Newsela
I talked to a Newsela rep this morning on 12/4/17.
The annual license cost for Newsela would be
$4000 for the high school
$4000 for the middle school.
$2500 for Davis
Since 2nd grade is a part of K-2 buildings, they would through them in for 'free'.
There is a 10% discount for multiple buildings.
A classroom teacher license is $750.
Online, self-paced professional development is available with the PRO version.
Newsela Pro ties in really well with district-managed Canvas classes and fairly well with Google Classroom classes. It is an outstanding literacy-building tool that includes current events and news stories at customized reading levels. Teachers may use it's features to customize engaging lessons without the distraction . Here is a comparison of it's features.
I asked the HS English and Social Studies departments to visit about this service in their PLC meetings this morning and will work to get middle school feedback as well. Buy-in will be important to get value out of this product.
Alternatives:
Flocabulary has many similarities and is half the cost. There is a trial version that would be worth trying out to see if it fits the same learning objectives. I just signed our District up for a 45 trial for any of our teachers to try and will pass on details to staff as soon I I get the details.
New York Times Learning - It does not differentiate as well as Newsela, but the free teacher account includes lesson planning materials. Of course, we would probably have to get the newspaper delivered then.
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Newsela Features:
1. 365-Day Access, Districtwide License (Unlimited Teachers per Student with Principal and District Binder)- $9,400:
• District binder access - districtwide data analysis
• Principal and Administrative binder access - schoolwide data analysis
• Ideal Learning Environment for every school
• Formative Assessment Drive package - regular feedback districtwide
• Onboarding and training package through Newsela Community team
• Teacher Binder access for all users-- assessment tools
• Writing tools for all users-- Newsela Write and interactive annotation
• PRO Assign instructions on all assignments
• Click-to-chat support for all users at support.newsela.com
2. 365-Day Access, School-wide License (Unlimited Teachers per Student with Principal Binder)- $4,000 each for the middle school and high school, $2,500 for the 3-4 elementary school:
• Principal and Administrative binder access - schoolwide data analysis
• Ideal Learning Environment for the school
• Formative Assessment Drive package - regular feedback schoolwide
• Onboarding and training package through Newsela Community team
• Teacher Binder access for all users-- assessment tools
• Writing tools for all users-- Newsela Write and interactive annotation
• PRO Assign instructions on all assignments
• Click-to-chat support for all users at support.newsela.com
3. 365-Day Access, Grade-wide License (Unlimited Teachers per Student)- $16 per student (every student in the grade):
• Unlimited teacher-student relationships across grade
• Ideal Learning Environment for the grade
• Formative Assessment Drive package - regular feedback gradewide
• Teacher Binder access for all users in licensed grade-- assessment tools
• Writing tools for all users in licensed grade-- Newsela Write and interactive annotation
• PRO Assign instructions on all assignments
• Click-to-chat support for all users at support.newsela.com
4. 365-Day Access, Teacher License (Limited 1 Teacher per Student)- $750 (only up to 50 students of one teacher) :
• Limited one-to-one teacher-student relationships for licensed users
• Teacher Binder access for the user-- assessment tools
• Writing tools for the user-- Newsela Write and interactive annotation
• PRO Assign instructions on all assignments
• Click-to-chat support for all users at support.newsela.com
