ELA Tools Aligned to Common Core Standards

Early learners explore fun activities to gain literacy skills and more

Bottom Line: Top-notch phonics program effectively coaches students, but lacks some standard features useful for the classroom.

Blended reading program offers individualized growth

Bottom Line: This is a research-backed blended reading platform that builds literacy skills and helps teachers plan and deliver targeted instruction in the classroom.

Handy app helps structure and track reading conferences

Bottom Line: Once teachers are all set up and organized, this can be a useful tool for conferencing and tracking student progress.

Free hub for literacy lessons aims to deepen learning, engagement

Bottom Line: This is a trustworthy site that teachers of all grades/subjects could find a way to use weekly for lessons or professional development.

K–2 literacy program offers comprehensive, adaptive activities

Bottom Line: An easy-to-recommend tool thanks to its broad coverage of key skills and nice balance of student-driven and teacher-differentiated learning.

Simple and useful reading fluency assessment tool frees up teacher time

Bottom Line: Some districts may find this to be a cost-effective, time-saving option for reading records.

Delightful hip-hop-based site connects literacy to every content area

Bottom Line: This site's content is savvy enough to keep students focused, and teachers will love the flexible options for deepening learning.

Standards-aligned, adaptive, core subject materials with lots of support

Bottom Line: It's rich with content-aligned assessments, worksheets, and progress analytics, so mindful teachers will find it a valuable resource to promote skills mastery through practice.

Useful if not exciting adaptive tool for assessing reading ability

Bottom Line: It's very utilitarian, but what it does it does well: getting students test-ready by effectively assessing and tracking reading ability.

Differentiate reading instruction with high-quality texts and lessons

Bottom Line: The quality and scope of texts, lesson plans, assessments, and supports on this platform can help facilitate online or offline targeted reading instruction in nearly any home or classroom.

Popular after-school program shares its resources to inspire writing

Bottom Line: This is a worth-bookmarking resource thanks to relatable writing lessons and motivating examples of actual student writing.

Powerful, flexible reading tool measures meaningful literacy gains

Bottom Line: A powerful literacy platform for developing and empowering readers, with useful customization features for both teachers and students.

Let students do the writing to make grammar lessons more meaningful

Bottom Line: This tool offers excellent opportunities for grammar and writing practice, well-tailored to students' abilities and needs.

Daily news stories and supplements keep elementary schoolers current

Bottom Line: This highly useful current events platform can be a daily fixture of elementary school classrooms.

Comprehensive site collects resources on authors and books in one place

Bottom Line: This rich database of literary resources is a must-bookmark for teachers looking to extend learning experiences with books and their authors.

Site for reviewing and sharing books makes reading a social adventure

Bottom Line: This safe, simple social network lets kids share their reading success with friends, creating healthy competition and confidence.

Catchy parts-of-speech instruction, from hook to assessment

Bottom Line: The fun songs will stick, and so will kids' knowledge about the parts of speech.

Great stories, just-right leveled reading; now mostly by subscription

Bottom Line: While pricey, Newsela has ascended into an all-in-one destination for leveled, non-fiction reading.

Feature-rich literacy resource offers superb support for readers

Bottom Line: Access a hefty collection of reliable, ready-to-print, leveled passages that allow you to tailor lessons, assign online reading, and track progress.

Structured literacy program inspires deep analysis, thoughtful writing

Bottom Line: This is an expertly scaffolded and pedagogically sound resource for developing critical reading and writing skills.

Stellar program scaffolds the writing process with peer review and feedback

Bottom Line: This is an intelligently structured tool for teaching writing and review that focuses on process as much as product.

Science and reading come together in aging but effective platform

Bottom Line: There's not much out there that focuses specifically on reading science texts, so if your students can get past the dated design, this could be a handy tool to turn to.

Empowering reader invites students to read with purpose

Bottom Line: Far beyond the average e-reader, this tool helps students connect with texts and each other while giving teachers useful insight into student thinking.

Quality lessons, challenging quizzes help kids learn core concepts

Bottom Line: This solid companion to the ELA classroom offers brief lessons and quizzes to reinforce key concepts and skills.

Slick ethics game teaches students to make tough decisions

Bottom Line: This versatile game that can teach ethics, argumentation, and civics is light on interactivity but will come alive through discussion.

Supplemental reading program puts sci-fi twist on core ELA concepts

Bottom Line: This is a creative, thoughtfully built program that, while a bit contrived, could slot well into many classrooms with some scaffolding.

Bring real-world stories from public radio into the classroom

Bottom Line: A fantastic resource that brings both historical and current event public radio stories into the classroom.

Superb ELA resource features engaging activities, stellar support

Bottom Line: An exceptional, ever-growing resource for helping your students become close readers, careful writers, and critical thinkers.

Amazing interactive visual dictionary makes exploring words exciting

Bottom Line: Dynamic, highly visual presentation makes learning new words exciting.

High-powered news site offers daily resource to process current events

Bottom Line: Backed by a world-class news team, this stunning free resource can fuel daily topical discussions.

Aging online community hosts authentic student writing

Bottom Line: With some patience and understanding, this could be a good space for supporting healthy student expression.

Multimedia shines in this elegant remix of an old classic

Bottom Line: Engaging and supporting kids throughout, it breaks down Shakespearean language and brings the play to life.