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Students taking high-stakes tests must have the capacity to read for extended periods of time. Whether they’re reading a series of questions, or reading to comprehend a lengthy passage, endurance is crucial to their success. How can we help build reading stamina? Read more

We love providing educators with free resources. Not only do these materials help struggling students, but they tend to make teachers’ lives easier. In recent weeks, we’ve shared free resources to help students correct common spelling errors as well as free resources to help students master visually confusing letters. This week, we’re sharing three free supplemental resources for students working in Read Live and Encore. Read more

In order to know whether a student has made enough progress to exit a Read Naturally program, you need to assess the student with grade-level material. It is important to celebrate your student’s daily growth from cold to hot timings in a story, the student’s goal being increased and the student moving up a level. It is also exciting to see a student’s cold-timing scores increase from story to story. These are all indications that the student’s reading skills are improving and that he or she is making progress in the program. But it is essential to keep the long-term goal in mind. Read more

“Why do you have a level 5.6…What happened to level 5.5?” This question comes into our customer service department fairly frequently, though there’s no official tally. I have actually wondered about this myself! Here is the history on Level 5.6, from one of our original writers:   Read more

The fact that so many students love working in Read Naturally programs brings us great joy. But we are most delighted when students no longer need our programs. The whole point of a Read Naturally intervention is to one day exit the program as a fluent and confident reader. The sooner this day comes for a student, the better! 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 of the things that sets Read Naturally programs apart is our high-interest, nonfiction stories. Struggling readers need to feel motivated to read, so we try to find unique topics that will hold their interest and spark their curiosity. When we read about the work of the nonprofit APOPO, not only were we inspired by its mission, but we knew we had the makings of a great story. Since then, our Rats to the Rescue story in Read Live and Encore II Level 5.6 has become a crowd favorite. Read more

We're thrilled to announce that our Read Naturally Live program has just taken a giant leap forward with two groundbreaking new features: Independent Placement and Data Mentor! Read Naturally Live now incorporates the latest speech recognition technology to allow students to place themselves in the Sequenced series of the program without teacher support. Students using Independent Placement will get started in Read Naturally Live with an appropriate level and goal faster than ever—and teachers will save hours of valuable time. Meanwhile, our new Data Mentor tool will analyze students' story data and make recommendations for placement adjustments to help ensure their level and goal are customized for success. Read more

Comprehension gives the act of reading a purpose and opens the door to enjoyment of reading. Indeed, deriving meaning from text is why we bother reading at all! Yet comprehension can be a struggle for any student, but often it’s especially challenging for multilingual students. What can we do to set them up for success in Read Naturally Live and Read Naturally Live—Español? Read more

​In my last post, I shared the many assessment mistakes I’ve made over the years. Blunders aside, I actually love spring assessments for one simple reason. The spring assessment gives me an opportunity to show my students the big picture and remind them that the best reward of all is taking ownership of their own progress. This is usually just a short conversation, but it’s one of the most important talks I will have with them. Read more