At Read Naturally, back-to-school season means lots of conversations and communication with teachers using Read Live—which we love! But in these conversations, we're often reminded that many Read Live users, including some who have used and loved the program for years, don't know about some of its most useful features. 

Options that allow teachers to customize the programs for each student are among these features that can get missed—and that when understood and implemented can really strengthen the programs effectiveness with readers. In fact, the ability to tailor Read Naturally programs to individual students is part of what has made them so powerful over decades. 

In this post, I'm going to point out just a few of the story options that teachers can adjust in Read Naturally Live at the student level. 

Read Naturally Live story option defaults allow students to get started working in the programs without teachers having to make choices about every step for every student right away.  But these defaults are certainly not what's best for every student at every level…or as a student progresses. So as teachers get to know their students, they can and should adjust how the program works for each reader. 

On the story options screen, which teachers can access from the Staff module or from the Teacher menu within the student module, they can adjust which steps each student must complete and often the requirements for those steps. 

For example, teacher modeling is an important strategy for helping students learn to read. Yet different students may need to read along more or less often than their peers or at different rates.   

  • For many students 2–3 read alongs works really well for helping them learn the words and hear the prosody used by the narrator.   
  • English language learners may benefit from more read alongs (e.g., 5) before they are ready to practice. If they are native Spanish speakers, teachers can turn on the Spanish read along, so students can get familiar with the story in Spanish before having to read it in English. It may also help to set the read alongs at a slower rate. 
  • And as students become better readers, going down to 1 read along at the expressive rate…or even 0 required read alongs might be appropriate.  

Likewise, different students may need to practice more than others.   

  • You might want to set the practice requirement to 1 so a student can move on from the practice step as soon as they have reached their goal.   
  • You may want other students to always practice at least a certain number of times. 
  • As students progress, some may be ready to have 2-minute practice timings or whole story timings. Having longer practices builds stamina and helps with comprehension. 

Often early readers are not ready to type predictions and retells. For these students, it's often best to turn these steps off at first. Teachers can still build these skills by asking students to make oral predictions during the Cold Timing activity and give oral retells during the Pass activity. They can start with one detail and gradually ask for more. When students are ready, teachers can turn the steps back on and help them type their responses. Over time, students can work more independently, and teachers can raise expectations and adjust the time allowed for each step as appropriate. 

Setting the Read Naturally Live story options to fit each student and modifying them as the student progresses can play a significant role in ensuring students get maximum benefit from their time working in the program. 

It’s often helpful to discuss potential changes to levels, goals, or story options with students. Involving them in these choices gives them ownership and motivation. Such conversations can work well when teachers are already with a student and reviewing work during a pass step. 

If you have any questions about the many aspects of Read Live, consider…