CommonLit: enriching clasroom discussions

I recently read about a new website that has a lot of great potential for enriching classroom discussions. CommonLit is a site that creates thematic discussion questions to use with upper elementary and secondary students. These questions are paired with interesting texts that are free to download.

Here's a basic rundown of how it works. As a teacher you select a discussion theme such as America, friendship, or growing up.

You then select one of several suggested discussion questions. For example, I chose the theme Growing Up, which offered two questions: Should we value our youth? and What does it mean to be grown up?

This brings up a list of grade levels that are stocked with various authentic passages. These passages are presented as downloadable PDFs that can be shared with students electronically or paper. Passages come from various authentic sources, such as excerpts from books, speeches, and video transcripts. More text-based and discussion questions are included at the end of the PDF.

The website is relatively new and has only a limited number of themes, questions, and texts. However, new ones are being added all the time. This is a great resource to help start classroom discussions based on specific texts. Check it out and let me know what you think in the comments!