51: CommonLit's Online Library of Free Texts
The Cult of Pedagogy Podcast
Jennifer Gonzalez
4.8 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 18 September 2016
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
If you're always looking for short, high-quality informational and literary texts to use in your classroom, you are going to love the free online library at CommonLit. In this episode, I interview CommonLit founder Michelle Brown to talk about why she started the platform and walk through all of the wonderful features that help teachers get the most out of this growing library of texts.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is Jennifer Gonzalez welcoming you to Episode 51 of the Cult of Pedagogy Podcast. |
| 0:05.3 | In this episode I'm going to talk with Michelle Brown, the CEO and founder of Common Lit, |
| 0:10.8 | a wonderful online library of free texts that's perfect for teachers in grades 5 through 12. |
| 0:16.6 | As we work to improve our students' reading skills, one thing teachers can't ever seem to get |
| 0:34.0 | enough of our high quality texts. We need them for English language arts classes naturally, |
| 0:39.6 | but as more emphasis is placed on reading across the curriculum, teachers of social studies, |
| 0:46.0 | science and other subjects are also looking for good texts to give students practice in |
| 0:52.6 | reading challenging material, developing a point of view or thesis about that text, |
| 0:57.8 | and supporting their thesis with evidence from the text. So when I heard about Common Lit, |
| 1:03.0 | an online library of free high quality texts hand-picked for students in grades 5 through 12, |
| 1:09.1 | I knew right away it was something I wanted to share with you. In this episode I'm going to talk |
| 1:14.3 | to the person who built Common Lit from the ground up. She tells me what prompted her to get it |
| 1:19.2 | started, then walks me through the platform to show me all the great features it offers. |
| 1:24.8 | I'll give you a quick preview. These are leveled texts that come from authentic sources and have |
| 1:31.2 | text-based questions to accompany each one. You can search for the text by grade level or theme, |
| 1:37.1 | and Common Lit is adding new titles every single day. Before I play the interview, a quick thank you |
| 1:43.3 | to everyone who was left to review for this podcast on iTunes. Every review brings more listeners |
| 1:49.1 | to the show, and I read and love every single one. So if you've been enjoying this podcast and you |
| 1:55.3 | haven't left a review yet, take a few minutes, go over to iTunes and tell me what you think. |
| 2:02.0 | I'd also like to thank the sponsor of this episode, My Simple Show. My Simple Show is a great online |
| 2:09.8 | tool that allows you to create your own animated videos for free. It's so easy and fast. You just |
| 2:17.1 | write your script, let my Simple Show find images to match it, then fine tune it until it's done. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jennifer Gonzalez, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Jennifer Gonzalez and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.