Move over, Newsela. Move over, Commonlit.org… There is a new website in town, and it is devouring the competition. Shout out to Katti Wachs at the LaGuardia Community College Adult Learning Center for calling my attention to Actively Learn.

Actively Learn has it all! There are close to 400 readings in ELA, Science, and Social Studies that take on both today’s news topics and the fundamental content students need for the HSE exam. Readings are searchable by topic, genre, grade and Lexile level, and each text includes an “Essential Question” to guide student reading as well as two additional questions and a feature called “Explore More,” which leads students to another website or video that will reinforce the content.

The ELA section includes articles, poetry, short stories, and yes….whole books! Unfortunately, you must purchase a rental to make the books available online. However, there are also curriculum units available for many of the novels.

Do your students need to build social studies content knowledge for HSE tests? Search articles by categories such as Ancient World and Early Empires, Modern World History, and U.S. History. These texts also include a helpful sidebar for teachers with suggestions on “How to Teach This text.”

When it comes to science, the menu is just as abundant, with articles on most of the important Life Science topics, although (caveat), I sometimes find these a little technical for what students must actually know. Like the social studies offerings, science also has curriculum units.

So what are you waiting for? Go learn with your students… actively, of course!