Do you understand everything you read in the media or see on the news? Although it may surprise many, the vast majority will answer no. And besides, that great majority will not dare to say that they do not understand something so as not to appear “uneducated”.
If this situation, which happens among adults, we transfer it to the little ones, the problem is even bigger. And it is that they are no longer just concepts, it is the way of writing headlines or the journalists’ own writing that means that most children do not understand a news item if they read it.
Therefore, and aware of this problem, a group of American journalists has created one (and not so children). Is named Newsela and transforms the main news of the day to five different reader levels.
Newsela: Because we don’t all understand the same language
Age or educational level directly influence reading comprehension, and it is at school where the little ones have to begin to develop this ability. Textbooks are fine, but those are not the books or that information that the little ones will find in their day to day. That’s why, according to its founder, Matt Gross, Newsela is “the one for kids and the Salesforce for teachers.”
The idea of this platform is to provide teachers with extra material and make classes more enjoyable for children. At the same time they develop their comprehension skills and improve their reading skills.
Newsela: filling a need
As we discussed in a previous post, the understanding of young people is in doubt. Although a Stanford University study showed that another “horrible” reality came to light during the US elections: how Americans understand the news.
turns out knowledge about the media was questioned during the last elections, since many did not know how to distinguish between real and false news about the elections themselves, and this is something alarming. Are we really that easy to fool? Does the same thing happen in Spain? Are we so influenced by the media?
This group of journalists wants to solve this problem from the beginning, and for this reason they have oriented Newsela to children. Games on reading comprehension are proposed on the platform with questions such as: “How is this headline justified?” or “What is the source?” or “What tone does this article have?”. The aim is thus to teach, from a young age, to be critical of what they read, to know how to interpret and not believe everything they read.
Newsela’s keys to success
Newsela has two versions. A free one, which offers content for parents, teachers and students; and another paid, which is the one that offers other types of tools such as games, which help reading comprehension.
The platform has agreements with media such as the news agency Associated Press, the Washington Post or Bloombergto use as a source for their “translations.” More than 150 freelance journalists from around the world have written more than 4,000 articles for the platform in several languagesalso in Spanish, and you can find news on all topics.
The company has more than 11 million registered users, among which 10 million are students, one million are teachers and there are about 250,000 parents and administrators. And it continues to grow nonstop.
Can you imagine something similar in Spain? Do you think it would be useful?
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