The Integration is Here: Newsela Content, Meet Formative Activities

Starting today, teachers can enhance authentic, engaging Newsela texts with customizable activities through Formative, learn how.

Formative
Editorial Team
October 24, 2023
Product Update

This past June, Formative was acquired by Newsela, a leading edtech company. Well, we’re excited to announce that we’re delivering on our promise to integrate our products, bringing together the best in content and the best in assessment. 

Why are we doing this? We hear from school leaders all the time that teachers are burdened with too many different instructional tools that rarely work together. 

We wanted to make things easier. So, with a click of a button, teachers can now enhance any Newsela text with customizable activities through Formative.

""

What does this mean for you?

  1. With great content comes great assessment. Formative’s customizable activities, real-time student insights, and collaboration tools allow teachers to quickly build and edit engaging activities that are responsive to the Newsela content they already know and love.
  2. Teachers can read the room and meet students where they are. Formative’s range of question types for daily activities like bell ringers, exit tickets, and more provide real-time insights to show teachers what concepts students understood and where they might need more support.
  3. Students receive rich, targeted feedback to feel engaged and supported. With the ability to view all student responses in one page, teachers can grade assignments in batches and provide direct audio, video, or written feedback to any student directly.

Solutions for every subject

Teachers know and love Newsela content whether they’re teaching ELA, social studies, or science. Formative works with all subject content and can enhance everything from mapping countries to matching vocab words, and more.

In an ELA Classroom, you can:

  • Create customizable activities with texts you’re already using in class so students can practice reading, writing, and vocabulary skills.
  • Use one or paired texts for students to demonstrate more complex reasoning.
  • Help students practice the grammar and mechanical skills they need to be better writers!
""

In a social studies classroom, you can:

  • Assess understanding of a unit or chapter to know if students are ready to move onto the next topic.
  • Develop the Tier 3 vocabulary students need to comprehend social studies texts and concepts.
  • Run document-based questions (DBQs) and source analysis from start to finish to mirror what students might see on high-stakes exams.
""

In a science classroom, you can:  

  • Use question types like show your work, short and free response, drag and drop, and more, to assess understanding and readiness for what’s next.
  • Easily upload images and add hotspots so students can practice labeling diagrams they’ll see on high-stakes tests.
  • Help students practice identifying, categorizing, or sequencing components of scientific concepts, structures, or processes.
""

You can do all this and more when you use Newsela’s products with Formative. Join our integration launch event to learn more!