A Fluid Resource of Quality Educational Apps and Sites That Can Be Used In The Classroom to Complement Traditional Student Learning
CommonLit is another alternative (also 100% free) to reading comprehension building, similar to ReadWorks. Educators can sign up for a free account and either choose to have students also create accounts or not. There is a huge catalog of reading passages for all different comprehension levels, as well as built-in extension activities for student enrichment. Many of the topics found overlap with our own curriculum throughout both lower school and middle school.
ReadWorks is another option for teachers looking to boost reading comprehension. This is a completely free site and teachers can use the large collection of fiction and nonfiction to curate lessons that accommodate all different reading levels. It has comprehension pieces built right in, as well as vocabulary building tabs. Within the same passage, teachers can also toggle between two different choices that adjust the reading level, while delivering the same content.
Newsela is a great option if you are looking for student-friendly, up to date news articles. Teachers and/or students can create an account using their school email accounts. The free version has plenty of content that is worthwhile, though if your grade level or department is interested in a premium membership, there are options for managing multiple students at a time.
There are also comprehension check lessons built into each article. Given the importance of teaching students to vet quality news and information, Newsela could be a good place to check out and use as examples from their lessons that are geared towards this very topic. You can adjust reading levels for younger students, and filter by topic, opinion, etc…
Explain Everything is another resource that is both an app and a site. We have a school account so if you are interested in taking advantage of features not offered on the app (available on all library iPads) we can help you to get logged on.
Explain everything has been around for a while and it keeps getting stronger with constant updates and new features. It is similar to other platforms like Educreations where you can create interactive lessons, presentations, or “how-to’s”, but it is even a little more robust than the other options whose advantages are simplicity of use for younger students.
Rewordify is a great option for differentiating reading content so that different students get the same information while being delivered at their level. It is completely free and there are different avenues for use depending on what you are looking for. If you create a free account, you can take advantage of the more advanced features, but even just visiting the site allows you to plug in text and have it convert it to an easier reading level. For this reason, it can be as useful to younger students as it can older students.
DoInk is actually two separate apps. One is for animation and the other is for creating green screen content. They can be used interchangeably though and you can really get creative with app smashing here to create virtually anything you can imagine.
Here are a couple of examples of projects that have used DoInk as a primary tool for their creation:
Book Creator has also added a major update this Fall; the ability to embed content from
other sites and applications!
Padlet is still one of the more dynamic resources you will find today for teachers and students. We have a school subscription to the EDU version so your options for using it are not limited (though the free version is very strong). Padlet basically exists as a digital bulletin board that an entire class can access and collaborate together on at the same time. The most recent updated versions allow you to embed video, documents directly from Google Drive, audio, text, and and more. You can customize backgrounds, sort posts in a variety of ways, and can easily clone existing Padlets so many people can personalize their notes. As a note-taking tool, it is a fantastic option and you can customize fonts and features as you would in any other digital document. Students as young as third grade have had success using it, though obviously the older the grade level, the broader the possibilities. Check out some of our own student and teacher examples below!
CLICK HERE to see how 3rd grade student group used Padlet for taking notes:
CLICK HERE to explore a 4th grade note-taking Padlet
CLICK HERE to explore how 3rd grade teachers have used Padlet to present a lesson:
CLIPS is a relatively new app (also a site) that was released late last year. It is a FANTASTIC alternative to iMovie, especially for our lower school students as it allows for an engaging, visual project but can be condensed into a one-off lesson. It is simple in its layout and can be used in a variety of ways. From narrating and animating a story or poem, to labeling parts of the ecosystem, to breaking down the cause and effect of a moment in history, it is all very easy and engaging for our students. It can also be a powerful tool for our youngest learners because of its ability to show the words you speak in “real time”. The possibilities for students to be able to narrate and illustrate their own books with words that fly out on the screen in any style they choose is really exciting. Clips is available on all school iPads (including the Library if students would like to check one out for a project).
Check out a student-created example below!
For 5th Graders, Google Sites has proven to be a great way to house their final “Passion Projects”, as well as being a helpful way for students to stay organized as they collect resources and check off project rubrics throughout the year. The opportunity to share their final work with extended family and those field experts who helped in their research makes it a great platform. Rising middle schoolers are able to approach the next phase of the school with expertise in using this tool when the time comes to showcase their learning within project-based models.
CHECK OUT LAST YEARS STUDENT PROJECTS HERE!
Here is another example of “sites” in action with a 5th-grade reading group project that incorporated interactive maps using Google Sites.
EDpuzzle is a program that lets you easily create lessons/mini-lessons and quizzes that incorporate video clips that you and/or students can annotate. It is a solid tool for both teacher designed and student created lessons.
Google Tour Builder continues to become more powerful in its ability to create interactive maps and presentations, blending a multimedia map-making platform within Google Earth. Virtual reality is at the forefront of some of the biggest additions to the latest version. NOTE: The Tour Builder platform will be discontinued and merged into Google Arts and Culture in June 2021
can create a 3-D world embedding any content they wish. One particularly powerful possibility is having students create a virtual museum, either collectively or individually. 
Book Creator has also added a major update this Fall; the ability to embed content from
other sites and applications!
Integration Resources 
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