We're excited to welcome you to the CommonLit family. Follow the instructions below to get started with our free online reading program:

Step 1: Register for CommonLit

When you register for a free CommonLit account, you can access reading passages, create classes and digital assignments, and monitor all of your students' progress over time -- all for free, forever!

1. Go to www.commonlit.org.
2. Click CREATE ACCOUNT.
3. Choose I AM AN EDUCATOR.
4. Select the type of school you work in.
   • If you select public or private, please enter your zip code and select your school. If you don't see your school right away, check to see if it's listed under nearby zip codes.
   • If you work in multiple schools, choose one of them to start. You can add a second from your My Account page later.
   • If you don't see your school, select "Other" and type in your exact school name.
   • If you work in another country, select Any Other Country and pick your country.
   • Click NEXT.
5. Enter your first and last name, valid school email, and password. Click NEXT.
   If your school-issued email is not accepted as a valid school email, please email us at help@commonlit.org so we can add your email domain to our approved email list.
   • Strong passwords are at least 10 characters, do not contain common phrases, and are used on no other sites. Longer passwords are more secure.
6. Choose your role and the level of technology your students have. Choose to sign up for our English newsletter and/or Spanish content boletín. Agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and click CREATE ACCOUNT.
7. Go to your email and open our confirmation email to confirm your account. If your school server blocks our email, email us at help@commonlit.org so we can get you confirmed!

Step 2: Create a Class and Add Students

You must be associated with at least 1 specific school in order to create classes. If you selected "District/Multiple Schools" as your school type during sign-up, go to MY ACCOUNT and add your school(s) to your profile.

There are 3 ways to create classes:

Manually Create Classes and Add Students

1. Go to MANAGE CLASSES from MY CLASSES.
2. Click CREATE A NEW CLASS
3. Choose CREATE A NEW CLASS MANUALLY. Name your class and select its grade(s) and subject area(s). NOTE: If you are in multiple schools, ensure your class is in the correct school. Click CREATE CLASS.
4. Now you will see your class listed under your school on your Manage Classes Page. Click ADD STUDENTS.
5. Instruct your students to go to www.commonlit.org/en/enroll and enter your class code. Note: If students have an existing CommonLit account, they should log in and go to their My Account & Classes. From there, they should select "add another class code" and enter your class code. 
6. If you want to control your students' usernames and passwords, you can create their accounts for them one at a time by logging out of your teacher account and following step 5.

Feel free to share our Quick Start Guide For Students with your students along with your class code!

Import Classes and Students with Google Classroom

1. Go to Manage Classes from MY CLASSES.
2. Click CREATE A NEW CLASS.
3. Click IMPORT CLASS(ES) FROM GOOGLE CLASSROOM.
4. Select the Google account associated with your Google Classroom classes.
5. Select the class(es) you would like to import. 
6. Select the grade(s) and subject area(s) for each class. When you've done this for each of your classes, click IMPORT.
7. We've now imported your classes and students. Please wait 1 minute for your students' accounts to import. After 1 minute, refresh the page to see your students. 
8. Instruct your students to log in by clicking "Login with Google."
9. NOTE: Did a new student join your Google Classroom roster after your first import? Click the green sync button to sync your Google and CommonLit rosters and add this new student to your class.

Import Classes and Students with Clever

1. If your school has elected to share its data with CommonLit via Clever, you can log into CommonLit through Clever, link your Clever account to your CommonLit account, and import your Clever sections as classes. 
2. If you do not see CommonLit in your Clever dashboard, instruct your appropriate admin to reach out to partnerships@commonlit.org to integrate with Clever.

Step 3: Create an Assignment

Find the perfect story, article, poem, or other reading passage to assign students.

You can search and filter through our library to find the perfect passage. The content types of theme, text set, book pairing, and unit can help you find relevant collections of texts to fit your needs. At the moment, you can only digitally assign one text at a time.

1. Once you find a text you love, click on ASSIGN TEXT on the text preview page.
2. Select which class(es) you want to assign the text to.
   • You can create an individual or small group assignment OR you can assign a text to an entire class and exempt the students who you don't want to assign to it. The latter option is excellent for differentiating within multiple classes.
3. Decide whether to customize the Annotation Task to focus students' reading.
   • Note: You can edit this option after creating the assignment.
4. Decide whether to enable Guided Reading Mode, a set of basic comprehension questions that chunk the text for students as they read.
   • Note: You can edit this option after creating the assignment.
5. Decide whether to edit the Assessment Options: you can assign all assessment question (recommended), only multiple-choice or only short-answer questions, or no assessment questions.
   • Note: You cannot edit this option after creating the assignment.
6. Select a start date and due date.
   • Note: Students will not see or be able to access assignments until the start date arrives.
7. Click ASSIGN.
8. Instruct your students to log in to their accounts and go to MY ASSIGNMENTS and click an assignment to begin it.
9. Monitor your assignment from your assignments page, where you can track which students have submitted, what grading needs to be done, view an assignment report for each assignment, and release scores when you're ready for your students to see their results!

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