search/Filter Tools for searching in Library
○ Teachers can search by theme, unit, standard,
and much more!
● Pre-assessment
○ Provides a baseline for teachers when first
implementing this resource.
● Customizable Annotation Task
○ Teachers can customize instructions for
students on an assignment.
○ For example, if a group is working to identify
the beginning, middle, and end of the story,
the teacher can edit the annotation task box
to remind students what they should be
looking for as they read.
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 Benefits
Teachers can differentiate instruction for each group of students or
individual student(s) as needed.

Assessment can be
differentiated based
on each group of
students, including
Guided reading the short answer
mode can be questions, which
assigned to a specific require higher-order
class and/or thinking skills.
student(s) based on
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reading ability.
 Benefits
● Students are able to revisit their assignments after they are turn it to see teacher’s replies
to their annotations.
● Teacher can model how to use the features, as well as how good readers use the online
tools to enhance comprehension.
● Teacher can create a start date and due date for each assignment.
○ Teachers can plan ahead and assign readings. Students are unable to access
assignments until the start date.
Bonus: This
resource and it’s
features work
across all
platforms (PC,
Mactonish,
Tablets, etc.)!
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 Drawbacks
● The library range is from 3rd grade to 12th grade. Primary teachers would
not be able to use this resource.
● While the library has a wide variety of texts, there are no chapter books.
● When completing the pre-assessment, students are unable to use the
different features of Commonlit. This could prevent some higher-order
thinking skills, such as analyzing.
● The texts do not have the option to be in a book format. Texts appear only as
an article. This could be less engaging for students.
● Each texts do not adjust to multiple reading levels. Texts are set at a fixed
level.
● Texts are only grouped by Lexile Range. If a teacher’s district uses Fountas
and Pinnell levels, it could create a challenge in finding book that are at
student’s instructional level.
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 How to Use CommonLit in the Classroom
Formal Instructional Setting Informal Instructional Setting

● When starting, students complete ● The guiding questions check

a pre-assessment. student’s comprehension as they
○ This provides teachers with a read.
baseline for student instruction. ● The discussion questions provide
● The assessment questions in each the teacher starter questions.
reading provide data on each
student’s understanding of the
story.
○ The assessment provides both
multiple choice and short
answer questions. Students use
higher-order thinking for short
answer responses
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 Formal Instructional Settings
One way that I have used
CommonLit for formal
instruction is through it’s
assignment break down. Since
CommonLit breaks each
question by standards, after
instructing students on a specific
standard. I was able to review
the assessment data and see if
students mastered the skill. If
some students have not
mastered the skill, I retaught the
skill with a new piece of text and
then used the new data to
review if the skill has been
mastered.
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 Informal Instruction Setting

CommonLit is also a wonderful resource for informational instructional setting. I have used
CommonLit’s discussion questions to take information observations of students. The
discussion questions allow for a teacher to ensure that students successfully comprehend the
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story assigned.
 Happy Reading!

Select the picture to open the link and start exploring!

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 References
Fleisher, R. (2020, August 22). CommonLit's FREE Pre-Assessment: Actionable Data to Support
Instruction. Retrieved October 24, 2020, from https://blog.commonlit.org/commonlits-free-pre-
assessment-actionable-data-to-support-instruction-b40a55325bf0

Huber, P. (2020, August 19). 10 Ways CommonLit Changed in 2019–2020. Retrieved October 23,
2020, from https://blog.commonlit.org/10-ways-commonlit-changed-in-2019-2020-64947b9a3523

Quick Start Guide For Teachers. (2020). Retrieved October 22, 2020, from
https://support.commonlit.org/hc/en-us/articles/360001723733-Quick-Start-Guide-For-Teachers

Footnote:

All data are sample data provided by CommonLit

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3SAniKEmcw