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In her recent blog post All Improvement Is Not Equal!, Read Naturally founder Candyce Ihnot explores the relationship between the number of Read Naturally Live stories her students had read between Fall and Winter and their fluency improvement during that time period. Candyce discovered that the students who had read the most stories had made the greatest gains. Dr. Danielle Dupuis of the University of Minnesota's Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement made the same discovery in her recent analysis of extant data from Read Naturally Live students. Read more

It was the first day of the semester, and my Creative Writing professor asked us to introduce ourselves to the class. As part of the introduction, we were to name the book we were currently reading. I froze. I wasn’t reading a book at the time. It had been a busy month, and I hadn’t taken the time to read anything beyond a few news articles and the back of the cereal box. As my turn approached, I weighed my choices. I could either lie and name a book I had read in the past, or I could tell the truth and risk making a bad first impression. I’m a terrible liar, so I chose the latter. “I’m not actually reading a book at the moment,” I said, nervously. Read more

​Imagine you purchase a new workout machine for your home. It’s a top-of-the-line machine, with all the bells and whistles, and it works like a dream. You’re so enamored with the machine that you’re actually motivated to work out! At first. A few weeks or months later, the machine loses its luster and working out doesn’t feel quite as exciting anymore. Does this sound familiar? I hate to tell you this, but it’s not the machine’s fault! Read more

It was the first week of February, and I was just completing the winter benchmark assessment of my Read Live students. I celebrated the student’s fluency gains, and I reminded them that their improvement was due to their own efforts. But, even while celebrating, I noticed something alarming that my students couldn’t. The amount of improvement among my students was far from equal. Read more

Our February Read Naturally Star of the Month is Jorge E. from Derwood, MD. Jorge is a sixth-grade ESOL student at Redland Middle School. His teacher, Deborah Romano, nominated him for his newfound self confidence and improved reading skills. Read more

About 5 million public school students in the United States today are English Language Learners (ELLs). National Public Radio (NPR) recently conducted a robust research project entitled 5 Million Voices, which set out to discover who these students are and how our public schools are serving them. Read more

To align to the requirements for Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015), educators must select interventions that are evidenced-based. Read Naturally has done the groundwork for you and provides easy access to the studies that prove that Read Naturally is evidence-based and effective in increasing student achievement. The Read Naturally Strategy is well established as research-based, thanks to the high-quality research that informs the development of our programs and inspires our decisions as an educational publisher. The Read Naturally Strategy also clearly meets the criteria for evidence-based according to ESSA. Read more

Today, we’re thrilled to offer a new training option: The Read Naturally Live Online Course. This course provides interactive training for teachers, helping them gain new skills and understanding independently, at their own pace. And, it’s completely free! Read more

Last week, my second-grade son’s teacher wrote the following in her weekly email to parents: “February is the time of year that we all get a little ‘too comfortable’ with our friends and the routines.” She encouraged us to remind our children to listen to directions and to make kind, respectful choices. It is wonderful that the students are feeling comfortable at school—but when “too comfortable” leads to loss of focus and waning respect for the rules, teachers and parents need to help the students find their way back. Read more

The first Read Naturally 2017 Star of the Month winner is Brayden C. from Redding, CA. Brayden attends Stellar Charter School as a 2nd grade student. Brayden was nominated for the fantastic improvement he has made with reading so far this school year. Brayden's teacher, Ms. Brady, plans to use Brayden's success as an example to other parents with kids using Read Naturally Live at the school. Ms. Brady shared the following with us about Braydon's success. Read more