Remote Teaching Toolkit

Staying Connected Beyond COVID-19

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Teaching remotely? We can help.

Our connections to our class, context, and community are what make us impactful as educators. James Comer (1995) puts it well: "No significant learning occurs without a significant relationship." As former teachers, we know that keeping those relationships and connections through distance learning and new challenges can be difficult.

This toolkit is designed to help you connect to student choice, your curriculum and content, and your communities in this uncertain time. Newsela is built to help educators connect students to the world around them and we feel now more than ever our charge to Unlock the Written Word for Everyone means helping to connect.

Making Connections

Never taught remotely before? Don’t worry, we have your back! If you’re looking to get started with Newsela, or get started teaching remotely with Newsela, here are some good places to start:

Little Lessons

Do your students need some help getting around Newsela? We've created a series of student facing videos designed to speak directly to them. Try sharing any of the following with them to learn how to navigate the site:


A S K A T E A C H E R

Newsela’s Professional Learning team is here to help, we had office hours to share ways to teach remotely, all staffed by one of our former teachers!

On Demand Office Hours :
Google Classroom
Special Education
Remote Learning
English Language Learners


Read our strategies for connecting

Connect to Right Now

A current event text set that provides context on the fires happening in Australia as well as the climate events surrounding them.

A Pro / Con text set that provides sides to the argument, great for laying out argumentative writing.

Text set companion to the book to spark ideas around social justice, race, class, and equity.

A text set examining careers in STEM and the women who are doing them!

A text set that explores what college immediately after school can look like.

How has the role of women in society changed over time?



Looking for a full unit plan for the next two weeks? Check out this passion project idea come to life -- complete with the handouts and resources you will need to bring this to your students. Make this an opportunity for them to delve into topics they already love as guided by Newsela.