Smithsonian TTribune for differentiating and engaging reading (& global conversation!)

Looking for high quality news for all of your readers?

The Smithsonian’s TTribune now offers K-12 teachers and librarians a carefully selected array of news content to meet the needs of all readers, including those who speak (or are learning) Spanish.

The free content, includes text, images, audio and video–all available on any of these rich reading platforms:

• Teen Tribune for grades 9-12,
• Tween Tribune for grades 5 – 8
• TTJunior: for grades K-4
• TTEspañol
• TechTribune

Each weekday, TTribune culls the web for engaging, grade-appropriate content from such sources as the Associated Press, and local newspapers and television stations.  Editors tailor the stories for reading level audiences and translate them for Spanish speaking readers in any grade.

The site includes instruction, assessment tools, and opportunities for registered users to interact around the content.

There’s a Photo of the Day, a Daily Quiz, Quiz Archives, a Fox & Possum Top 1,000 scoreboard,  customizable certificates for achievement, and a weekend newsletter to facilitate planning.

• Animals
• Art
• Ask Smithsonian
• Book reviews
• Education
• Entertainment
• Fashion
• Food & Health
• Inspiration
• National news
• Odd news
• Opinion
• Science
•  Sports
• Technology
•  World news

Lexile levels

• 500L-590L
• 600L-690L
• 700L-790L
• 800L-890L
• 900L-990L
• 1000L-1090L
• 1100L-1190L
• 1200L-1290L
• 1300L-1600L

The Manage classrooms & students feature allows teachers to add and delete students, rename classrooms, and retrieve students’ usernames and passwords.  After registering the students, a print button allows teachers to print  and distribute students’ usernames and passwords on convenient strips.  Students may then read and comment on articles.  Teachers see a Comments awaiting approval link and must approve comments before they are published.

TTribune clearly explains its Privacy Statement.  All teachers and student users are subject to the TTribune Conduct Rules, the TTribune Terms of Use.

Here’s my favorite part.  Teachers can opt to make their classrooms public.  That means, after they are teacher-approved, student comments can be distributed to other TTribune classes all over the world  The conversation around reading can go global.  The site explains, “When you go public, you allow your students to connect with other students around the world, while teachers remain in complete control.

TTribune joins my other favorite sources of free authentic news reading activities for kids:

Newsela

Learning Network (New York Times)

Filed under: news, reading, Smithsonian