On newsela.com, you will find many articles that have been curated and leveled for the classroom. This is particularly important for differentiated classrooms with students learning language and students with disabilities.
The site has text appropriate to lower elementary up to high school. Many articles have a Spanish edition. Content providers include Associated Press, NASA, National Geogrpahic Partners, Scientific American, and The Smithsonian Institute along many others.
There are two major sections that are worth exploring for lessons focused on Asia: "World History" under "Library" and "News." For example, in the "Library," under "World History," I see a text called "Ancient Korean and Japanese Relations." This article has 5 lexile levels, 4 comprehension questions at each Lexile level, and a writing prompt.
An example of a "News" article is "Members of BTS, a South Korea boy band with global following to enlist in military." It has 5 Lexile levels, 4 comprehension questions at each level, and a writing prompt. Teachers can facilitate the text-based question activity and writing digitally.
As a special education teacher, I understand the importance of students having the opportunity to read high interest text independently at the instructional level. Many news articles and supplementary matierals about Asia would be difficult to use in my classroom, a special day classroom for 9th-12th grade students who read at a PreK to 11th grade levels. With Newsela, I can include information about Asia at a variety of reading levels.
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