RN Bookmark

In 1997, Congress asked the National Reading Panel to do the following four things:
1) Review all the research available (more than 100,000 reading studies) on how children learn to read.
2) Determine the most effective evidence-based methods for teaching children to read.
3) Describe which methods of reading instruction are ready for use in the classroom and recommend ways of getting this information into schools.
4) Suggest a plan for additional research in reading development and instruction (adapted from nichd.nih.gov). Read more

Your struggling readers have likely asked themselves, or you, “Why is reading hard for me?” Sometimes, there is not a clear reason. With a little extra help, many struggling readers are simply able to crack the code and catch up. Other times, there is a clear reason: For millions of students, it’s dyslexia. Unfortunately, many individuals with dyslexia remain undiagnosed and have a more difficult time catching up to their peers. Read more

America has been celebrating Disability Pride Month every July ever since passing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) on July 26, 1990. Recognizing and celebrating individuals with disabilities should be an everyday, every-month practice, but we appreciate having a calendar month dedicated to this work—especially since helping students with disabilities and learning differences is a big part of what we do here at Read Naturally. Read more

Signs for Sounds is a phonics-based spelling program that aligns with the Science of Reading. This program teaches phonics elements and builds mastery in encoding and decoding words with these elements. It also builds mastery in encoding and decoding high-frequency words that do not follow regular phonics patterns. Read more

My eighth grader, Adam, refused to participate in his piano recital this year because he hadn’t learned his piece well enough. I can confirm that he hadn’t practiced much and was making lots of mistakes. Even so, a few days before the recital, I pleaded with him, “Can you just go up there and play it as best as you can? It’s okay if you make mistakes!”—to which he responded, as I knew he would, “No way. That’s too embarrassing.” Read more