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February is Black History Month, a celebration of the achievements of Black Americans. It began as Negro History Week in 1926, when Carter G. Woodson, a Black historian, was instrumental in founding an organization that promoted the achievements of Black Americans. A week of celebrations, performances, and lectures grew into a monthlong opportunity to honor famous Black Americans and their contributions to American society.   Read more

Many elementary classrooms incorporate fluency work into their ELA block—and those that don’t probably should. With few exceptions, all students learning to read will benefit from fluency instruction, and fluency directly correlates with comprehension. The research on this is clear. When it comes to older students who are reading below grade level or struggling with comprehension, educators have less guidance. Is it still valuable to work on fluency with these students, when their peers have moved on? Read more

When it comes to teaching children to read, the importance of a quality phonics program cannot be overstated. With so many options available, it can be challenging to determine which program will best suit the needs of your students. Read more

Millions of K-12 students across the United States are English Learners (ELs). The majority of these students identify Spanish as their home language. Year after year, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Average Scores for Reading and Mathematics are significantly lower for students who are identified as ELs, in comparison to their peers who are not. It makes sense that limited English proficiency would have an impact on academic achievement where the language of instruction is English. So, what can we do to best support EL students? Read more

In recognition of Dyslexia Awareness Month, Read Naturally begins a series of articles designed to build knowledge around the learning disorder of dyslexia. This first article summarizes the remarkable discovery of the language disorder over 140 years ago. Read more

Dyslexia exists in all cultures and all languages. However, it does not impact learners in every culture in equal measure; the severity of dyslexia’s impact partially depends on the language a person is learning to read. Read more

Dyslexia is one of the main challenges we address here at Read Naturally. For dyslexia awareness month, we want to point you toward the myriad ways in which a Read Naturally intervention can help students with this learning difference. Read more

One consequence of the pandemic is a measurable decline in reading proficiency across the nation, and many educators are opting to use their ESSER funds to correct this. Remaining ESSER funds, intended to mitigate learning loss due to the pandemic, must be allocated by September 30, 2024. Read Naturally programs are an ideal way to spend this use-it-or-lose-it funding to improve reading outcomes and overall academic success.   Read more

It's now well past February, but the remnants of Valentine's Day still linger in my couch cushions. The handmade cards are always my favorite ones to find… especially the ones wishing a "Happy Valantine's Day." I asked my first grader if he knew what makes the word Valentine so hard to spell. He guessed, "Because it's a long word," which is half right. Long words are usually multisyllabic, and multisyllabic words usually have a schwa. The schwa sound—such as the one on the first "e" in Valentine—is notorious for making words difficult to read and spell. Read more

I recently worked with a second grader who showed me a paragraph he wrote about helping the “oshin.” His thoughtful ideas were right on the mark. His spelling, however, was not. When this boy reads books about the ocean, complete with pictures and context clues, he can read the word without hesitation. But when I later showed him the word “ocean” on its own, he had no idea what it said. What’s going on here? Read more