FREE Literacy Tools - Online Annotated Texts

I love finding online quality programs that can make things better for my students and myself. Below are two free tools I use for teaching students how to annotate texts effectively and get the deep meaning out of texts.

FREE Online Annotated Text Sites

owleyes.org

 According to their website, " Owl Eyes is an improved reading and annotating experience for classrooms, book clubs, and literature lovers.  Find full texts with expert analysis in our extensive library."

Grade Levels:  

Middle School and up

Type of Texts: 

 Mostly literary classical texts in the following categories:  fiction, nonfiction, drama, poetry, Shakespeare, Short Fiction, Young Adult

Annotation Features: 

Already included annotations on many texts as well as add your own annotations.  Highlights, Notes, Questions (only multiple choice).

Differentiation: 

Students can adjust settings for font style, font size, background/text color, and spacing of lines and columns to their comfort levels.  By creating different classes, you could assign different questions/annotations for different groups of students. Speak It Chrome extension will read difficult words or entire passages aloud for students.

Teacher Use:  

You can add classes and assign texts, but it doesn't appear there is a grading or data feature.  OwlEyes does have some good training documents via some pre-made texts you can read and the FAQ section of their website.  I find this site good for teaching students how to annotate effectively.

Image of text with highlights where annotations have been added.

Image of text with highlight (green) clicked on to show annotation

activelylearn.com

Actively Learn is my favorite online annotated text platform! The front page of their website says, "The human brain is wired to avoid thinking deeply. Our online literacy platform helps teachers activate, support, and reveal thinking for every student."  One of the things I love most about Actively Learn is that students can not continue on in a text until they respond to questions that are embedded along the way.  They can even see other student responses and have a chance to change their thinking if you code an annotation that way.  It is truly a collaborative thinking platform.

Grade Levels:

Upper Elementary through adult - even some professional development

Type of Texts:

ELA/Humanities (novels, short stories, drama, poetry, nonfiction) Current Events, Social Studies, Science, Knowledge Sets (sets of related texts).  The majority of texts are free to use, some can be rented ($.50-1.99 per student for 3-month time frame).  Teachers can also import texts not already in Actively Learn (3 per month limit with free version) 

Annotation Features:

Use already made annotations, or create your own and have students create their own.  Insert questions (multiple choice, poll, short answer), notes, links, and white out text portions.

Differentiation:

Teachers can add students to different classes to give differentiated text assignments.  There is a differentiation embedded feature on premium team and school plans. Speak It Chrome extension will read difficult words or entire passages aloud for students. Students can highlight difficult words and get definitions for them. Font type, size, line spacing, background color, can all be selected by the student.  There is also an option to turn on paragraph numbering as well as a dyslexic setting (proven font that is easier for individuals with dyslexia to read).

Teacher Use:

Teachers can add questions and annotations of their choice, or use pre-inserted questions if they choose. With the free version, teachers can see all student work and scores (must score short answer on own), but the data you have access to with a paid subscription is obviously more in depth.  Another tool that is helpful from Actively Learn is that teachers can toggle between teacher and student view so they know exactly how their students are viewing assignments.  There are some wonderful training resources for Actively Learn that walk you through how to create annotations and allow you to experience Actively Learn as a student. The trainings help improve a teacher's ability to ask quality questions, insert the right type of annotations, and understand the importance of content knowledge. Integrated with Google Classroom for ease of uploading rosters and assigning lessons.

I have been using the free version for about a year, and I find it to be adequate for one classroom.  If you teach several sections, it would be worth investigating the personal subscription ($18 per month). 

This is teacher view so we can see text below the question. In student view, the text below the question would not appear until after the question is answered.

Image shows expanded view to see the entire annotation when clicked on.

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