Sophia F. from Wilmington, NC is conquering her reading mountain! Sophia is a third-grade student at Murrayville Elementary working with Ms. Hawthorne on her reading and spelling. Sophia was chosen as Star of the Month for her ambitious reading goals and success so far. Mrs. Hawthorne shared the following with us about Sophia's determination and success: 

Sophia has been my student since Kindergarten. She was non-communicative for the first two years of school. It took a lot of effort on her part to learn the letters of the alphabet and their sounds. Blending sounds was also difficult for her. She worked on level K and level 1 core sight words for three years. I started her in Read Naturally Live this school year in the Phonics .08 level. She has been completing at least 2 stories a week. She will soon finish the second set of stories on this level. She is also working in Level 1 of Signs for Sounds. We have a Mountain to climb in our classroom, and she is starting her second climb! She earns a "Reading Update" slip for each story finished, and it is put on the mountain side. It takes 17 to reach the top! She is determined to finish her second climb before Spring Break! She completed her first climb before Winter Break! She is motivated by this program, and she has found her voice! She reads beautifully and is proud of her accomplishments! We are proud of her as well!

The Read Naturally Star Student of the Month program is designed to celebrate students who work hard to improve their reading skills using Read Naturally's intervention programs. Each month, we select one student to feature in our newsletter. The selected student wins a $50 Barnes & Noble gift card, and the school or teacher who nominated the student receives a $200 gift certificate for Read Naturally materials.