This post is inspired by The English Blog’s S2E05 vlog Teaching Writing to ESL Students. In the vlog, PJ mentions graded materials and how to use them. Graded materials are very common in ESL teaching and can be a great addition to your classroom. Graded texts are usually authentic English texts that have been simplified, although some teachers also produce their own graded material.
I’ve compiled a list of my favorite sources for graded materials online. There are also tons of graded readers for current and classic literature, but today’s list is just for online news articles ESL teachers can start using today.
Newsela
Why I Love It:
Newsela offers a wide variety of articles in American English from US news sources at 5 graded levels. Articles are easy to search by theme and every article can be graded to each level. It’s made for US primary and secondary teachers but is perfect for ESL.
Features:
A basic account is absolutely free and new free articles are added every day. With the free account, you can save and print articles, create and share your own text sets, browse other teachers’ sets, and access activities for each article, including comprehension questions and a writing prompt. Articles also come with an audio read-along which highlights each word as it is read.
A Newsela PRO account lets teachers assign articles directly to their students and collect their work all online through the site, which may be worth it if you teach a lot of reading.
Breaking News English
Why I Love It:
Breaking News English was my first foray into the world of graded reading and the 2-page mini lessons will always be my first love. The mini lesson has lots of activities; I like to pick and choose my activities from the mini lessons rather than assign them all. The topics BNE covers are exactly the types of things that appear on proficiency exams, and I use the articles most often in one-on-one exam prep sessions.
Features:
Besides the 2-page mini lesson, BNE offers so many more activities for each article including warm-ups, gap fills, discussion questions, spelling, writing prompts, and more. Every article also comes with audio recordings in two accents and five different speeds, which also makes it very useful for listening exam prep.
VOA English News
Why I Love It:
VOA English News adapts authentic US news articles for English learners at three different levels. Each article also comes with an audio version.
Features:
VOA English News offers beginner, intermediate, and advanced articles, but, unlike Newsela and BNE, you can’t change the level of the article, so certain content is only available at certain levels. VOA also offers video news and a US history section specifically for students preparing for the US citizenship exam.
BBC Learning English
Why I Love It:
BBC News Learning English is specifically designed for English language learners. I like using the audio articles for listening exercises in class and some of my more self-directed students enjoy following the self-study courses and activities at home.
Features:
BBC Learning English is designed for self-study and contains a lot of different material, including grammar videos, quizzes, articles, vocabulary builders, pronunciation practice, and more. As with any material, the teacher need to use an editing eye to mix and match the features and activities.
If you or your students want to learn with authentic texts, check out the BBC Learning English’s Lingohack series.
Honorable Mentions
I haven’t used these personally, but I found them while researching for this article.
News in Easy English
News in Easy English has short articles labeled with their reading level. There are audio recordings at two speeds for each article and a “shadowing” activity where readers can listen and repeat the audio.
News in Levels
This seems very similar to Breaking New English but with shorter articles, fewer activities, video links, and an interactive online community for English language learners.
Please share any graded materials sites you recommend in the comments below!