Many students need extra phonics support to build a solid foundation for reading success. Developing solid phonics skills can be a long journey, with students in the same groups or classes each requiring focus on different elements and needing varying levels of support. Teachers face the challenge of addressing each student’s unique needs within the same classroom, often with limited time built into their schedule to do so.
Read more Claire Ihnot Hayes is an Educational Consultant for Read Naturally who meets with educators nationwide to train them in Read Naturally programs. One of the most frequent questions Claire receives from educators is, “How can I adapt Read Naturally programs to meet the various needs of my students?” Older students, younger students, and ELL students have different needs and thus require different adjustments. We recently sat down with Claire to document her favorite tips for adapting Read Naturally Live to optimize success for a diverse body of students. These tips work for Encore students as well.
Read more One Minute Reader Live is an independent reading program included with all Read Live licenses. This program is designed to motivate students while helping them develop fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension skills. It’s an ideal way for students to master essential reading skills while working on their own.
Read more Literacy researcher Dr. Jan Hasbrouck developed Quick Phonics Screener (QPS) because she needed a systematic and efficient way diagnose students’ strengths and instructional needs in phonics. QPS measures a student’s ability to recognize, decode, and pronounce all phonics elements from letter names through four-syllable words.
Read more Every year around this time, we like to remind teachers of the importance of checking their students’ initial Read Naturally placement. After the student completes three to six stories, you have more specific data about how they are performing in both fluency and comprehension. This is the point at which you should check initial placement to see whether adjustments to the initial level and goal are needed.
Read more Most parents of toddlers don’t understand how their children learn to read; when I sat and read to my children, I took for granted that they would someday magically be able to read on their own. It wasn’t until I began teaching struggling readers that I appreciated how complex and challenging learning to read is for many students. Many of my students got stuck reading individual words, and they became frustrated with reading. These students—and many students in our schools today—benefit from direct, explicit instruction in pairing letters and letter combinations with sounds, also known as phonics. Becoming automatic in reading individual words frees up the mental energy necessary for readers to make sense of texts. And, since 87% of English words are either completely decodable or have just one exception, teaching beginning readers to decode automatically gives them a large bank of known words.
Read more Read Live is highly customizable to meet each student’s individual needs. Our phonics offerings within this program are no exception. Read Live makes it easy for students who need phonics support to either progress sequentially through systematic phonics instruction, or to focus specifically on the phonics pattern(s) they need to master.
Read more Esser funding must be allocated by September 30, 2024--just one week from today! 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 Last year, we rolled out one of our most exciting Read Live innovations to date: Independent Placement! This feature allows newly enrolled Read Live students to complete the placement process independently--saving teachers valuable time! Independent Placement uses speech recognition technology to analyze students' fluency as they read placement stories. Based on this data, the program assigns students an appropriate level and goal so they can begin working in Read Live as efficiently as possible. If you intend to take advantage of this amazing new feature, here are some tips:
Read more To decide Read Live program(s) to assign, you need to determine the student's instructional needs via placement and assessment.
Read more 
Share your student’s success story—nominate him or her for our Star of the Month award. Win a Barnes & Noble gift card for the student and a Read Naturally gift certificate for your class!
