I just found 2 great sites that will help with the common core standards for next year.  The first one, Gooru, allows users to search articles by topic and it suggests collections and articles.  It even has a place where you can look at what others have collected.  I really like that it is a multimedia collection so students can do close reading for a variety of media.  Last year I had my students do an indepth look at the Sandy Hook tragedy and gun control.  I wish I had this resource then,

The second website I found is called Youth Voices.  This is an interesting site where there are articles written for youth and by youth on a wide range of topics.  Take a look at the Mission tab where you will find a link to common core related challenges and tasks.   I also like the guides.  It has frames that will help struggling writers.  

nnAt the ISTE conference I learned about some great adaptive webtools for our struggling readers. One of those tools is http://www.textcompactor.com/

This tool allows students to copy and paste text into a box and then select the level of readability they want to read it in.