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 SIGN UP.
3. Choose I AM A PARENT/GUARDIAN.
   • Are you a full-time homeschool educator? Sign up as a Homeschool Educator.
4. Choose the role Parent/Guardian from the dropdown and click NEXT.
5. Enter your first and last name, email, and a unique password. Click NEXT.
   
   • Strong passwords are at least 10 characters, do not contain common phrases, and are used on no other sites. Longer passwords are more secure.
   • You can use any email that our system recognizes as a valid email. We will send you a confirmation email when you finish signing up, and your account will not be created until you confirm your account, so please be sure to use an accurate, active email.
   • Note: Parent accounts do not have access to assessments or answer keys.
6. Choose the level of technology your children 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. Check your spam and junk folders if you do not see our email.
8. Once you confirm your account, you will be able to log in.

Step 2: Create a Class and Add Your Children

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. You can create additional classes; we recommend one class for each child, though children of the same grade level can share a class.
5. Click ADD STUDENTS for a class.
6. Instruct your children to go to www.commonlit.org/en/enroll and enter your class code.
   • Note: If your children have an existing CommonLit account, they should log in and go to their My Account & Classes page. From there, they should select "add another class code" and enter your class code. 
7. If you want to control your child's username and password, you can create their accounts for them (one at a time if you have multiple children) by logging out of your teacher account and following step 5 yourself.

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

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 on the text preview page.
2. Select which class(es) you want to assign the text to.
   • You can also create an individual or small group assignment
3. Customize the annotation task to focus your child's note-taking and highlighting.
4. Decide whether to enable Guided Reading Mode, a set of basic comprehension questions that chunk the text for students as they read. These are the only questions available to digitally assign to students.
   • Note: Parents cannot assign the final assessment questions that you may preview as a site visitor. These questions are only for teachers.
5. Select a start date and due date.
   • Note: students will not see or be able to access an assignment until the start date arrives.
6. Click ASSIGN.
7. Instruct your children to log in to their accounts and go to MY ASSIGNMENTS and click an assignment to begin it.
8. Monitor your assignment from your assignments page, where you can track which children have submitted, what grading needs to be done, view an assignment report for each assignment, and release scores when you're ready for your children to see their results!

Related Articles: Quick Start Guide For Students